I've been hooked!
"Gamma’s FinFisher is one of many corporate-made viruses.... which can log keystrokes, record Skype calls, and turn webcams and cellphones into improvised surveillance devices.... the evidence fell short of proving that FinFisher was being used by one government or another, but its dispersal hinted at the global reach of espionage programs."
So the damn thing could be looking at me right now? And the poor kids (and increasingly others) so love their gizmos.
"Mozilla contends UK spyware company hijacked its brand" by Raphael Satter | Associated Press, May 02, 2013
LONDON — The maker of one of the Internet’s most popular browsers is taking on one of the world’s best-known purveyors of surveillance software, accusing a British company of hijacking the Mozilla brand to camouflage its espionage products.
The Mozilla Foundation — responsible for the Firefox browser — said late Tuesday that Gamma International Ltd. was passing off its FinFisher spy software as a Firefox product to avoid detection. Mozilla described the tactic as abusive.
Not only are they collecting "intelligence" and spying on you, they then deliberately and deceitfully lied about the product.
‘‘We are sending Gamma, the FinFisher parent company, a cease and desist letter demanding that these practices be stopped immediately,’’ Mozilla executive Alex Fowler said in a statement from the company, based in Mountain View, Calif.
Gamma, based in Andover, England, did not respond to seven e-mails. The company has ignored repeated questions from the Associated Press for more than a month.
That will get their attention!
Gamma’s FinFisher is one of many corporate-made viruses that have attracted scrutiny after the wave of Arab revolutions exposed the high-tech tools used by repressive regimes to stifle dissent.
Then the British-made products were $old to the "enemy?" Or were they sold to "friendly" governments (you know who, readers, and yeah, it does rhyme) and we aren't be told by the jewsmedia.
FinFisher — which can log keystrokes, record Skype calls, and turn webcams and cellphones into improvised surveillance devices — drew particular attention after a sales pitch for the spyware was discovered in an Egyptian state security building in 2011.
So we wouldn't even know about this were it not for the brave citizens of Egypt (friendly then, now iffy. IMF putting on the squeeze) who rose up two years ago to eject Mubarak?
Citizen Lab, a research group based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, has since linked FinFisher to servers in 36 countries and found the virus hidden in documents including news updates from Bahrain and photographs of Ethiopian opposition figures. In a report published late Tuesday, Citizen Lab said that it had also found a FinFisher sample hiding in a document about Malaysia’s upcoming general election.
Citizen Lab’s Morgan Marquis-Boire said the evidence fell short of proving that FinFisher was being used by one government or another, but said its dispersal hinted at the global reach of espionage programs.
‘‘It really shows the ubiquity of this type of software,’’ he said.
That ubiquity has already given Gamma a public relations headache.
Aaaaaawwww! Poor totalitarians!
In March, the company was identified as one of five ‘‘corporate enemies of the Internet’’ by journalists’ lobbying group Reporters Without Borders.
WOW! (I, too, am a reporter without borders when you think about it.)
Earlier this month the rights group Privacy International sued the British government over allegations that Gamma had illegally exported its surveillance technology — an accusation the company has denied.
A British legal expert said Mozilla’s intervention could spell new trouble for Gamma.
--more--"
Related:
"Leaked emails from data security firm HBGary show the federal government is offering private intelligence companies contracts to create software to manage “fake people” on social media sites, possibly to manipulate public opinion or create the illusion of consensus on controversial issues."
Sorry, folks, I'm real. I just happen to think these things are kind of important moving forward, you know, where your information is coming from and so on.
"Hackers often go to the National Security Agency, where they work on offensive digital attacks on foreign nations."
See: One in four US hackers 'is an FBI informer'
Gonzalez Can't Get Away From the Long Arm of the Law
Who are the hackers again?
