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Leaked files confirm surveillance company helped Bahrain spy on activists [Yemen Times]
[August 14, 2014]

Leaked files confirm surveillance company helped Bahrain spy on activists [Yemen Times]


(Yemen Times Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) On August 4 a hacker made a post on the social media website Reddit announcing that she or he had stolen 40 gigabytes of data from Gamma International, a UK-based surveillance technology company. The hacker made the data available for download and has been gradually posting key findings on Twitter; news sites like ProPublica have also begun to comb through it.



Gamma International has long been accused of enabling repressive countries to spy on journalists and dissidents. Its software, FinFisher Suite, infects targets' computers, often through malicious email attachments or CDs, and then harvests data from the infected computer, including passwords, audio and visual recordings of Skype calls, and more.

The hacker encouraged internet users to help analyze the leaked files, saying on Reddit, "I'm unconvinced that news stories about government's surveillance capabilities are actually effective in fighting those systems of control. Listening to stories all day about how we're all being hacked and spied on just feels disempowering. When everyone can participate it's more empowering, more fun, and far more effective. Gamma deliberately avoided storing identifying information about their customers; the customers I've managed to identify so far are from looking at the metadata in the documents they sent FinFisher support staff and other mistakes they made. The more eyes looking at it, the more we'll find." Thus far, the revelations from the leaks are, sadly, not shocking. In the past Gamma International's spyware has been found in Bahrain, Qatar, Mongolia, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Lativa, the United States, Brunei, Turkmenistan, Singapore, and the Netherlands. The data confirms that entities—likely law enforcement and intelligence agencies in most cases—in Bahrain, Mongolia, Qatar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Vietnam, the Netherlands, and Nigeria purchased Gamma International's spyware. The software was also used to monitor computers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Iran. More countries will no doubt be added to the list of customers once the leaked files have been completely analyzed.


Yet, this is the first definitive proof that Gamma International knowingly sold its software to Bahrain. The company previously claimed that any of its software found in Bahrain might have been stolen. However, the leaked files show that between 2010 and 2012 the company aided the Bahraini government in monitoring 77 computers, including those of human rights activists and members of opposition party Al-Wefaq. The government also appears to have targeted the computers of at least two members of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Investigation (BICI), a fact-finding commission established by the king of Bahrain to research alleged human rights violations during the crackdown on protests in 2011.

The files include conversations between Gamma International representatives and probable employees of the Bahraini government. In some of these conversations the Bahrainis griped about software bugs resulting in losses of data, saying "[W]e cant stay bugging and infecting the target every time since it is very sensitive, and we don't want the target to reach to know that someone is infecting his PC or spying on him." The leak could inspire victims and human rights groups to sue Gamma International for apparent violations of British regulations on the export of surveillance technology, although the leaked information may not be admissible in court. When asked about this possibility, a member of Al-Wefaq said, "this is the time for all those who were harmed by this violation to sue Gamma." This article originally appeared on Muftah.org. Follow Muftah on Twitter @MuftahOrg (c) 2014 Yemen Times. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

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