Mozilla Battles Snoop Software Sold Under Its Trademark

The Firefox name is used to fool end users

Last week, Mozilla took an important step in the fight against the proliferation of pervasive surveillance technologies by sending a cease and desist letter to Gamma International, demanding Gamma stop using Mozilla's trademark. Gamma makes the notorious Finspy and Finfisher malware that has ended up in the hands of authoritarian regimes.  Citizen Lab's Morgan Marquis-Boire has spearheaded research showing that Finspy tries to trick users by using the Mozilla Firefox name to masquerade as legitimate software.

As Marquis-Boire detailed last year, once FinFisher is on a user's computer, the attacker can see everything the user can, log every key stroke and access every file on the device. FinFisher products can even remotely turn on the user's webcam or microphone in a cell phone without the user's knowledge.

Mozilla wrote in a blog post, "We've sent Gamma a cease and desist letter today demanding that these illegal practices stop immediately."