Amnesty International Releases Tool To Combat Government Spyware
New submitter Gordon_Shure_DOT_com writes Human rights charity Amnesty International has released Detekt, a tool that finds and removes known government spyware programs. Describing the free software as the first of its kind, Amnesty commissioned the tool from prominent German computer security researcher and open source advocate Claudio Guarnieri, aka 'nex'. While acknowledging that the only sure way to prevent government surveillance of huge dragnets of individuals is legislation, Marek Marczynski of Amnesty nevertheless called the tool (downloadable here) a useful countermeasure versus spooks. According to the app's instructions, it operates similarly to popular malware or virus removal suites, though systems must be disconnected from the Internet prior to it scanning.
"the only sure way to prevent governments surveillance of huge dragnets of individuals is legislation"
Ha, you seriously think that's going to stop them?
They also have in-the-route injection. If it isn't properly downloaded and checked against man-in-the-middle attacks then it is can give a false sense of non-existent security.
with the speaker-powersupply virus even the lack of a network connection cannot prevent the spread of malware include that made/proliferated by nation-states.
"Goverment posing as caring charity dupes users into install spyware"
FIFY
Wouldn't the target government's obvious reaction be to block Amnesty International's site? Or worse, to masquerade as their site in order to distribute spyware?
Shame it doesn't work on Windows 8.1....
Oh, and First Post!
"While acknowledging that the only sure way to prevent governments surveillance of huge dragnets of individuals is legislation,"
Somebody has a wicked sense of humor.
You seem to have the government spyware on your computer. Please allowing me to do the needful and install software to clean this spyware away...
Only 9 comments in, and the ever present, always anticipated, anonymous coward, Amnesty International bashing shows up.
A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.
Seems to be a fast dev cycle.
v1.1 released 12 hours after v1
https://github.com/botherder/d...
Nice Article friend
I think that comment is bashing scam artists, not the particular organization. Unfortunately, a lot of people would be clueless enough to fall for that type of phone call.
Can the source be compiled for Linux? BSD? OSX? Are we not checking these OS for government spyware?
Amnesty International has a terrible track record of attacking Western Democracies disproportionately more so than Dictatorships. I guess they like picking on easy targets, instead of actually trying to make a difference. When is the last time we heard them lobby government action in Africa or the Middle-East? How many Amnesty International reporters are embedded in ISIS?
You're an idiot or you don't have a telephone. Possibly both.
... the only sure way to prevent governments surveillance of huge dragnets of individuals is legislation...
What, they really believe that will work???
I already read about this "Government Network Admits Attacks" www.gnaa.eu
Governments have nearly unlimited resources to attack. How can we protect ourselves? we can use their own tools against them.
Doesn't run on my work PC - the executable just vanishes when executed. Oh well, just another day here at NSA.
The software is at https://github.com/botherder/d... and the way they package the thing, grandma ain't gonna to know how to use it
Can't they put out a software package that the average non-geek person could use?
Hopefully it will detect a stuck key and not report that as Obama spying on you.
Amnesty don't care about the fact that children are being trafficked by the British State under colour of Law.
Amnesty don't care about the fact that the BBC not only covered up the fact that one of their most highly-paid employees was a paedophile, they ran the coverup for over fifty YEARS, they also ENABLED him by procuring children.
Amnesty don't care about the fact that prominent members of Parliament, including inner Cabinet members, have been publicly implicated in child sexual abuse rings, child disappearances, child murders...
Where is their righteous indignation in these matters?? Nowhere to be fucking seen! They're clearly more interested in tracking cookies! I'm glad they've got their priorities right!
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
He might be wrong about that specific comment, but there are enough other ACs unambiguously bashing AI in the thread to validate his point.
And does it work against putative Nigerian royalty?
Hi, is that Dave in Bangalore? That software you sold me isn't working as expected, in fact the mouse cursor seems to have taken on a life of its own and gone hunting for bear porn.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
How is the pay working for the house of Saad or Iranian guardian council as an AC shill? on slashdot? Is being a Holocaust denier and pro-Nazi polemicist a requirement or do you just repeat what your told?
I hear that the real money is in ED spam affiliates working for the russian mob
I could be wrong, your english is functional, I wonder if you are just a white ISIS wannabe envious of your brothers and all the sweet sweet beheadings of journalists.
Shouldn't this article be tagged "MS-Windows"? The download is an .exe file (which is exactly what I expected)
I would think the NSA's response would be to MITM the internet connection and have it download NSA spyware when you think you are loading the spyware detector. Blocking the download just draws attention to them, it won't actually block those who want the software from getting it elsewhere.
8^0
When The US government gave Saddam a nod and a wink for his invasion of Kuwait, things went pear-shaped very quickly for the USA. Saddam had previously waged a war against Iran on behalf of Uncle Sam- a war in which US chemical weapons experts from the US army oversaw the use of US provided chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers, civilians and Kurds.
Anyway, regardless of what the US thought would be the usefulness of Iraq taking control of Kuwait, the US administration rapidly found itself of the side of Kuwait 'liberation'. The NSA and US military intelligence, in co-operation with GCHQ and British intelligence, began multiple psy-op projects against Saddam. The most infamous of these involved British Military Intelligence asset- Amnesty International.
Amnesty International put together a VERY sophisticated propaganda campaign highlighting non-existent 'atrocities' carried out by Saddam's troops in Kuwait, topped with the story of Saddam's soldiers throwing babies out of incubators. The LIE was published by Amnesty International in major mainstream media outlets across the West.
In the UK- home of AI, the most racist, anti-Muslim 'entertainers' raise money and support for AI - when they aren't raising money and support for Israel.
Dirty shills will now tell us that AI frequently 'criticises' Israel- but in reality nothing could be further from the truth. When AI SEEMINGLY objects to the actions of a West-friendly nation, like Israel, it ALWAYS offers equal or greater criticism of the victims.
AI is infinitely LESS trustworthy than Facebook and Microsoft, and actually more evil. But operations like AI are exactly how the Brits controlled their Empire of old. The British elites are great at being two-faced, civilised on the surface, but insanely murderous beneath. The British led WHOLE CITY Holocausts of WW2 (joined, with great enthusiasm by the Americans) were easily the greatest co-ordinated Crimes against Humanity witnessed in Human History.
But the British Empire is littered with Holocausts, and every one is just about unknown by most people, even in the nations concerned. Why- because unlike other empire powers, the British elites took seriously the art of black propaganda, and message control. Even today, the total surveillance programs put into place by Tony Blair at GCHQ dwarf anything undertaken by the NSA.
Like any NGO, parts will be used for subversive purposes for it's funders or government alike, while still ostensibly doing work according to it mission.
Hi, this is the Dave. The software is working as expected. The many pictures and movie of bears scare the government workers into removing the spyware. To suggest you should not use your computer during this hours of the day.
This software does not support Windows 8 or 8.1 x64.
This makes it kind of useless for a whole swath of people like journalists, human rights defenders, etc who have purchased a new Windows machine in the last year or so can't use it.
Supernaut
How to make people install an exe that does god know what ...
He's using the handle 'botherder' on twitter. Not that a name matters much, but it's enough for me to not try his software.
Also the summary is wrong, the software doesn't remove anything, it only reports what is detected.
So, how can you be sure that "click here" in TFA doesn't itself download malware disguised as malware detection? If I were a black-hat govy who wanted to root out people worried about government malware, I might use such a ruse. Think about it.
Amnesty International added to the list of terrorist organizations in 3... 2... 1...
A single closed-source executable from a German organization claiming to have the support of Amnesty International.
Seems legit.
Yeah, or this entire announcement is just cover for a program like the fake vaccines in Abottabad.
Also, this: "the only sure way to prevent governments surveillance of huge dragnets of individuals is legislation".
Can anyone explain to me how legislation would prevent government surveillance? I don't get it. If the Constitution isn't enough, why would a law be? Maybe because laws are how dollars get spent?
I simply downloaded the .exe and ran it.
Offtopic!?!. Bull - that was damned funny - and dead on-topic, in view of what we're talking about here.
Why is the truth constantly downmodded as Troll? I don't get. AI actually did do those things.. and they are part of the British Government. And yes, Franco is still dead.
This software does not support Windows 8 or 8.1 x64.
This makes it kind of useless for a whole swath of people like journalists, human rights defenders, etc who have purchased a new Windows machine in the last year or so can't use it.
What do you mean, there are usable Windows machines?? (Grinning, ducking and running)
I guess MyCleanPC [mycleanpc.com] can do this already
Probably Combofix.exe can do it.
Using Windows 8.1 Update 1, fully patched.... *facedesk*
A/C? Are you kidding? It's 2 degrees and snowing here, they've got the heat shut down this afternoon while they're flushing the radiators, and I've got my space heater going. Why do they not do this in, say, August?
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
€10 says this is because you can't build 64-bit binaries with the free version of MSVS.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
pics, or it didn't happen.
seriously? i must again ask for pics, or i'm affraid it never happened
what about ubuntu/linux?
Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein.
file:
I love my government. -_-
--- wad
No, wait. That wasn't the first post . . . THIS IS!!!. Yay!! First Post!
As a "non-government" organisation, is Amnesty International crossing a line into "anti-government" behaviour? How might this impact Amnesty's credibility when engaging with government on human rights issues?"
Is anyone else finding that the site hosting Detekt is no longer active?