back to article FinFisher, the spyware loved by cruel dictators, stomps all over human rights, says UK govt

FinFisher, the spyware sold to police and tyrants around the globe, has gained the dubious honor of becoming the first piece of software judged by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to have trampled human rights. The OECD is an influential consortium of world powers. FinFisher, also known as FinSpy, …

  1. Mark 85

    Well gee... no crap.

    If there's no buyers, there would be no product. Nature and the market abhor a vacuum. Sanctions and pronouncements such as this do little. Otherwise North Korea and a few others wouldn't be getting the things they need for nefarious purposes such as control of their own populations, etc. I believe the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition are basically true... Profit above all else.

    I'm not justifying the selling of this stuff, but the reality. The world is a pretty sad place......

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: Well gee... no crap.

      If it is not them, it will be our Chinese friends to produce it. Just like this. Now, what were you saying about nefarious purposes in the "no-privacy" century once again?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sounds a bit wishy washy. So, they can carry on selling it from what I understood. Then again, agencies like NSA and GCHQ have been doing stuff like this secretly for years under their Five Eyes.

  3. A Ghost
    Black Helicopters

    Sad indeed

    See Moxie Marlinspike:

    http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/saudi-surveillance/

    Got to love the way they tried to imply he was a trrerisst if he didn't comply. I suppose you get used to having your own way when your torture regime is so efficient. The stories I could tell. But I won't. I'm too afraid. I'm a coward really when it comes down to it. But at least I have faced my own conscience like a man, even if I did find myself lacking in the big balls department.

    It would do no good anyway, this battle is already won. Things won't change in our lifetime.

    But it is a measure of how truly free we are in our society when we are too afraid to post our true feelings on the matter. Feelings that don't include any desire to cause havoc or fight back - just innocent stuff - feelings you know - how you really feel about it all. Not a wise thing to do in this age.

    I don't believe in violence. I know it solves nothing. Minds are where the heart of the matter is. And that is where the battle is really lost.

    But yes, it is criminal and shameful what is happening on that tiny island.

    I guess this comment will be pre-moderated as my one on the Beeb was.

    Interesting. This leads me to the conclusion that someone is watching very closely and there is an agenda at play (even if it is not pissing off the powers that rule by violence). I guess this is not the forum for discussion of politics.

    [A Ghost puts his specially adapted tin foil colander back on his noggin, just to, you know...]

    Edit: Oh it went through straight away. Guess Bahrain isn't as important as the Beeb.

    1. Sir Runcible Spoon

      Re: Sad indeed

      I don't know why you would think your post would be moderated, I didn't anything in there that would break the rules of this forum.

      Having said that, it would be naive to believe that these forums are not closely monitored by all and sundry.

  4. frankzentura

    Uhhhh wait.... isn't this the same UK government trying to ban encryption at the same time? Not a very consistent bunch are they???

    1. Amorous Cowherder

      Hence the classic line, "Do as we say, not as we do."

  5. Roj Blake Silver badge

    UK government: "Don't trample over human rights - that's OUR job."

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      UK or Bahrain?

      couple of years ago, a live-newsfeed that I subscribed to mentioned that the Daily Telegraph published an article on how FinFisher Remote Access Trojan 'RAT' had been noticed exploiting a fake http iTunes update.

      I immediately went to the DT linked article - which had gone! - I kept refreshing, and it took 2 hours for the article to re-appear. I guessed, rightly or wrongly at the time, that this could conceivably be the time it took a command and control server to clean/modify all the deployed RATs in the UK?

      In general, a RAT that is not misused is a better use and probably proportional use of surveillance technology & officers against a named, targeted suspect rather than a haystack of general data/psychohistory overcollection.

      However I rather suspect that factions in the Home Office still drool about trying to predict the future population/individual thoughts/actions in probabilistic terms. It's interesting that now both a specific RAT and the overcollection have been 'ruled illegal' in the UK, in certain circumstances.

      The DETEKT software, as far as I can tell, has been 'improved' in subsequent releases so that it doesn't detect anything really trending, but I could always be wrong!, I must try it on my bundestrojan collection...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So just how is this different...

    From what they do (allegedly) up at GCHQ?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So just how is this different...

      Allegedly? Why so? We know they do this.

      If you work on the assumption that the establishment is comprised of paranoid psycopaths everything falls neatly in to place.

  7. FunkyEric

    Pot Kettle Black........

  8. Spoonsinger

    I'm still waiting for my shiny silver suit and jetpack,

    but in the mean time isn't this technology actually available to everyone in this day and age? It's just whether you have the motivation/time/funding to employ it which is the problem.

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