Down with these countries, more or less authoritarian, who increasingly use spyware to keep an eye on their population. They have since Thursday 20 November, a new enemy: Detekt. This tool launched by Amnesty International, in partnership with the NGO Privacy International, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Digital Gesellschaft, indicates whether a government is interested too close to the online activity of some users.
“This is not an anti-gun NSA, which makes mass surveillance, but rather a software to fight against espionage which are primarily targeted against journalists and human rights activists in authoritarian regimes “explains Nicolas Krameyer France 24, program manager” people in danger and freedom of expression, “Amnesty International France.
already successful tests
Detekt works as an anti-virus but is not interested in the common viruses. “It will scan a computer to try to detect the presence of a wide range of spyware, which we know to exist and we know they are sold in the States in order to enable them to make cyber, “said Alexander Sander, director of projects at the Digital Gesellschaft, a German association who designed this software.
Specifically, simply download the software, start the scan and let it idle for several Detekt hours to go get it in the bowels of the computer for the presence of unwanted programs. “We must also cut Internet access to the most advanced spyware do not come to day to escape Detekt during scan,” says Alexander Sander.
“In our tests, we have seen it work and it has already managed to detect the presence of spyware on computers, “says Nicolas Kramayer who refuses to specify which states are affected by these successful trials. A priori, authoritarian regimes versed in such practices, such as Bahrain and Vietnam, are more likely to have a dim view of the arrival of Detekt. But states, so-called democratic, such as Australia and Germany have also been using these practices, as Nicolas Kramayer. Detekt is also available for download to users worldwide.
Against the lucrative market for spyware
Detekt is also a way of denounce the trade, more importantly, these spyware “mainly by North American and European companies that sell to authoritarian regimes,” notes Nicolas Kramayer. This market represents about four billion dollars (3.2 billion euros), according to Global because a coalition against the illegal export of surveillance technology. One of the stars of this sector is FinSpy, developed by the German company FinFisher. This popular, including Turkmenistan, Singapore or Bahrain software allows Cyberspies listen free Skype conversations, read emails, take control of a webcam or upload files to the hard drive. “This is a business that is absolutely not regulated at the international level and is very opaque. We hope Detekt will educate users about it, “says Nicolas Kramayer.
But this new tool is not the ultimate weapon. “This software does not offer perfect protection against cyber state is a complicating their task,” warns Alexander Sander. Detekt detects, in fact, that the known spyware. This is a list that is not necessarily exhaustive in an area where secrecy and opacity are good selling points for companies selling this type of solution.
Faced with Detekt, these companies as Finfischer the French Atos and others do not are likely to remain idle. “In a few weeks, they will have updated their products to escape the vigilance of Detekt” predicts Nicolas Kramayer. This is the inevitable game of cat and mouse between detection software and malware.
On this ground, Amnesty International and Digital Gesellschaft does not have the same resources that these groups private. “We have, at present, no means for a person working full-time to update the spyware database to be detected,” laments Alexander Sander. He hoped that this project raises donations in order to continue to work effectively
The German expert also wants to believe that another factor plays for Detekt. Open-source character. That is to say that anyone can go rummage in the code (the heart of the program) to identify potential bugs.
First Published: 11/20/2014
No comments:
Post a Comment