Ethiopia: Digital Attacks Intensify (Human Rights Watch)
(New York) – The Ethiopian government has renewed efforts to silence
independent voices abroad by using apparent foreign spyware, Human
Rights Watch said today. The Ethiopian authorities should immediately
cease digital attacks on journalists, while foreign surveillance
technology sellers should investigate alleged abuses linked to their
products.
Independent researchers at the Toronto-based research center Citizen Lab on March 9, 2015, reported new attempts by Ethiopia to
hack into computers and accounts of Ethiopian Satellite Television
(ESAT) employees based in the United States. The attacks bear
similarities to earlier attempts to
target Ethiopian journalists outside Ethiopia dating back to December
2013. ESAT is an independent, diaspora-run television and radio station.
“Ethiopia’s government has over the past year intensified its assault on
media freedom by systematically trying to silence journalists,” said Cynthia Wong, senior Internet researcher
at Human Rights Watch. “These digital attacks threaten journalists’
ability to protect the safety of their sources and to avoid
retaliation.”
The government has repressed independent media in Ethiopia ahead of
the general elections scheduled for May, Human Rights Watch said. Many
privately owned print publications heavily self-censor coverage of
politically sensitive issues or have shut down. In the last year, at
least 22 journalists, bloggers, and publishers have been criminally charged, at least six publications have closed amid a campaign of harassment, and many journalists have fled the country.
Many Ethiopians turn to ESAT and other foreign stations to obtain news
and analysis that is independent of the ruling Ethiopian People’s
Revolutionary Democratic Front. However, intrusive surveillance of these
news organizations undermines their ability to protect sources and
further restricts the media environment ahead of the elections.
Government authorities have repeatedly intimidated, harassed, and
arbitrarily detained sources providing information to ESAT and other foreign stations.
Citizen Lab’s analysis suggests the attacks were carried out with
spyware called Remote Control System (RCS) sold by the Italian firm
Hacking Team, which sells surveillance and hacking technology. This
spyware was allegedly used in previous attempts to infect computers of
ESAT employees in December 2013. If successfully installed on a target’s
computer, the spyware would allow a government controlling the software
access to activity on a computer or phone, including email, files,
passwords typed into the device, contact lists, and audio and video from
the device’s microphone and camera.
Citizen Lab also found that the spyware used in the attacks against ESAT
appeared to have been updated as recently as December 2014. On November
19, a security researcher, Claudio Guarnieri, along with several
nongovernmental organizations, publicly released a tool calledDetekt,
which can be used to scan computers for Hacking Team RCS and other
spyware. Citizen Lab’s testing determined that Detekt was able to
successfully recognize the version of RCS used in a November attack, but
not the version used in a December attack. Citizen Lab concluded that
this may indicate that the software had been updated sometime between
the two attempts.
These new findings, if accurate, raise serious concerns that Hacking Team has not addressedevidence of abuse of
its product by the Ethiopian government and may be continuing to
facilitate that abuse through updates or other support, Human Rights
Watch said.
Hacking Team states that it sells exclusively to governments, particularly law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The firm told Human
Rights Watch in 2014 that “we expect our clients to behave responsibly
and within the law as it applies to them” and that the firm will suspend
support for its technology if it believes the customer has used it “to
facilitate gross human rights abuses” or “who refuse to agree to or
comply with provisions in [the company’s] contracts that describe
intended use of HT [Hacking Team] software.” Hacking Team has also stated that it has suspended support for their product in the past, in which case the “product soon becomes useless.”
Media reports and research by independent human rights organizations in
the past year have documented serious human rights violations by the
Ethiopian government that at times have been facilitated by misuse of
surveillance powers. Although spyware companies market their products as
“lawful intercept” solutions used to fight serious crime or
counterterrorism, the Ethiopian government has abused its
counterterrorism laws to prosecute bloggers and journalists who merely
report on public affairs or politically sensitive issues. Ethiopian laws
that authorize surveillance do not adequately protect the right to
privacy, due process, and other basic rights, and are inconsistent with
international human rights requirements.
Hacking Team previously told Human Rights Watch that “to maintain their confidentiality” the firm does
not “confirm or deny the existence of any individual customer or their
country location.” On February 25, 2015, Human Rights Watch wrote to
the firm to ask whether it has investigated possible abuse of its
products by the Ethiopian government to target independent media and
hack into ESAT computers. In response, on March 6 a representative of
the firm emailed Human
Rights Watch that the company “take[s] precautions with every client to
assure that they do not abuse our systems, and, we investigate when
allegations of misuse arise” and that the firm is “attempting to
understand the circumstances in this case.” The company also stated that
“it can be quite difficult to get to actual facts particularly since we
do not operate surveillance systems in the field for our clients.”
Hacking Team raised unspecified questions about the evidence presented
to identify the spyware used in these attacks.
Human Rights Watch also asked the company whether contractual provisions
to which governmental customers agree address governments’ obligations
under international human rights law to protect the right to privacy,
freedom of expression, and other human rights. In a separate March 7 response from
the firm’s representative, Hacking Team told Human Rights Watch that
the use of its technology is “governed by the laws of the countries of
our clients,” and sales of its technology are regulated by the Italian
Economics Ministry under the Wassenaar Arrangement, a multilateral
export controls regime for dual-use technologies. The company stated
that it relies “on the International community to enforce its standards
for human rights protection.”
The firm has not reported on what, if any, investigation was undertaken
in response to the March 2014 Human Rights Watch report discussing how
spyware that appeared to be Hacking Team’s RCS was used to target ESAT
employees in 2013. In its March 7 response, the company told Human
Rights Watch that it will “take appropriate action depending on what we
can determine,” but they “do not report the results of our investigation
to the press or other groups, because we consider this to be an
internal business matter.”
Without more disclosure of how Hacking Team has addressed potential
abuses linked to its business, the strength of its human rights policy
will be in question, Human Rights Watch said.
Sellers of surveillance systems have a responsibility to respect human
rights, which includes preventing, mitigating, and addressing abuses
linked to its business operations, regardless of whether government
customers adequately protect rights.
“Hacking Team should publicly disclose what steps it has taken to avoid
abuses of its product such as those alleged against the Ethiopian
government,” Wong said. “The company protects the confidentiality of its
customers, yet the Ethiopian government appears to use its spyware to
compromise the privacy and security of journalists and their sources.”
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