Privacy bods offer GOV SPY VICTIMS a FREE SPYWARE SNIFFER

Amnesty and Privacy International are offering a free-of-charge spyware detection tool designed to help journalists and human rights activists stay one step ahead of government surveillance. The Windows-only Detekt anti-spyware tool is designed to be a supplement, rather than an alternative, to pre-existing anti-virus …

[Alistair]

next CNN report:

FBI head found foaming at the mouth.

[malle-herbert]

Of course...

The NSA will argue that everyone who downloads this tool must be a terrorist and will have te be put under surveilance immediately...

[Mark 85]

Re: Of course...

And all of us who read this article and visited the link will be marked for "keeping an eye on".

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Of course...

what about those of us that haven't followed the link but have read the article? Is reading the article like reading Mein Kampf and Mao's Little Red Book?

What if I only skim read it? Does that count?

Help!

[Anonymous Coward]

I gave it a spin; and noticed a fairly large flaw immediately - there's no update to bring in the most recently-discovered definitions.

Presumably the tool works by looking in general for system hooks and similar; but as the executable is 'frozen in time'; you'd need to download and run it immediately for it to be any use; and that's probably valuable metadata for someone...wouldn't surprise me in the least if downloads from the site moved you up the "to be black-bagged" list.

[Alex Wilson]

minor issue...

Doesn't support 64bit windows 8.1.... great start :)

[earl grey]

Re: minor issue...

how about XP?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: minor issue...

Doesn't support 64 bit OS X or 32 bit or 64 bit Linux either. ;)

I dumped Microsoft a while ago at home. At work, well, it's job security.

Love the work machine too, 16 cores, 64 gigs of ram, fast HD, all to monitor US government networks.

[frank ly]

A simpler solution?

I'd have thought that journalists/activists would want to use mostly a browser, email client and document writing software - not a big load. Why not spin up a virtual machine copied from a 'gold image' and do all your work in that, then delete it? Using external USB storage for the data obviously.

[o p]

Re: A simpler solution?

Won't protect you from key longer, camera + microphone hijacked, unencrypted memory access, graphic card, unencrypted network communications, USB storage access... no, running a vm on a compromised hypervisor is not a good idea.

[Wzrd1]

Re: A simpler solution?

When I need some privacy, I boot up Tails.

The downside is that TOR was cracked ages ago. Might gin my own up, based upon Tails, but using i2p.

[Brian Miller]

Just use a Live CD

There are so many good Linux distros running on a Live CD that it's just silly not to do it if you are worried about Big Brother and spyware and all that. For heaven's sakes, the CD can't be altered, so there's a guarantee of no spyware between boots. It's not that hard to do a different bit of clicks to open a different program to edit the same document.

And if you're really paranoid, stop using the stupid computers! Use paper, and the solitaire cipher.

Really, the "privacy bods" need to recognize that there are better solutions than useless scanners.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Just use a Live CD

"For heaven's sakes, the CD can't be altered, so there's a guarantee of no spyware between boots."

Ah, but the latest bootable CD needs to be kept up to date with the latest version and all the latest anonymising and stealth techniques so we have to keep burning a new version each time. I know, lets use a CD-RW or better, DVD-RAM.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Just use a Live CD

This solution is also good for making online purchases.

Just because you're running anti virus software doesn't mean that someone is not key logging your credit card details.

[David Pollard]

Re: Just use a Porteus USB

Porteus boots really quickly from USB 3.0, though the learning curve is a bit steep for newbies like me.

[101]

Doesn't work with Windows 8.1 64 bit...

...unsupported version.

Well, that eliminates about half the world right there.

[Anonymous Coward]

and the first thing the anti-surveillance exe does is

call home. Or "home". Or some other fucking place.

[David Pollard]

An option for obfuscation would help

Detekt fails to provide an antidote when spying is detected. What's required is appropriate means to feed a proportion of disinformation into the surveillance channel.

[Tony Paulazzo]

Jesus Christ guys! If you want to be a terrorist:

1) Pay as you go phone £15 - use it for a day then ditch it.

2) Arrange meetings on train / bus stations / Hampstead Heath, anywhere strangers are known to 'sit' next to each other.

3) Dress age appropriately.

4) Any important info to be hand delivered (children make the best couriers if not too far).

5) The law of fives. Fnord!

When governments, pc makers and search engines are spying on every facet of our lives, when the western world condones torture as an acceptable tool, when 21 centuries of existence see's us still stoning women then you know we, as a species, are fucked!