Ahead of Spyware Conference, More Evidence of Abuse - NYTimes ...

This week, at ISS World Americas, an annual surveillance trade show in Washington, law enforcement agents from around the world will gather to learn about the latest in computer spyware. What they will not hear is how, in several cases, that software is being used by oppressive governments to keep tabs on political activists.

On Thursday, executives from the Gamma Group, based in Hampshire, England, and Hacking Team, based in Milan, are scheduled to speak in consecutive presentations about their latest surveillance technologies. Both companies sell spyware to governments that they say is used exclusively for criminal investigations, but mounting evidence suggests that their spyware has been used to monitor dissidents.

In August, an article in The New York Times outlined how spyware sold by the Gamma Group had been used to monitor Bahraini activists and spy on people via servers in more than a dozen countries ? many with questionable human rights records, like Brunei and Turkmenistan. At first, the Gamma Group denied that its software was being used this way. Then it said several copies of its spyware had been stolen.

On Wednesday, Morgan Marquis-Boire, one of the first security researchers to discover Gamma spyware in e-mails sent to Bahraini activists, released new evidence suggesting that spyware sold by Hacking Team had also been used to monitor political activists.

Such spyware gives governments that previously had no cybersurveillance programs a sophisticated plug-in monitoring operation that can track a citizen?s location, record their every keystroke, read e-mails, social networking and instant messenger chats, and even remotely switch on a device?s camera or microphone to record their conversations.

The market for such technologies has grown to $5 billion from ?nothing 10 years ago,? Jerry Lucas, president of?TeleStrategies, the company behind ISS World, told The Times in August.

In his most recent findings, Mr. Marquis-Boire, a security researcher with the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, said he had discovered Hacking Team?s government-grade spyware included in a Microsoft Word attachment sent to a political activist in the United Arab Emirates, and also embedded in a link posted to a Moroccan news Web site.

A member of Hacking Team?s finance department said he was not aware of Mr. Marquis-Boire?s findings and that executives at the company were not available for comment on Wednesday.

In July, Ahmed Mansoor, an outspoken blogger from the United Arab Emirates and a member of the ?U.A.E. Five? ? a group of Emirati activists jailed last year for criticizing government leaders ? opened a suspicious e-mail with a Microsoft Word attachment that, when opened, deployed spyware that could monitor his every keystroke, record his passwords, social networking and instant messenger chats and even his voice conversations through his computer?s microphone. Mr. Mansoor told Bloomberg that because of that innocent mistake? clicking on a malicious e-mail attachment? he was inexplicably beaten by unknown assailants.

That same month, a suspicious message was posted to a submission page on Mamkafinch.com, a Moroccan news Web site that has been critical of Morocco?s government.?The message, which was posted in French, translated roughly as: ?Please do not mention my name or anything I do. I do not want any shenanigans,? and included a link that, if opened, took control of the person?s device.

Mr. Marquis-Boire said he had been able to match the spyware contained in both the e-mail attachment and malicious link to a demonstration copy of Hacking Team?s spyware,?which the company markets this way:??Remote Control System is a stealth investigative tool dedicated to law enforcement and security agencies for digital investigations. It is an eavesdropping software which hides itself inside the target devices. It enables both active data monitoring and process control.?

In the case of Mr. Mansoor, the spyware eavesdropped from a server that, as of August, was registered to a post office box in Abu Dhabi that matched the corporate headquarters of the?Royal Group, a U.A.E. conglomerate. In the case of Mamfakinch, the spyware was controlled by an I.P. address hosted in Rabat, Morocco?s capital.

Executives at the Royal Group could not be reached for comment. A representative at Morocco?s consulate in?New York did not respond to a request for comment.

The release of Mr. Marquis-Boire?s findings is timed just one day before executives at the Gamma Group and Hacking Team are scheduled to take the stage at ISS World. On Thursday, Martin J. Muench, a Gamma Group managing director, will deliver a presentation titled ?Government I.T. Intrusion: Applied Hacking Techniques Used by Governments.? After his presentation, three Hacking Team executives will talk about their latest government-grade surveillance technology.

Mr. Marquis-Boire said the timing of his release was coincidental. In an interview on Tuesday, he said, ?These companies say they only sell this spyware to governments and intelligence and law enforcement agencies, but the key takeaway is ?Know thy customer.? ?

Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/ahead-of-spyware-conference-more-evidence-of-abuse/

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