Category Archives: human rights

Allegations of planted evidence raise questions about hacking ecosystem in India

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Recent allegations that planted evidence may have been used to frame an activist in a terrorism case are raising new questions about the surveillance and hacking ecosystem in India. The human rights activist in question, Rona Wilson, is one of several people accused of plotting to overthrow the Indian government in connection with a violent demonstration in Bhima Koregaon, India in 2017. Wilson is among the several activists accused of instigating violence at the demonstration. Cases against the defendants have largely relied on digitally-collected evidence, according to Amnesty International. He has been incarcerated for nearly three years. A new forensic analysis of Wilson’s computer, conducted by Boston-based Arsenal Consulting, is now raising questions about the viability of the evidence, who put it there and the extent to which hacking in India is used to further the government’s prosecutions. Details about the ecosystem of surveillance and cyber mercenary groups in India […]

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Warrantless searches of devices at border allowed, appeals court finds

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled earlier this week that Customs and Border Protection agents may conduct warrantless searches of cellphones and electronic devices at the U.S. border, in a ruling that is already raising privacy questions among digital rights advocates. The decision, issued by a panel of judges and authored by Judge Sandra Lynch, states that the government’s interest in searching persons at the border is “at its zenith,” therefore trumping privacy concerns. “Electronic device searches do not fit neatly into other categories of property searches, but the bottom line is that basic border searches of electronic devices do not involve an intrusive search of a person,” Lynch writes. The decision is at odds with an earlier district court finding that these kinds of searches violate the Fourth Amendment because there’s no assurance there is a “reasonable suspicion” that the devices in question contained digital […]

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South Sudan worked with Israeli surveillance company to monitor citizens, Amnesty finds

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The South Sudanese government obtained surveillance capabilities from an Israeli company between at least 2015 and 2017 in order to wiretap citizens’ phones, according to an Amnesty International investigation published Tuesday. The company, Verint Systems Ltd., a subsidiary of U.S.-based Verint Systems Inc., worked with the government of South Sudan to provide “communications interception equipment and annual support services,” according to documents reviewed by Amnesty International. As part of the arrangement, South Sudan required Vivacell, a telecommunications company, to pay Verint at least $762,236 in order to intercept citizens’ communications, according to Amnesty’s assessment. The reports of South Sudan’s National Security Service’s (NSS) intrusive surveillance meld into a pattern of dangerous human rights abuses in South Sudan, including prolonged detention, extrajudicial killings and the silencing of government critics, human rights activists and journalists, according to Amnesty. A United Nations Panel of Experts found in 2016 that NSS’ “ability to identify […]

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Twitter, WhatsApp users in Cuba report disruptions amid free speech protests

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Social media users in Cuba experienced interruptions to Twitter and WhatsApp service over the weekend amid protests against government restrictions on free expression, according to a digital rights group and media outlets that track Cuba. “Twitter, WhatsApp, and, at certain moments YouTube and other Facebook servers, were intermittently unavailable” from Nov. 27 to Nov. 30 through Cuba’s state-owned telecommunications provider, according to NetBlocks, a digital rights group that tracks internet activity. Some Cubans reported that Twitter and WhatsApp only functioned properly if they used virtual private network (VPN) software to mask their location. The reported service issues coincided with protests by Cuban musicians, writers and activists against the communist government’s jailing of their colleagues. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has denounced the collective of artists, known as the San Isidro Movement, as an “imperialist reality show” backed by the United States. The Cuban government has nonetheless taken the rare step of meeting with the […]

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European Parliament paves path for tighter spyware export controls

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The European Parliament announced Monday that it is taking steps to curtail the exportation of surveillance technologies, including spyware, outside of the European Union. The action clears the path for the European Union to establish new ground rules for the export and sale of so-called dual-use technologies, which can be used in legitimate but also malicious ways that violate human rights. The premise of the new rules is to limit authoritarian regimes’ ability to “secretly get their hands on European cyber-surveillance,” Markéta Gregorovà, a member of European Parliament and a lead negotiator of the new scheme, said in a statement. The new guardrails will include an update to European export controls, such as inclusion of licensing criteria that more heavily emphasizes human rights, and an EU-wide scheme that dictates stricter export reporting requirements for member states. “Parliament’s perseverance and assertiveness against a blockade by some member states has paid off: respect for human […]

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Networking firm Sandvine cancels Belarus contract, citing ‘custom code’ that aided censorship

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Sandvine, an internet routing and networking company, said Tuesday it would stop doing business with Belarus after realizing that government was using its products to suppress information during a bloody crackdown on protesters. “Sadly, preliminary results of our investigation indicate that custom code was developed and inserted into Sandvine’s products to thwart the free flow of information during the Belarus election,” the company said in a statement, which was first reported by Bloomberg News. “This is a human rights violation and it has triggered the automatic termination of our end user license agreement.” Belarus has been in a state of turmoil following an August election marred by allegations of fraud in which President Alexander Lukashenko, who has held power for a quarter-century, claimed victory. State security forces have arrested thousands of people and subjected hundreds to torture, according to Human Rights Watch. Sandvine was founded in Canada and is backed by a […]

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Israeli court rejects request to revoke NSO Group’s export license

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An Israeli judge has ruled against revoking the export license of Israeli software surveillance firm NSO Group, despite allegations its software has been used to target human rights activists and political dissidents around the globe. Amnesty International filed the lawsuit in Israel last year alleging one of its employees had been targeted by Pegasus, NSO Group’s signature software. But the judge overseeing the case said that Amnesty had not provided sufficient evidence to show that Pegasus was used against the alleged targets, according to Haaretz, which first reported the decision. Security researchers and human rights groups have claimed that Pegasus has been used to target political dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists, including an Amnesty employee, in several countries. Most notably, Pegasus is alleged to have been used to target associates of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi before he was murdered. Amnesty alleged in June that the technology was also being […]

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Chinese mobile surveillance of Uighurs more pervasive than previously thought, researchers say

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A newly revealed set of mobile hacking tools adds to the extensive picture of Chinese government surveillance aimed at the country’s Uighur minority. Like Android-focused surveillance kits before them, the malicious software is capable of stealing sensitive data on target phones and turning them into listening devices, according to mobile security firm Lookout, which made the discovery. Some of the hacking tools have been in use for more than five years, but Lookout pieced them together into a vast spying effort tied to the Chinese government, underscoring the pervasive nature of the surveillance and the challenges of uncovering all of it. “Our research found that there are eight malware families meant to stealthily spy on this ethnic minority at the minimum, with some of them expanding even more broadly in their targeting,” said Kristin Del Rosso, Lookout’s senior security intelligence engineer. One of those malware families was cover in a 2013 report from the […]

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