Civic groups putting together open program to detect spyware

Posted on : 2015-07-28 18:19 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
New program comes in response to evidence that the NIS purchased spyware to snoop on South Korean civilians
 an Italian company
an Italian company

On July 27, Open Net, the Korea Progressive Network Center, and the Korean Preparatory Committee for the P2P Foundation announced the launch of the Public Antivirus Project, which will use crowdsourcing to develop a program tentatively called Open Antivirus that can detect whether a device is infected with Remote Control System (RCS), the spyware developed by Italian security firm Hacking Team, and to remove the program.

With South Korean antivirus companies still sitting on their hands more than a month after plausible evidence surfaced that the National Intelligence Service purchased RCS for use against the public, civic groups are rolling up their sleeves to tackle the issue with the help of the public.

Open Antivirus will be developed as an open source program. The civic groups will begin by building a beta version of the program for Android smartphones and PCs running the Windows operating system, using the source code for RCS, which has been posted online. At that point, anonymous programmers who support the aims of the project - known as white hat hackers - will donate their time and talent to produce a final version of the program and expand it for use on iPhones and other devices.

Development of Open Antivirus has already begun. The beta version will be released during the debate that will take place in the National Assembly on July 30, and the final version is scheduled to be released on Aug. 6. After that, the program will be converted to open source so that it can be redeveloped and distributed for other devices. A report will be published analyzing the source code of RCS, and hacking data from infected devices will be collected using the techniques of digital forensics.

The cost of development will be covered through crowdfunding that is being organized by the Korea Progressive Network Center. “Both development and funding are open to participation by the public. We will show that public participation is the finest way to fight back against spyware that is being abused to place the public under surveillance,” said Oh Byeong-il, an activist with the Korea Progressive Network Center.

Foreign antivirus programs that are able to detect RCS are already on the market, but they are only for personal computers and their performance has not been verified.

While Detekt, which was developed and distributed by international human rights organizations, and Milano and MTD, which were released by foreign security firms, are reportedly able to detect ARC, they are not available for smartphones, which have been at the center of controversy in South Korea.

 

By Kim Jae-seob, senior staff writer

 

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

 

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