Police Raided German Spyware Company FinFisher Offices
German investigating authorities have raided the offices of Munich-based company FinFisher that sells the infamous commercial surveillance spyware dubbed 'FinSpy,' reportedly in suspicion of illegally exporting the software to abroad without the required authorization.
Investigators from the German Customs Investigation Bureau
(ZKA), ordered by the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office, searched a total of 15
properties in Munich, including business premises of FinFisher GmbH, two other
business partners, as well as the private apartments of the managing directors,
along with a partner company in Romania from October 6 to 8.
For those unaware, FinSpy is extremely powerful spying
software that is being sold as a legal law enforcement tool to governments
around the world but has also been found in use by oppressive and dubious
regimes to spy on activists, political dissidents and journalists.
FinSpy malware can target both desktop and mobile operating
systems, including Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and Linux, and gives its
operator spying capabilities, including secretly turning on victims' webcams
and microphones, recording everything they types on the keyboard, intercepting
calls, and exfiltration of sensitive data.
However, a new report from BR (Bayerischer Rundfunk) and
(Norddeutscher Rundfunk) NDR suggests the spying firm illegally exported FinSpy
to other countries without the correct export license issued by the federal
government.
The Munich public prosecutor's office is now investigating
"suspected violations of the Foreign Trade Act against managing directors
and employees of FinFisher GmbH and at least two other companies," said a
spokeswoman to BR and NDR.
The raids were part of a criminal complaint [pdf] filed by
the GFF, Netzpolitik, Reporters Without Borders (ROG), and the European Center
for Constitutional Rights and Human Rights (ECCHR) against the managing
directors of FinFisher GmbH in July 2019.
In 2015, a permit requirement for exports of FinSpy to
non-EU countries was introduced across Europe, but even after the federal
government not issued a single export license, the surveillance software was
found on a Turkish website in 2017 to spy on members of the opposition and was
used in Egypt to target NGOs.
This strongly suggests that the surveillance company
illegally exported the FinSpy software despite the existing permit
requirements.
Unfortunately, the German media site has taken down the
original report it posted last year after FinFisher sued the publication and
won the case.
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