Mozilla,
the maker of the Firefox browser, is reportedly taking on a controversial
surveillance company that has been accused of selling spyware to authoritarian
regimes, by asserting trademark infringement claims.
Gamma Group, a British company, offers governments and law enforcement agencies spy
Trojan programs that are designed to covertly infiltrate computers and gather
data from hard drives, eavesdrop on Skype chats and other communications, and
conduct "live surveillance through webcam and microphone," according
to the company's marketing
materials.
The
technology is supposed to be used solely to target criminals such as
terrorists. However, a mounting body of evidence has
linked it to attacks on activists or political opposition figures from
countries including Bahrain and Ethiopia.
Last
year, researchers had noticed that
the spy tool had apparently been masking itself as Mozilla Firefox—tricking
targeted users into thinking it was a legitimate application.
Mozilla has confirmed that it is planning to imminently
issue a cease-and-desist notice to Gamma over what it alleges is a
“misrepresentation of our copyright and trademarks.”
The development will come as another blow to Gamma, which was recently branded a
“corporate enemy of the Internet” by Reporters Without Borders and is also
currently the focus of ongoing legal action in
the United Kingdom related to its spy tech sales.
The
company’s spokesman, Martin Muench, has previously
stated that Gamma cooperates with export control agencies in
Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and “does not discuss its
client base, its exports, or any of the operations which its clients may or may
not be undertaking” on the grounds that doing so can “prejudice criminal or
counter terror investigations and compromise the security of the members of the
police or security services involved.”
