Amnesty releases software to track down spying programs used by governments

Amnesty International has reportedly released a software program that can detect spying software used by governments to spy on their political opponents and monitor activists.

The "Detekt software" was required as standard anti-virus programs often fail to spot spying software, it said. Tanya O'Carroll, an adviser on technology and human rights at Amnesty International, said that the makers of these software programs often perform extensive testing to make sure that the way they infect and lurk on a computer system does not trigger security alerts, reported the BBC.

The organization said that many governments used sophisticated spying tools that could capture images from webcams and listen via microphones. It said that it wants to see more regulation of the spying software used by governments.