Spyfiles has revealed the massive privatisation of intelligence agencies.
Knowledge is a Weapon
A German company, called FinFisher, specializes in creating weaponized malware. The purpose is to intercept any type of communication. They sell it to different countries and news agencies around the world. They are estimated to have made €50,000,000 to €100,000,000 from selling malware. They have sold it to a large list of countries and news companies.
The list of private company partners includes:
- Pagina 12 - Argentina
- Publica - Brazil
- Bivol - Bulgaria
- El Telégrafo - Ecuador
- Al-Masry Al-Youm - Egypt
- Rue89 - France
- NDR - Germany
- Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany
- The Hindu - India
- L'Espresso - Italy
- La Repubblica - Italy
- La Jornada - Mexico
- Fairfax NZ News - New Zealand
- Dagens Næringsliv - Norway
- RT - Russia
- Publico - Spain
- CorpWatch - US
- McClatchy - US
- OWNI
- Bugged Planet
- Bureau of Investigative Journalism
- Privacy International
- ARD
- The Washington Post
Many countries use it as well including:
- Slovakia
- Mongolia
- Qatar State Security
- South Africa
- Bahrain
- Pakistan
- Estonia
- Vietnam
- Australia NSW Police
- Belgium
- Nigeria
- Netherlands KLPD
- PCS Security in Singapore
*Bangladesh - Secret Services of Hungary
- Italy
- Bosnia & Herzegovina Intelligence.
These were identified through support requests. The list is likely bigger than this, but it is not known for sure.
A few companies that work with them may help distribute it and may not be actual customers:
- Cobham Surveillance GmbH in Germany
- Dyplex Communications Ltd in Canada
- Elaman GmbH in Germany
- Trovicor GmbH in Germany
The Malware is Powerful
They have the ability to track: voice, SMS, MMS, email, fax and satellite phone communications and analyse web and phone interception in real time.
However, the real measure of malware is how easily it can sneak into a system. This malware gets a top score in that as well. Once they identify a target they can insert the malware into the download, while keeping the download running normally. They are then able to infect all computers within the same network, for extra information. This malware is advanced and can work on almost any operating system, as would be expected (OS X, Windows and Linux computers as well as Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices.)
A Full Scale Operation
They were not popular for nothing. They had sales brochures, presentations, deployment documents and contracts. They detail exactly how to operate and install the malware. This is all directed at intelligence agencies and news agencies.
They also work with intelligence agencies to get decryption keys for Skype, BitTorrent, VPN, SSH and SSL.
An entire world of intelligence agencies lies outside of our reach, but we do get glimpses through these leaks. One thing is known, we can’t trust the government.
https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/