next CNN report:
FBI head found foaming at the mouth.
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 …
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Thursday 20th November 2014 18:56 GMT 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.
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Thursday 20th November 2014 19:37 GMT 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.
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Thursday 20th November 2014 20:14 GMT 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.
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Thursday 20th November 2014 21:24 GMT 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.
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Wednesday 25th February 2015 10:02 GMT 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!
