Gamma-Chef Martin J. Münch: Überwachungstechnologien sind wie Cola – und machen einsam

Wir haben schon öfters über die Staatstrojaner-Suite FinFisher der deutsch-britischen Firma Gamma berichtet. Der Journalist Vernon Silver hat sich jetzt fünf Stunden mit Martin Johannes Münch, Entwickler und Frontmann getroffen und ein Profil auf Bloomberg veröffentlicht. Da sind ein paar spannende Details drin.

So fühlt sich Gamma trotz Shitstorm und „Hexenjagd“ vollkommen im Recht. Mit dem Trojaner fange man immerhin „Pädophile und Terroristen“. Für Missbrauch kann er nichts, auch Cola könne man missbrauchen:

To drive that point home, Gamma Group’s communications director, Robert Partridge, points to a glass bottle of Coca-Cola in the middle of a table in the company’s conference room. Carbonated beverages, he explains, could be very painful when poured in the noses of interrogation subjects who have been turned upside down.

Klingt, als ob manche Kunden Erfahrung darin haben.

Münch, auch MJM genannt, gibt zu, dass die im Juli enttarnte Spyware auf den Rechnern bahrainischer Aktivisten seine Software ist. Für solche Fälle habe man jedoch vorgesorgt und innerhalb von zwei Tagen die Software weltweit geupdatet:

While Muench says the samples analyzed were demonstration versions, and not the operational software used by clients, they were close enough to require modifications, he says. Changing characteristics of the product would make it harder to detect by anyone who had seen the Bahraini samples. For the first time ever, he found himself in a position of having to put the company’s emergency plan in action. Colleagues in Munich opened a safe (the combination is “666,” he jokes) and removed a hard drive about the size of a large box of matches, which contained a modified version of the spyware, Muench says. “We always have a spare, just in case,” he says. It took two days for programmers to prepare the new software for release on FinSpy systems around the world, and to inform customers of the update, he says.

Vernon Silver bekam auch eine Demo der Software:

He moves the arrow on his computer across the top of the screen, where tabs indicate two choices: “PC Targets” and “Mobile Targets.” The targets for the live demonstration are Gamma computers used for such purposes, Muench says. Clicking into the PC tab, he brings up a page filled with line after line of names and flags representing countries around the globe. The colors of Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the U.K. and several other nations are represented.

“What we have here is an overview of PC targets that are currently infected,” Muench says. He clicks into one line and pulls up the transcript of a Skype text chat. Another click takes him to a recorded Skype call, on which he points to the timestamps. If the audio file is edited, the software will indicate how many seconds have been cut — a safeguard against misuse, he says.

He then switches to “Mobile Targets,” revealing a separate list, this time of handsets. FinSpy Mobile can infect almost every kind of device, including Apple Inc.’s iPhones and smartphones running Google’s Android or Microsoft Corp.’s Windows systems, according to a pamphlet Muench provides.

Immerhin hat die ganze Öffentlichkeit eins bewirkt – er findet keine Freundin mehr:

Asked if the publicity he’s gotten for such surveillance powers inspires mistrust in the people he meets, Muench says he’s given up on a social life for now. “If I meet a girl and she Googles my name, she’ll never call back,” he says.