Amnesty International today exposed details of a new surveillance campaign that targeted Egyptian civil society organizations with previously undisclosed versions of FinSpy spyware designed to target Linux and macOS systems.
Developed by a
German company, 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.
FinSpy, also known as FinFisher, can target both desktop and mobile operating systems, including Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and Linux, to gain spying capabilities, including secretly turning on their webcams and microphones, recording everything the victim types on the keyboard, intercepting calls, and exfiltration of data.
According to the human rights organization
Amnesty International, the newly discovered campaign is not linked to 'NilePhish,' a hacking group known for attacking Egyptian NGOs in a series of attacks, involving an older version of FinSpy, phishing technique, and malicious Flash Player downloads.
