Kurzweil
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- May 25, 2011
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Askofu wa Kanisa Katoliki nchini Togo ni miongoni mwa watu waliolengwa na udukuzi uliofanywa kwa zaidi ya watu 1400 katika mtandao wa WhatsApp uliofanywa na Taasisi ya NSO Group ya Nchini Israel
Askofu Benoît Alowonou pamoja na watu wengine watano ambao ni wakosoaji wakubwa wa matendo na maamuzi ya Serikali walifahamishwa kuhusu udukuzi huo uliofanywa kwenye simu zao mwaka jana
Taasisi ya NSO Group ya Nchini Israel inatuhumiwa kwa kufanya udukuzi huo wa kiteknolojia mwezi Aprili mwaka jana. Udukuzi huo pia uliwalenga watu wote anaopigania au kuunga mkono harakati za kudai uhuru wa Jimbo la Catalan nchini Uhispania
Kwa nchini Togo watu wengine waliokumbwa na udukuzi huo ni Wahubiri Pierre Chanel Affognon na Raymond Houndjo ambao wote ni watu wa karibu wa Wanasiasa wa Upinzani nchini humo
======
A prominent Catholic bishop and a priest in Togo have been told they were targeted by spyware made by the private surveillance firm NSO Group, in the first known case of its kind involving members of the clergy.
A joint investigation by the Guardian and the French newspaper Le Monde can reveal that Bishop Benoît Alowonou and five other critics of Togo’s repressive government were alerted by WhatsApp last year that their mobile phones had been targeted with the spying technology.
WhatsApp announced last year that 1,400 of its users were attacked with the malware, which is made by Israel’s NSO Group, over a two-week period last April.
Individuals who are known to have been told by WhatsApp that they were targets of the attack are now known to include politicians who support Catalonian independence in Spain, journalists in India and Morocco, and political activists from Rwanda.
Discussing the attack in a recent speech, Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, referred to “horrifying examples of journalists, human rights advocates, government officials, religious leaders … being spied on [in] really horrifying ways”.
WhatsApp has accused NSO Group in a US lawsuit of facilitating the attacks against the 1,400 users. NSO Group has denied the claim, saying its software is operated by the governments that purchase it. The company has said it cannot reveal the names of its clients, who it says are contractually obliged to use the software only against criminals and terrorists.
Researchers at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School, which closely tracks the use of commercial spyware and assisted WhatsApp when the 2019 vulnerability was discovered, confirmed to the Guardian and Le Monde that they believed at least six individuals in Togo were targeted in the attack.
Four of those targets agreed to be named: Bishop Alowonou, a priest named Pierre Chanel Affognon, Raymond Houndjo, a close associate of a leading opposition politician, and Elliott Ohin, a former government minister who is in the opposition party.
While it is not known who perpetrated the attacks against the Togolese targets, some of the victims have said they believed the Togolese government was likely to have been behind the surveillance effort. A 2018 Citizen Lab report said Togo was one of five African countries where a possible operator of NSO Group technology was active.
Pro-democracy activists in Togo have separately alleged that their efforts to organise themselves have been hobbled by what they suspect to be surveillance by the Togolese authorities.
“At this time, Citizen Lab is not conclusively stating which government is responsible for this attack,” said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the organisation. “But the fact that these individuals are all either opposition party members or otherwise critical of the government is troubling.”
He said he was “especially concerned” that members of the clergy had been targeted. “Yet again, we’re far away from the kinds of targets that spyware companies like NSO claim are the legitimate targets of these cases.”
Togo has been ruled by President Faure Gnassingbé, who has led the country since 2005 following the death of his father, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who was in power for nearly four decades.
Members of the Roman Catholic church in Togo are among the president’s most strident critics, including Bishop Alowonou, who said he believed he was targeted because of his activism. “We sometimes say truths that irritate the powerful,” he said in an interview. “In the last elections, we took positions in favour of truth.”
Alowonou said he initially assumed the alert he received from WhatsApp, saying he had been targeted, was just a spam message. But once he realised it was genuine, he described the use of spyware against dissidents as “dangerous for our freedoms and for democracy”.
The priest, Pierre Chanel Affognon, who also received a message from WhatsApp, said it showed that any citizen could be targeted. “I was shocked and it showed me the real lack of political power that I have,” Affognon said. “It’s a violation of the liberty of the citizens.”
Affognon was head of Espérance pour Le Togo (Hope for Togo), a civil society group that campaigned before national elections in February 2020. The election resulted in a fourth five-year term for President Gnassingbé amid widespread accusations of electoral fraud. The president’s office denied the allegations.
Before he received the WhatsApp message informing him about the attack, Affognon had noticed that details of his private conversations and photos he shared on the messaging platform were made public in social media posts that he said were “full of lies”.
It is not clear if the targeting of the government critics led to successful hacks of their phones, but Citizen Lab has said there is no reason to think the attempts failed. Scott-Railton said the episode was likely to have had “a lot to do with attempting to discredit and undermine political opposition”.
The president’s office in Togo did not respond to emailed questions about the incident.
In response to questions about Togo, NSO Group said in a statement: “We are not privy to who our authorised and verified sovereign government clients target using our technology, though they are contractually obliged to only do so against terrorists and criminals. If an investigation is warranted, NSO will conduct one following our industry-leading human rights processes.”
The company added: “We remain incredibly proud of our technology’s contribution in fighting terrorism and serious crime globally and our role in helping governments save lives.”
Opponents of the Togolese government said it would not surprise them if the government was responsible for the attacks. Farida Nabourema, who lives in exile and is the co-founder of the Faure Must Go movement said pro-democracy activists “got a hint” that they may have been subject to surveillance in 2017, after a number of activists were “arrested, questioned and tortured” over conversations they had had on an encrypted messaging application.
She said fellow activists were “sure the government was able to tap into that group”. There is no evidence that NSO Group’s technology was used in the incident Nabourema described or that she was personally targeted by the firm’s spyware. But the fear that Togo’s pro-democracy activists were subject to surveillance altered Nabourema’s habits in 2017. “We activists have limited considerably the type of things we do as opposed to some years back, when we did not have this fear,” she said. “We used to organise conference calls, we used to strategise. We used to communicate clearly using platforms because we felt like it was the only safe space that we truly had. And unfortunately, today we don’t have that safe space any more.”
Since you're here ...
... we have a small favour to ask. Millions are flocking to the Guardian for quality news every day. We believe everyone deserves access to factual information, and analysis that has authority and integrity. That’s why, unlike many others, we made a choice: to keep Guardian reporting open for all, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay.
As an open, independent news organisation we investigate, interrogate and expose the actions of those in power, without fear. With no shareholders or billionaire owner, our journalism is free from political and commercial bias – this makes us different. We can give a voice to the oppressed and neglected, and stand in solidarity with those who are calling for a fairer future. With your help we can make a difference.
We’re determined to provide journalism that helps each of us better understand the world, and take actions that challenge, unite, and inspire change – in times of crisis and beyond. Our work would not be possible without our readers, who now support our work from 180 countries around the world.
Source: The Guardian
Askofu Benoît Alowonou pamoja na watu wengine watano ambao ni wakosoaji wakubwa wa matendo na maamuzi ya Serikali walifahamishwa kuhusu udukuzi huo uliofanywa kwenye simu zao mwaka jana
Taasisi ya NSO Group ya Nchini Israel inatuhumiwa kwa kufanya udukuzi huo wa kiteknolojia mwezi Aprili mwaka jana. Udukuzi huo pia uliwalenga watu wote anaopigania au kuunga mkono harakati za kudai uhuru wa Jimbo la Catalan nchini Uhispania
Kwa nchini Togo watu wengine waliokumbwa na udukuzi huo ni Wahubiri Pierre Chanel Affognon na Raymond Houndjo ambao wote ni watu wa karibu wa Wanasiasa wa Upinzani nchini humo
======
A prominent Catholic bishop and a priest in Togo have been told they were targeted by spyware made by the private surveillance firm NSO Group, in the first known case of its kind involving members of the clergy.
A joint investigation by the Guardian and the French newspaper Le Monde can reveal that Bishop Benoît Alowonou and five other critics of Togo’s repressive government were alerted by WhatsApp last year that their mobile phones had been targeted with the spying technology.
WhatsApp announced last year that 1,400 of its users were attacked with the malware, which is made by Israel’s NSO Group, over a two-week period last April.
Individuals who are known to have been told by WhatsApp that they were targets of the attack are now known to include politicians who support Catalonian independence in Spain, journalists in India and Morocco, and political activists from Rwanda.
Discussing the attack in a recent speech, Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, referred to “horrifying examples of journalists, human rights advocates, government officials, religious leaders … being spied on [in] really horrifying ways”.
WhatsApp has accused NSO Group in a US lawsuit of facilitating the attacks against the 1,400 users. NSO Group has denied the claim, saying its software is operated by the governments that purchase it. The company has said it cannot reveal the names of its clients, who it says are contractually obliged to use the software only against criminals and terrorists.
Researchers at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School, which closely tracks the use of commercial spyware and assisted WhatsApp when the 2019 vulnerability was discovered, confirmed to the Guardian and Le Monde that they believed at least six individuals in Togo were targeted in the attack.
Four of those targets agreed to be named: Bishop Alowonou, a priest named Pierre Chanel Affognon, Raymond Houndjo, a close associate of a leading opposition politician, and Elliott Ohin, a former government minister who is in the opposition party.
While it is not known who perpetrated the attacks against the Togolese targets, some of the victims have said they believed the Togolese government was likely to have been behind the surveillance effort. A 2018 Citizen Lab report said Togo was one of five African countries where a possible operator of NSO Group technology was active.
Pro-democracy activists in Togo have separately alleged that their efforts to organise themselves have been hobbled by what they suspect to be surveillance by the Togolese authorities.
“At this time, Citizen Lab is not conclusively stating which government is responsible for this attack,” said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the organisation. “But the fact that these individuals are all either opposition party members or otherwise critical of the government is troubling.”
He said he was “especially concerned” that members of the clergy had been targeted. “Yet again, we’re far away from the kinds of targets that spyware companies like NSO claim are the legitimate targets of these cases.”
Togo has been ruled by President Faure Gnassingbé, who has led the country since 2005 following the death of his father, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who was in power for nearly four decades.
Members of the Roman Catholic church in Togo are among the president’s most strident critics, including Bishop Alowonou, who said he believed he was targeted because of his activism. “We sometimes say truths that irritate the powerful,” he said in an interview. “In the last elections, we took positions in favour of truth.”
Alowonou said he initially assumed the alert he received from WhatsApp, saying he had been targeted, was just a spam message. But once he realised it was genuine, he described the use of spyware against dissidents as “dangerous for our freedoms and for democracy”.
The priest, Pierre Chanel Affognon, who also received a message from WhatsApp, said it showed that any citizen could be targeted. “I was shocked and it showed me the real lack of political power that I have,” Affognon said. “It’s a violation of the liberty of the citizens.”
Affognon was head of Espérance pour Le Togo (Hope for Togo), a civil society group that campaigned before national elections in February 2020. The election resulted in a fourth five-year term for President Gnassingbé amid widespread accusations of electoral fraud. The president’s office denied the allegations.
Before he received the WhatsApp message informing him about the attack, Affognon had noticed that details of his private conversations and photos he shared on the messaging platform were made public in social media posts that he said were “full of lies”.
It is not clear if the targeting of the government critics led to successful hacks of their phones, but Citizen Lab has said there is no reason to think the attempts failed. Scott-Railton said the episode was likely to have had “a lot to do with attempting to discredit and undermine political opposition”.
The president’s office in Togo did not respond to emailed questions about the incident.
In response to questions about Togo, NSO Group said in a statement: “We are not privy to who our authorised and verified sovereign government clients target using our technology, though they are contractually obliged to only do so against terrorists and criminals. If an investigation is warranted, NSO will conduct one following our industry-leading human rights processes.”
The company added: “We remain incredibly proud of our technology’s contribution in fighting terrorism and serious crime globally and our role in helping governments save lives.”
Opponents of the Togolese government said it would not surprise them if the government was responsible for the attacks. Farida Nabourema, who lives in exile and is the co-founder of the Faure Must Go movement said pro-democracy activists “got a hint” that they may have been subject to surveillance in 2017, after a number of activists were “arrested, questioned and tortured” over conversations they had had on an encrypted messaging application.
She said fellow activists were “sure the government was able to tap into that group”. There is no evidence that NSO Group’s technology was used in the incident Nabourema described or that she was personally targeted by the firm’s spyware. But the fear that Togo’s pro-democracy activists were subject to surveillance altered Nabourema’s habits in 2017. “We activists have limited considerably the type of things we do as opposed to some years back, when we did not have this fear,” she said. “We used to organise conference calls, we used to strategise. We used to communicate clearly using platforms because we felt like it was the only safe space that we truly had. And unfortunately, today we don’t have that safe space any more.”
Since you're here ...
... we have a small favour to ask. Millions are flocking to the Guardian for quality news every day. We believe everyone deserves access to factual information, and analysis that has authority and integrity. That’s why, unlike many others, we made a choice: to keep Guardian reporting open for all, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay.
As an open, independent news organisation we investigate, interrogate and expose the actions of those in power, without fear. With no shareholders or billionaire owner, our journalism is free from political and commercial bias – this makes us different. We can give a voice to the oppressed and neglected, and stand in solidarity with those who are calling for a fairer future. With your help we can make a difference.
We’re determined to provide journalism that helps each of us better understand the world, and take actions that challenge, unite, and inspire change – in times of crisis and beyond. Our work would not be possible without our readers, who now support our work from 180 countries around the world.
Source: The Guardian
