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FinSpy Commercial Spyware Abused By Governments
plover writes "The NY Times has a story about FinSpy, a commercial spyware package sold 'only for law enforcement purposes,' being used by governments to spy on dissidents, journalists, and others. Two U.S. computer experts, Morgan Marquis-Boire from Google, and Bill Marczak, a PhD student in Computer Science, have been tracking it down around the world. 'The software proved to be the stuff of a spy film: it can grab images of computer screens, record Skype chats, turn on cameras and microphones and log keystrokes. The two men said they discovered mobile versions of the spyware customized for all major mobile phones. But what made the software especially sophisticated was how well it avoided detection. Its creators specifically engineered it to elude antivirus software made by Kaspersky Lab, Symantec, F-Secure and others.'"
Seriously, you give an infant a toy, they're not going to listen to how you tell them to play with it.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
STOP linking to articles that are behind paywalls!
Does it run on Linux?
Police abusing their authority and spying on the people they swore to protect? I'm shocked. Shocked!
sold 'only for law enforcement purposes,'
Yea, sure. But presumably anyone can buy it (I didn't read the article for obvious reasons)
'The software proved to be the stuff of a spy film: it can grab images of computer screens, record Skype chats, turn on cameras and microphones and log keystrokes.
Sure does but it would be a really old spy film.
This technet article is from 2002 and as far as I am concerned it is already ancient.
If your PC has a microphone, RATs can capture your conversations. If you have a WebCam, many RATs can turn it on and capture video—a privacy violation without par in the malicious-code world. Everything you say and do around the PC can be recorded. Some RATs include a packet sniffer that captures and analyzes every packet that crosses the PC's network card.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd632947.aspx
It has always concerned me the loopholes which you know are being abused.
Sure, the government isn't 'legally' allowed to spy on citizens without following the Constitution. But that doesn't hold for 3rd Parties. Nor does it hold true for other governments.
Oh the government didn't conduct the surveillance, it just purchased the already performed surveillance dataset from 'Private Investigation Company XYZ'. See, it was the private company that did the spying, not the government. The data wasn't only spy data, it was also available to be sold to marketing firms, so it isn't just a shell for the government, the government just happens to buy from them. A lot.
I'm also really curious to know about the whole 'sharing' of intelligence data.
Sure, our intelligence agencies aren't 'supposed' to spy on US citizens, but they can spy on UK citizens. And the UK agencies ARE spying on the US citizens. So when that data package from the UK agencies is shared with the US agencies, it's just a convenient benefit. The US agencies didn't technically do anything to perform the spying, they just benefit from it.
I'm sure I'm being paranoid, but it doesn't even require maliciousness on behalf of the agencies. It just requires people who try really hard to do their jobs. Something that is technically legal can be immoral, unethical, evil, oppressive, and counter-productive... but technically legal is still legal.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
They just told Kaspersky Lab, Symantec, F-Secure and others to back off and let it through. Wouldn't be the first time.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/technology/finspy-software-is-tracking-political-dissidents.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1346426124-tpUipAjgoKkvdqCAOV2KyQ
I think this is the missing link.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
... that governments around the world are spying on their citizens... because... well... because they can. Also because a small number of unscrupulous IT companies keeps churning out digital tools that are made solely to spy on people. ---- IMHO this practice needs to stop. People should pay nnnn Dollar for smartphones and computer gear, and be safe in the knowledge that they are NOT spied on when they use these gadgets. -------- Its sad, just sad that governments, instead of being on the side of people, increasingly see people as ORGANIC DATA GENERATORS.---- The more data you can collect on people, the better, these people think. ----- Once again, this is a sad, sad picture. The practice of spying on people casually needs to stop!
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
So, we designed software to catch criminals.
Other people have different laws that we do. Some of the things we declare to be legal, they consider to be crimes.
You are surprised that the software we designed to catch our criminals also catches the people they declare to be criminals? Just because we think they are not criminals, somehow that gives you the right to be offended?
If you want to be offended that other countries don't give their citizens the right to free speech and to protest, go ahead.
But complaining that they are using police software to catch people they consider to be criminals is just stupid.
You also know that other countries consider it illegal to own a gun right? And that our software help them catch people illegally buying guns - even if it is for home protection?
Also, in other countries it is legal to use pot, but our government uses software to look for pot sellers?
Be offended at the laws, not the software usage.
In the guise of law enforcement, the govt can get their p0rn fix more readily.
Laws Smaws!
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
How can I detect that I am infected with FinSpy !
How long until this gets hacked and abused by black hatters the same way that the German Bundestrojaner has been/is being abused?
Two promotional videos of these pricks and their man-in-the-middle wares:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc8i7C659FU&NR=1&feature=endscreen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dejw2G83Moo
The animation and general rascality of it always make me grin.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
Google around a bit, you'll see this mentioned. I have not yet found any information about what that attack vector is or how to defend against it, although I suspect that locking your system down with SELinux/AppArmor and using sandboxes to open attachments (even from people you trust -- what if their computer is infected?) will mitigate the threat somewhat.
The moral of the story is this: dissidents should airgap any system they use for sensitive/secret material.
Palm trees and 8
also what does the uk/us govt do with the installation backdoor to the other govt's data....
...what you can attribute to stupidity or ineptitude.
Antivirus companies are pretty bad detecting new threats - their heuristic engines simply don't work (contrary to their press releases). So as long a piece of malware updates/rewrites the section of code they are detected by and distributes the update to infected machines they are interested in (as opposed to the everywhere - including the AV owned honeypot), then there is very little danger of the malware ever being detected in any significant numbers.
That happens in meatspace when undercover cops bump into each other. Hilarity ensues.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Contractor/Vendor: "Here is a hammer. Its use for driving nails. YOU MAY NOT use it to murder people. Understand? No murdering."
Government: "Ok. No murdering."
Frankly, I don't see the problem.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Let's mention ways around such threats:
Boot from a live Linux CD/DVD (preferable as they are read-only, with some specialty exceptions) or USB key/CF card/other flash media.
Do your business, and your "innocent" Windows drive is untouched. Surf only "wholesome" sites on Windows and create a convincing alternate identity.
MAC spoofing is easy and there is plenty of info on it.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
The internal microphone and camera of laptops can be too easily enabled (and silently without you knowing it). Typically you don't need them all the time anyway. There should be a clear on/off switch for them in every laptop, just like you have for WiFi.
and now I have the benny hill song running through my head... thanks a lot :)
" Its creators specifically engineered it to elude antivirus software made by Kaspersky Lab, Symantec, F-Secure and others.'" "
And i bet with the help of said antivirus companies. And if it's really the case, it's not eluding anything, more of allowed to go un-warned, sort of like a crook bribing the security guard at the door. Until there's a court order under solid evidence and/or witnesses they'r just crooks/thugs under the arm of the powers that be corrupting/abusing the system.
It's being used exactly as designed, not "abused." In most of these places "abusing" the software, spying on dissidents falls well within "law enforcement" as defined there. What, the creators expected it only to be used to enforce laws they agree with?
And by the way, spying on dissidents is something the noble, enlightened U.S. Government does regularly---and it falls well within their legal "law enforcement" powers, too. Oh, you thought only the evil countries do that?
Liberty in your lifetime
If they're running anti-virus software, why would they trust the vendor not to put in a backdoor for governments?
They have automatic update, they could just sell the government a 'special' download that does exactly what FinSpy does.
Once you decide that governments can spy on people, all opportunities become possible.
Citizens should be using this to keep tabs on their government. This use is covered by the 2nd Amendment.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
There has to be some way to get this crap off a computer.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Simple solution; don't ever turn on your phone or, better yet, don't own one.
I plan to enjoy the last few years of privacy before cell phones are REQUIRED by everyone, for our own protection....
Great.
I tried running it and got this error msg: Library MFC42.DLL (which is needed by "C:\\Program Files\\Software Informer\\softinfo.exe") not found ..
AccountKiller
It's called Yakkity Sax.
The latest upgrade of NortonMobile https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.symantec.mobilesecurity&hl=en does the same. Its enough to scare anybody who has even the slightest idea what it means. Anti-virus vendors working on behalf of the Law?