{"id":2018,"date":"2013-05-01T16:22:49","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T20:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=2018"},"modified":"2013-05-01T16:22:49","modified_gmt":"2013-05-01T20:22:49","slug":"mozilla-moves-to-stop-spyware-company-from-spoofing-firefox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/05\/01\/mozilla-moves-to-stop-spyware-company-from-spoofing-firefox\/","title":{"rendered":"Mozilla moves to stop spyware company from spoofing Firefox"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2036940\/mozilla-moves-to-stop-spyware-company-from-spoofing-firefox.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/nccomputertech.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/05\/firefox_logo-100030562-large.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mozilla sent a cease-and-desist letter to a European company that created a piece of spyware masquerading itself as the Firefox browser.<br \/>\nThe move Tuesday comes after computer security researchers said that they discovered that a well-known spyware program called FinSpy was spoofing Firefox. Mozilla was alerted by the researchers, who are with Citizen Lab, a research project that is part of the University of Toronto&#8217;s Munk School of Global Affairs.<br \/>\nFinSpy is one component in a set of remote interception and intrusion tools called FinFisher, which is made by a subsidiary of U.K-based Gamma Group called Gamma International.<br \/>\nCitizen Lab has done extensive research into FinSpy and found it is being used in a number of countries with poor human rights records and has been used to target activists. It is considered by some to be malicious software.<br \/>\nCitizen Lab released a summary of its latest findings Tuesday. FinSpy makes use of Mozilla&#8217;s trademark and code, wrote researchers Morgan Marquis-Boire, Bill Marczak, Claudio Guarnieri and John Scott-Railton. [Read the full report.]<br \/>\n&#8220;The latest Malay-language sample masquerades as Mozilla Firefox in both file properties and in manifest,&#8221; they wrote. &#8220;This behavior is similar to samples discussed in some of our previous reports, including a demo copy of the product, and samples targeting Bahraini activists.&#8221;<br \/>\nWhy do it?<br \/>\nHackers often dress up malicious files to make them appear to be benign, piggybacking on the inherent trust users put into known programs. Appearing to be Firefox makes it more likely potential victims will be duped into installing FinSpy.<br \/>\nThe group said it found FinFisher command-and-control servers in 11 new countries: Hungary, Turkey, Romania, Panama, Lithuania, Macedonia, South Africa, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bulgaria and Austria. The report also summarizes one year of research Citizen Lab has done into the commercial market for offensive intrusion tools developed by Western companies.<br \/>\nvia <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2036940\/mozilla-moves-to-stop-spyware-company-from-spoofing-firefox.html\" target=\"_blank\">Mozilla moves to stop spyware company from spoofing Firefox | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mozilla sent a cease-and-desist letter to a European company that created a piece of spyware masquerading itself as the Firefox [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[365,369,717,1017],"class_list":["post-2018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-software","tag-finspy","tag-firefox","tag-mozilla","tag-spyware"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-wy","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8455,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/07\/08\/hacking-team-spyware-company-allegedly-breached-400gb-of-data-dumped-online\/","url_meta":{"origin":2018,"position":0},"title":"Hacking Team spyware company allegedly breached, 400GB of data dumped online","author":"NCCT","date":"July 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"An Italian developer of surveillance software, Hacking Team, which has previously been sharply criticized by digital activists, has apparently suffered a large data breach. Hacking Team develops surveillance tools that it has maintained are legally sold to governments for law-abiding investigations. But critics contend the company\u2019s software has been used\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Security&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7876,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/03\/24\/fully-patched-versions-of-firefox-chrome-ie-11-and-safari-exploited-at-pwn2own-hacking-competition\/","url_meta":{"origin":2018,"position":1},"title":"Fully patched versions of Firefox, Chrome, IE 11 and Safari exploited at Pwn2Own hacking competition","author":"NCCT","date":"March 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"As in years past, the latest patched versions of the most popular web browsers around stood little chance against those competing in the annual Pwn2Own hacking competition. The usual suspects \u2013 Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer \u2013 all went down during the two-day competition, earning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Security&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/V99skqmTyiY\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6821,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/11\/13\/mozilla-foundation-celebrates-a-decade-of-firefox-with-new-release\/","url_meta":{"origin":2018,"position":2},"title":"Mozilla Foundation celebrates a decade of Firefox with new release","author":"NCCT","date":"November 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Mozilla\u2019s Firefox web browser turned 10 years old on November 9 and to celebrate the occasion, the foundation is rolling out a handful of new products and programs. Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox that\u2019s said to be faster than ever. It includes the option to use DuckDuckGo\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Software&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Software","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/software\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7954,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/04\/03\/firefox-37-supports-easier-encryption-option-than-https\/","url_meta":{"origin":2018,"position":3},"title":"Firefox 37 supports easier encryption option than HTTPS","author":"NCCT","date":"April 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest version of Firefox has a new security feature that aims to put a band-aid over unencrypted website connections. Firefox 37 rolled out earlier this week with support for opportunistic encryption, or OE. You can consider OE sort of halfway point between no encryption (known as clear text) and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Software&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Software","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/software\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3042,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/07\/26\/mozilla-experimenting-with-firefox-api-for-content-personalization\/","url_meta":{"origin":2018,"position":4},"title":"Mozilla experimenting with Firefox API for content personalization","author":"NCCT","date":"July 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Mozilla is experimenting with an interesting personalization experience, suggesting a new Firefox API that would collect browser activity and provide it to websites so that they could prioritize content based on your interests. For example, if you've been reading a lot about cars recently around the internet, you could provide\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Software&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Software","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/software\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3220,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/08\/20\/modern-ui-firefox-browser-for-windows-8-to-leave-beta-on-december-10th\/","url_meta":{"origin":2018,"position":5},"title":"Modern UI Firefox browser for Windows 8 to leave beta on December 10th","author":"NCCT","date":"August 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a long wait for Windows 8 users of Mozilla's Firefox browser, but there is now light at the end of the tunnel for those people who have been waiting for the \"Modern\" UI version to be released as a non-beta build. This week, Mozilla's development calendar page was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Software&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Software","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/software\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}