Activists release Detekt tool that finds surveillance malware

A free tool released Thursday allows users to scan their computers for surveillance malware that has been used in attacks against journalists, human rights defenders and political activists around the world.

A free tool released Thursday allows users to scan their computers for surveillance malware that has been used in attacks against journalists, human rights defenders and political activists around the world.

The open-source tool is called Detekt and was developed by security researcher Claudio Guarnieri. It was released in partnership with Amnesty International, Digitale Gesellschaft, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Privacy International.

Detekt scans computers for infection patterns associated with several families of remote access Trojans (RATs): DarkComet RAT, XtremeRAT, BlackShades RAT, njRAT, FinFisher FinSpy, HackingTeam RCS, ShadowTech RAT and Gh0st RAT.

Some of these malware programs have been used in attacks by cybercriminals, but also in cyberespionage campaigns against non-governmental organizations, human rights activists, journalists and religious or ethnic minority groups.

Some tools, like FinFisher FinSpy and HackingTeam RCS, were created by commercial entities and are sold to law enforcement and other government agencies around the world. They provide a wide range of surveillance capabilities including reading emails and instant messaging conversations, listening in on Skype calls and even remotely turning on a computer's camera and microphone.

Even though the companies that create these tools, Gamma International and Hacking Team, claim to carefully screen their customers and only sell to legitimate law enforcement agencies, independent reports suggest that such tools have been used against journalists and political activists in countries where human rights are poorly protected.