Spanish firm raided, allegedly sold software with built-in “logic bombs”

Following an anonymous tip submitted on the portal of the Spanish Guardia Civil’s division for hi-tech crimes, the investigators have raided the offices of an Andalucia-based company that has allegedly been scamming other businesses for 12 years.

The firm – identified as CIPSA and based in Cordoba – is in the software development business, and it stands accused of having deliberately sold custom software with built-in “logic bombs” to small and medium-sized companies, in order to profit from a continuous need for repairs.

According to El Pais, the software has allegedly been designed to fail at a certain point in time, leading to a massive disruption of the everyday processes and functions of the unfortunate firms. The investigated company would then be called for help and, of course, paid to fix the problem. Unfortunately for the victims, during the repairing process the software was again programmed to fail after a certain amount of time has passed.

The Guardia Civil’s division for hi-tech crimes (Grupo de Delitos Telem??ticos) and the squad for technological investigations (Equipo de Investigaci??n Tecnol??gica) attached to the Cordoba police command are still investigating the case and three managers of the company have been detained, but no-one has yet been charged.