FinSpy surveillance software is being used to spy on activists around the globe.
FinSpy surveillance software, marketed worldwide to law enforcement agencies as a way to monitor criminals, is widely used by repressive governments to spy on human rights groups and dissidents, according to a report released Wednesday.
The UK has been asked to investigate Gamma International, the firm behind the software, though nothing has come of that yet.
The report by researchers at the Citizen Lab of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto found the software is "regularly sold to countries where dissenting political activity and speech is criminalized."
FinSpy, named after a line of code in its software, is a surveillance tool that infects computers to capture screenshots, log keystrokes, record Skype conversations and activate cameras and microphones. Gamma Group, a British company, makes the software and markets it to law enforcement agencies as a lawful way to monitor criminals.
The software is also available for all major mobile phones and is specifically designed to avoid detection by the major antivirus software including Kaspersky, Symantec and F-Secure. The software is capable of bypassing 40 antivirus systems in total.
Martin J. Muench, a Gamma Group managing director, claimed it was used mostly “against pedophiles, terrorists, organized crime, kidnapping and human trafficking,” the evidence indicates otherwise.
“Our findings highlight the increasing dissonance between Gamma’s public claims that FinSpy is used exclusively to track ‘bad guys’ and the growing body of evidence suggesting that the tool has and continues to be used against opposition groups and human rights activists,” the researchers wrote.
Gamma Group could not immediately be reached for comment. Last year, Martin J. Muench, a Gamma Group managing director, told The New York Times that FinSpy was used mostly “against pedophiles, terrorists, organized crime, kidnapping and human trafficking." He declined to disclose which countries had bought the software.
But security researchers say FinSpy is used by governments around the world for broader purposes. Last year, Citizen Lab researchers found that the government in Bahrain had used FinSpy to target activists in that country.
The researchers said in their report Wednesday they found FinSpy in 25 countries, including the U.S. and several countries "with troubling human rights records."
"Our findings highlight the increasing dissonance between Gamma’s public claims that FinSpy is used exclusively to track 'bad guys' and the growing body of evidence suggesting that the tool has and continues to be used against opposition groups and human rights activists," the researchers wrote.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/13/finspy-spyware-activists_n_2864579.html
http://endthelie.com/2013/03/13/finfisher-surveillance-software-used-to-spy-on-people-around-the-world-according-to-report/#axzz2NElQQoDy
