Antivirus Works Too Well, Gripe Cybercops

by Danny Yadron, The Wall Street Journal

Internal documents leaked by activists earlier this month show police clients from several nations complaining to German company FinFisher GmbH, which sells spyware to government clients, that their products were being thwarted by antivirus programs.

A Pakistani client complains in the documents that antivirus software was able to block his agency’s efforts to spy with FinFisher’s products, a complaint echoed by a Qatari agency in another document. The documents also show FinFisher representatives advised an Estonian agency that a product enabling users to steal usernames, passwords, and documents using a USB flashdrive might not be able to bypass certain antivirus software.

The world of cyberspying by police and other government agencies is a shadowy one and the companies that sell products for this purpose are often very secretive. One such company is Italy-based Hacking Team, which, although none of its products are known to be used by U.S. agencies, is a fixture at U.S. police trade shows and boasts a U.S. headquartered in Annapolis, MD.

“A lot of people rely on antivirus for protection against cybercriminals,” says Morgan Marquis-Boire, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. “You have the people we pay to protect us from very real crime trying to prevent this from working properly. That is somewhat concerning.”