Wikileaks Warns of Crappy Military Grade Malware
Wikileaks has a whole lot of lapdogs in the press. So anything Wikileaks wants to promote in the news pretty much goes viral. This week, they made a bunch of headlines over what they called “military grade malware” that police and governments were using to spy on people. The problem is, this malware, called FinFisher, is easily detectable by every AV company in the world. Oh, and its four years old too, making it ancient in the cybersecurity world.
From Mashable here:
FinFisher is a German company that makes surveillance software marketed to law-enforcement agencies. The software is designed to siphon off and intercept all kinds of data from a target’s computer or cellphone, including Skype calls, emails, and chat conversations.
It made headlines for the first time in 2011, when protesters in Egypt uncovered documents indicating the security services of then-President Hosni Mubarak had purchased its products. Subsequent research has revealed that some repressive regimes around the world have used FinFisher software to spy on dissidents or human rights activists. These episodes have since put Western companies that sell hacking tools to such governments into the spotlight and sparked a debate over the legality of the sales.
In addition to the company’s clients, Wikileaks has published actual copies of the software FinFisher sells to governments worldwide, in hopes security researchers can investigate further and build better defenses against these technologies. “This full data release will help the technical community build tools to protect people from FinFisher including by tracking down its command and control centers,” said Assange in a statement accompanying the release.
This software is pretty crappy. As I said, everyone and his brother can detect it.
#wikileaks made news releasing a 4-YO Trojan. http://t.co/ekWalDHl68#finfisher SchminSchmisher. I got @Invincea pic.twitter.com/3m1GoBULgQ
— Cyber Stitch (@BelchSpeak) September 17, 2014
