Communications of the ACM
Researchers Find 25 Countries Using Surveillance Software
Bill Marczak, left, and Morgan Marquis-Boire have been studying government use of surveillance software.
Credit: Thor Swift/The New York Times
As many as 25 governments, some with controversial human rights records, appear to engage in surveillance of citizens using off-the-shelf software, according to researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab and the University of California, Berkeley.
The researchers examined emails to Bahraini activists and found surveillance software capable of turning on microphones and cameras, and capturing computer screen images, Skype chats, and keystrokes.
The spyware code contained the word FinSpy, which is the name of spyware sold by Gamma Group for the stated purpose of government criminal investigations. FinSpy is being run off servers in Ethiopia, Serbia, Vietnam, Turkmenistan, and many others. In Ethiopia, FinSpy was concealed in emails targeting political dissidents, with pictures of Ethiopian opposition group Ginbot 7 members that downloaded the spyware when clicked on by the recipient. Surveillance technology sales are mostly unregulated, although the FinSpy report is likely to heighten interest in regulation.
"I understand why police would want to use this type of technology, but I’m just not for commercial companies selling them to nondemocratic regimes with questionable human rights records," says the Citizen Lab's Morgan Marquis-Boire.
From The New York Times
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