Privacy advocates release free 'Detekt' tool that finds surveillance malware

Haven't tried it myself, but might give it a trial on my XP system where I usually surf in a sandbox.

For those interested, more info, instructions on using it, and download can be had here:

https://resistsurveillance.org/

I downloaded and ran detekt on my XP system, and it found nothing.

1) Per Ron's cautionary suggestion, I first attempted to run detekt in Sandboxie.   And nothing happened.   The likely explanation:   According to their instructions in Step 1, "In order to use Detekt you need to execute it with administrative rights".   Since Sandboxie lowers the rights of programs, so as not to bypass its security, this program fails to execute therein.

2) Detekt's instructions further indicate:  "Before launching the tool, ... make sure the computer is disconnected from the Internet... We [further] recommend that you disable your Antivirus software to prevent possible interference or false positives".   I was NOT going to disable my Anti-virus for this test... if there were sufficient interference, I'd just exit the program to end the test.  

For what it's worth, when I tried launching detekt with my wireless disabled, the detekt interface tried to open, but then it just sat there.   With my wireless enabled, detekt opened itself, and warned me that my computer was connected to the internet.  I disabled my wireless at that point, and hit the scan button.

There was no indication (e.g., percentages) indicating how the scan was progressing.   I was concerned, because the instructions indicated "This scanning process might take even up to 30 minutes, depending on the performances of the computer".   Fortunately, it completed itself quickly (just a few minutes).  Upon completion, it announced:

Nothing found.

I wasn't able to identify the presence of any of any governmental spyware of interest. Please note that this does not necessarily mean your computer is clean, as you could be targeted with many other viruses Detekt does NOT scan for. Executing regular scans with commercial Antivirus software, will help you identify more common threat viruses.

Make sure you always have all your software updated to the most recent version and that your Antivirus and any additional security software is updated and running. The best defense is using the computer with conscience and maintaning a regular digital hygiene.

If you have strong suspicion of being targeted despite this result, please do seek assistance.

You can find additional instructions on what to do next and on how to get in contact with us at [url removed... I saw no point to include it.]

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While I'm not surprised it found nothing --- since I strive to keep my machine(s) "squeeky clean" --- I have no idea how to evaluate the true effectiveness of this program.

My experience on my trusty old XP mirrors ky's.

It's an unproven utility, and a bit of a "black box". I certainly wouldn't install it on a production system.

Thanks guys!

I was afraid it was a scam and/or malware, rather than something (potentially) useful.

Won't install it here.

Hi Ron.

Something I found about Detekt

https://blog.gdatasoftware.com/blog/article/update-the-tool-detekt-what-you-should-know-about-it.html

I am not testing it either.

BTW. I don't know if it is me or the forums, but I am not able to copy/paste an address ( URL ) like I used to any longer. This is madness. This is happening since my account disappeared misteriouly and I was allowed again to post.

Interesting read. Makes it sounds like Detekt is mostly useless hype designed to embarrass governments.

As for cutting/pasting URLs, select the text you want to be the hyperlink and click the "infinity" sign on the toolbar. Paste the URL into the widget and click ok. That should create a functional hyperlink in the body of the post.

If that doesn't help, contact Dell-Robert P via PM and ask him to have someone look into your account settings.

A word by the developers:

https://medium.com/@botherder/what-detekt-was-really-all-about-aaecfb17b6d5

As for cutting/pasting URLs, select the text you want to be the hyperlink and click the "infinity" sign on the toolbar. Paste the URL into the widget and click ok. That should create a functional hyperlink in the body of the post.

That I've also tried. Like right now. Sometimes it works, like today, some times it doesn't.

Thank you Ron.

Sometimes it works, like today, some times it doesn't.

Phase of the   ??

I would be willing to try it in Windows 7, I am trying to recover from a major hit and after 3 days of trying to figure things out I have come to the realization that.

I know absolutely nothing about how software works and the different processes involved on a computer

I am unable to figure out how one thing interacts with the other and how they do why they do and if they do it

I no longer use McAfee on anything and will probably shoot anything that shows up using McAfee, and that includes any young fellow who shows up at the door wants to date my daughter and has the name McAfee.

McAfee said I was protected, Even Today tells me I am up to date and protected from all manner of thing so dont worry we are protecting you.

Sunday I come home and my computer is some kind o fugue state, it wont wake up, the light is on,it will not wake up for anything, I start to walk off thinking what the snap and it goes whirr and comes alive, I am thinking och well the hard drive had a mini stroke lets see how bad    Nothing happens I try everything and thought about calling my daughter's boyfriend who is a cousin of a bunch named mckaffey and then it goes dead Comes back starting in safe mod with dos prompts. The only dos prompt I know is win which does nothing and msconfig which did something but I am not sure what. So I do the worst thing I probably could do said what the snap and unplugged it. Who cares what the forum guys may say about a sudden intentional power loss, of course I never thought I would have to confess that computer abuse action to you guys here at that time , never really knew you were here

So what I have now is a pretty normal boot up sequence, all systems go, sign in and all looks good until I try to pull up a word document and am informed that I might have a corrupted file. Big deal, I been corrupting files and peoples daughters since Tandy had the 250k tick tap type dungeons of daggareth game system back in what today feels like the 40s or something. Weelll allrighty then I say to my 8 year old son, corrupted file it says, just dont corrupt more than one at a time I tell him and you will be ok and dont ever corrupt two best friend files and think they wont tell each other what you are up to because tey both think you are the super chicken in the coop, because they will and you will pay for corrupting those files I say thats when you start having problems with corrupted files.

Ok here it comes I close it out and look at my little all so smooth talking McCafee badge, and I sayc we better just run a quick scan to look for where the problem may lie. I select open and it does all nice and smooth, then it says Please go to the website and renew your protection from viruses and all manner of internet bullies, and oh by the way you have no firewall protection your system is at risk, and I say what, I got this new unit for Xmas last year and it comes preloaded with a years subscription to McCafee but as I delve a little deeper into this McCafee malfunction I find out I lost my firewall about six months ago and my warranty expired sometime in November you know the lag between Dell order and Christmas . I have i start to get nervous think about the relatives named mcakkey, get a little nervous and say well snap my warranty is still good at least look at it and and call my daughter and ask her if she wants to have her boyfriend and his cousin over for beans and cornbread and turn back to the corrupted file.

 I say well what the circuitry, and get back after it and think right off the bat I need a firewall, and think Microsoft has a anti virus system that's on the machine right? Low and behold there it is ***DEFENDER*** it says so I think Microsoft defender Microsoft Windows one has to be as good as the other and for the first time I have a warm fuzzy feeling when it pops the hard drive in the control harness and says defender has activated the firewall, it needs updates but it is up and you are protected, then I think no firewall for six months??? I should be ok but I am not OK my computer is not ok and all is not well at all and by the time I get to you guys my wife asks me if I am doing ***, takes the car keys and  gives hem to her little dog who lives just to attack me as I am walking by minding my own business and she may ask for a divorce because this isn't over yet, and she isn't happy that 2 and a half days later I resign my self to thee fact I dont know how to fix a virus riddled  computer,  I may not care if she wants a divorce, she can have the house the cars except my 62 t bird, I get the dog so I can introduce him to Buddy my new 200 lb Belgian Wolfhound, The kids can decide who they want to live with and she cannot have this computer or I wont agree to the divorce.

 Sorry all this story has gotten out of hand, it has been a long 2 1/2 days, so I will tighten i t up a bit. I have found thru the event logs while I could get to the in the 3 hour preceding my arrival back home from a 4 1/2 hour visit to the Dr because my daughter has a sore throat My computer logged on and of 28 times gained access by user login identification, tried to erase the login logs, erased them, logged in from a remote location, manipulated a list of files from a remote operator. Signed off signed on tried to erase the log entries suffered a fatal error and crashed the computer, leaving it in a fugfue state and left. Never even kissed it or sent me a thank you note. When I read this in administrative events in the event logs I wondered how often it had been accessed in   6 months of no firewall but you are up to date and protected it had been accessed, took... left files came in...went out.. launched other attacks on other unaware users and systems and all the other stuff that happened that haven't come to mind or I even do not know they can do, Snap snap snap, I never thought they could do this and I never even imagined they could do this to me because I had one of the industry leaders in Antivirus and computer safety in the a business keeping me safe at night because during the day they nee-dent bother right? I guess it is after dark somewhere and someone there is probably getting divorced and I hope they have to let her have the classic car and their wolfhound chokes on the little dog, but really I like dogs most of the time so I really just hope both dogs bite him as he leaves in a 1991 Chevy astro van with chipped paint all over the sides from shoddy factory preparation,.

So, I think that Microsoft has an amazing security essentials program, because defender isn't used as a front line defense anymore but Security Essentials, is a quality program and it is FREE. Then if you download Microsoft Security Safety Scanner which looks for Virus and is just for that and not computer front line security it will find anything that has shuck in if you suspect you need to sniff around and it also is FREE. My compute is toasted but the sss found all the bugs that were init I can access the internet and write you all this story and get scanned by dell because I dont know what else to do. I dont know if I can buy a hard drive and a new windows suite and be good again and oh yeah the best part of all my expansion drive that I plug in do a back up and make a system image every week is corrupted had 5 little ankle biters well Ill break the expansion drive down 5 Trojan Horses.... internet access background operation horse, a exploiter horse, a incoming connection multiple port for all the more fun horse...a file gather, identification and zip em up we gotta go horse, and the best horse of all one just to piss you off a adware, continuous running horse that just ads you to death. I wondered why I could not find that one in my uninstall programs files. Oh yeah did I tell you my recovery drive was justa as nasty as the computer and of course my factory discs did not burn properly or something so I am out of the race.

Microsoft Security Essentials has me covered, The Microsoft Safety Scanner got the Horses out of my Barn and took them to theirs so they can autopsy them and keep someone else safe from them. I have the safety scanner running on the other computer that accesses the internet thru this one, it seems to work OK but as I write this and looks over at it it says that out of 1,504,957 files scanned they suspect they have found 1722 files infected, I'm not sure I even was able to access that many on this machine, I may have caught it before they completely ate my machine up, I suspect interrupted the abort sequence. But that computer has no nework adapters or connections available and I just dont have the powder in the keg to bblast into that one yet.

Well I am to tiered to think of much else to describe the events but if anybody has any advice, or is interested in other events that  took place and I have forgotten about for the minute I sure could use any advice, and I did do a Fast Stone screen grab of Microsoft's description of the bugs I found on the expansion drive along with Microsoft's explanation of he bugs genetic code I have them stored on a thumb drive, and if you want to read the bugs dna I think that's what Microsoft was showing in the description. I didnt think to do that to the computer at the time but I did when I found my recovery backup and system images were corrupt leaving me with not much to work with I did grab that. and I dont now if th screen grabs are horse free or have a worm or flea in them so they may not be safe for a church going girl, and I cant say they are OK they should be but they are before they were purged from the system.

Hi  kippdbr:

I gather you have corrupted files, and other indications that you are infected with malware. You do NOT need Detekt, nor will it clean your computer.

1) If you are now running Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) be sure that you have uninstalled all McAfee security programs from your Win 7 system. You don't want 2 anti-virus programs on your PC, working at cross purposes and causing conflicts. You can uninstall McAfee via your Control Panel>Programs and Features. You should also download and run  the McAfee uninstall tool (MCPR) to clean out any remnants, from here:
http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS101331

2) I would consider your computer infected, and would not use it until it is declared disinfected by an expert. Removing malware is no longer done in these forums. I strongly recommend you get free help from trained experts at SpywareHammer, and post the logs required according to the instructions posted here:
http://spywarehammer.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php/topic,12262.0.html

Good luck!