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Human Rights Organizations Launch Free Tool To Detect Surveillance Software
Mashable.com ^ | November 20, 2014 | LORENZO FRANCESCHI-BICCHIERA

Posted on 11/20/2014 5:54:48 PM PST by lbryce

More and more, governments are using powerful spying software to target human rights activists and journalists, often the forgotten victims of cyberwar. Now, these victims have a new tool to protect themselves.

Called Detekt, it scans a person's computer for traces of surveillance software, or spyware. A coalition of human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the Electronic Frontier Foundation launched Detekt on Wednesday, with the goal of equipping activists and journalists with a free tool to discover if they've been hacked.

"Our ultimate aim is for human rights defenders, journalists and civil society groups to be able to carry out their legitimate work without fear of surveillance, harassment, intimidation, arrest or torture," Amnesty wrote Thursday in a statement. The open-source tool was developed by security researcher Claudio Guarnieri, a security researcher who has been investigating government abuse of spyware for years. He often collaborates with other researchers at University of Toronto'sCitizen Lab. During their investigations, Guarnieri and his colleagues discovered, for example, that the Bahraini government used software created by German company FinFisher to spy on human rights activists. They also found out that the Ethiopian government spied on journalists in the U.S. and Europe, using software developed by Hacking Team, another company that sells off-the-shelf surveillance tools.

(Excerpt) Read more at mashable.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bigbrother; govtsurveillance; spyware
I posted this out of my concern for the FReeper Community in insuring against the probability of government surveillance that I'm sure goes on here even as I text these words at this very moment.

Free Republic is #14 out of the top 100 Conservative Sites.

With the knowledge of the current administration's sinister venue, the criminal, megalomaniac manifestations exhibited by those who harbor tremendous pathological enmity, vehemence towards this country, its principles and institutions, its very citizens,what they've already proven to have done and circumstances seemingly coalescing towards some imminent political, social, ideological confrontation, it would be naive not to take a wary eye on possible scenarios and the advanced technology held, yielded in the wrong hands.

As Henry Kissinger has been known to have said; Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not watching this very text appearing across monitors in clandestine operations centers at the very apex of governmental power.

1 posted on 11/20/2014 5:54:49 PM PST by lbryce
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To: lbryce; rdb3; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; JosephW; Only1choice____Freedom; amigatec; Still Thinking; ...

2 posted on 11/20/2014 5:55:35 PM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: lbryce
If you go to the DETEKT website you will see ( if you use Firefox and the Flagfox addon to your browser ) that the DETEKT website is headquartered in the Netherlands.
3 posted on 11/20/2014 5:59:44 PM PST by VideoDoctor
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To: VideoDoctor

Meaning?


4 posted on 11/20/2014 6:02:45 PM PST by lbryce (Obama:Misbegotten, Godforsaken Offspring of Satan and Medusa.)
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To: lbryce

Well.... As so many people here have said:

If you’re not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to hide.... Right? That’s what they said when Bush was the president, in spite of the concerns voiced by some of us back then...

We were “libertarian nuts”, or “looking to enable terrorists”.(paraphrasing)


5 posted on 11/20/2014 6:04:47 PM PST by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: lbryce

Who will ensure that Detekt is not actually the mole app?


6 posted on 11/20/2014 6:12:28 PM PST by SgtHooper (Anyone who remembers the 60's, wasn't there!)
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To: SgtHooper

Well, I guess I could run it from a sandbox, to play it safe.


7 posted on 11/20/2014 6:13:24 PM PST by SgtHooper (Anyone who remembers the 60's, wasn't there!)
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To: SgtHooper

Should I go there on a Linux pc?


8 posted on 11/20/2014 6:20:52 PM PST by bicyclerepair (Ft. Lauderdale FL (zombie land). TERM LIMITS ... TERM LIMITS)
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To: SgtHooper

“Who will ensure that Detekt is not actually the mole app?”

First thought that came to me.


9 posted on 11/20/2014 6:23:59 PM PST by CriticalJ (Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.. But then I repeat myself. MT)
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To: VideoDoctor
Meaning?

The Netherlands has been a bastion of illegal and illicit software.

If I'm not mistaken until recently it was a dangerous Internet connection Downloading pirate material finally becomes illegal in the Netherlands.

April of 2014:
Summary: After years of turning a blind eye, an EU ruling means the Dutch government will have to act on illegal downloaders.
http://www.zdnet.com/downloading-pirate-material-finally-becomes-illegal-in-the-netherlands-7000028330/

I'm not sure if they are even really enforcing this.

10 posted on 11/20/2014 6:30:25 PM PST by VideoDoctor
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To: VideoDoctor

Valid Point.


11 posted on 11/20/2014 6:36:17 PM PST by lbryce (Obama:Misbegotten, Godforsaken Offspring of Satan and Medusa.)
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To: ShadowAce

If the Tea Party were included as a “target” then I’d take them seriously. Otherwise, leftists waring on leftists.


12 posted on 11/20/2014 6:44:39 PM PST by bajabaja (Too ugly to be scanned at the airports.)
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To: lbryce

So, we’ll need virus protection as well as surveillance protection?


13 posted on 11/20/2014 7:41:33 PM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: lbryce

FR is higher than 14, since some of those sites are not conservative


14 posted on 11/20/2014 7:42:32 PM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: bajabaja

The US considers conservatives the enemy, we know they are spying on us.


15 posted on 11/20/2014 7:44:01 PM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: bajabaja

The US considers conservatives the enemy, we know they are spying on us.


16 posted on 11/20/2014 7:44:02 PM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: lbryce
Detekt works only on Windows computers. . . LOL!
17 posted on 11/20/2014 8:16:02 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users contnue...)
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To: lbryce

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a reputable anti government surveillance organization and co sponsors this anti malware software. Always use both anti virus and a malware screener on your Windows PC. Don’t fall for spoofs asking for your passwords or personal details. Don’t open attachments from unknown emailers. Don’t use public WiFi for banking or credit card transactions. Wear a condom during rough sex....


18 posted on 11/20/2014 9:38:39 PM PST by RicocheT (Only a few prefer liberty--the majority seek nothing more than fair masters. Sallust, Histories)
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