Copies of controversial surveillance software, called “FinFisher,” were made available for public scrutiny by WikiLeaks, which published the information online Monday.
WikiLeaks announced that its “full data release will help the technical community built tools to protect people from FinFisher, including tracking down its command and control centers.” Components of the spyware suite (which allow the data to be collected from targets and delivered to controllers) called FinFisher Relay and FinSpy Proxy, were published, along with FinSpy Master and FinSpy PC.
FinFisher is distributed by U.K. company Gamma International, which has been accused by privacy advocates of selling spyware to repressive regimes that spy on activists, journalists or political dissidents. In 2012, for instance, researchers at the Citizen Lab published a report which revealed that FinFisher could infect mobile devices on all major platforms, including iOS, Android and Windows Mobile.
