Spying software developed by Viet Hong Technology Company Limited monitors activities of over 14,000 mobile phone users. Ha Noi Police has temporarily detains its deputy director and employees for stealing information of users. — Photo quantrimang.com.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The Ha Noi Police Investigation Agency has temporarily detained Nguyen Viet Hung, deputy director of Viet Hong Technology Company Limited, for illegally tapping mobile phones.

Charging him under Article No. 226 of the criminal law code, the agency has also temporarily imprisoned the head of the company's technical office, Le Thanh Lam, and its customer service officer, Tran Minh Ngoc.

The bail request of the company's consultant Nguyen Thi Nga was accepted in light of her pregnancy, but she has been barred from moving out of her listed permanent residence.

Duong Van Giap, head of the investigation office on social crime, said there were two groups of criminals involved in the case. One violated Article No. 226 of the criminal law code by illegally providing and using information on the Internet, while another was booked under Article No. 125 of the criminal law code for hiring the company to use Ptracker software to monitor the mobile phones of others, tracking secrets revealed in letters, phone calls and emails of unsuspecting parties. The police have conducted an investigation to seek solutions to address the impact of the latter issue, he added.

"In this case, the accused were mainly spying on the private lives of individuals. The police first examined the stolen content to make sure it did not impact national security," Giap noted.

Earlier, Ha Noi Police had prosecuted a case where spy software had been installed on more than 14,000 mobile phones to gain illegal profits of over VND900 million (over US$42,850) for the Viet Hong Company. — VNS