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Mozilla Alleges that Gamma Disguised Own Spyware as Firefox

Mozilla the maker of Firefox has asserted that United Kingdom based Gamma International is selling FinFisher a spyware program by disguising it to appear like the widely used Firefox browser, published theregister.co.uk dated May 1, 2013.

The computer application company, running on a no-profit basis, demanded that Gamma the developer of FinFisher cease-and-desist from the activity it was engaged in. To this effect, Mozilla wrote a legal letter wherein it stated that the UK situated business was violating the Firefox trademark of the software company and that the particular breach must stop instantly.

Director of policy and privacy Alex Fowler of Mozilla added that his organization seriously objected to the exploitation of the Firefox trademark, whose sole owner was Mozilla itself, since it hurt consumers, gave rise to confusion as well as damaged Mozilla's reputation. Theregister.co.uk published this.

Reportedly, Mozilla's allegation revolved around the FinSpy program of Gamma that governments and police deployed for breaking into suspects' computers while keeping it under remote control. Apparently, FinSpy pretends to be Firefox browser's copy that on installing seems innocuous to victims.

FinFisher can record keystrokes, convert mobile phones or web-cams into novel spying gadgets, and intercept Skype calls.

Security Researcher Morgan Marquis-Boire at the research group Citizen Lab situated in the Munk School of Global Affairs of the Toronto University says that thus far they've detected 3 versions of FinSpy which pretend to be Firefox, of which, one is the spyware's "demo." Boingboing.net published this dated May 1, 2013.

Meanwhile, 36 nations hitherto are known to be harboring FinFisher servers.

According to Citizen Lab, FinSpy samples have been utilized earlier too disguised as Mozilla's Firefox so it looked like genuine software. In 2012, the FinSpy scam attacking activists in Bahrain utilized one assembly manifest, which masqueraded as the Firefox Web-browser.

The spyware was further associated with surveillance activity before the general elections in Malaysia, says Mozilla.

Overall, according to Fowler, Mozilla can't allow any software firm to utilize their name for camouflaging Internet-spying devices, which Gamma clients can utilize for infringing upon Internet privacy and human rights of citizens, thus reported pcmag.com dated May 1, 2013.

» SPAMfighter News - 5/8/2013

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