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Syria: Syrian Telecommunications Establishment, Syrian Computer Society 2 ENEMIES OF THE INTERNET / 12 MARCH 2014 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 4 EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA .................................................................................. 8 Belarus: Operations and Analysis Centre ....................................................... 8 Russia: Federal Security Service ............................................................................ 10 Turkmenistan: TurkmenTelecom ............................................................................. 12 United Kingdom: Government Communications Headquarters ....................... 13 Uzbekistan: Expert Commission on Information and Mass Communication ................................................................................. 16 AMERICAS .................................................................................................................... 18 Cuba: Ministry of Informatics and Communications ............................................ 18 USA: National Security Agency ............................................................................... 20 MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA ............................................................................... 23 Bahrain: Ministry of Interior, National Security Apparatus ............................................................................ 23 Iran: Supreme Council for Cyberspace, Working Group for Identifying Criminal Content, Revolutionary Guards ..... 25 Saudi Arabia: Communications and Information Technology Commission, Internet Services Unit .............................................. 27 Syria: Syrian Telecommunications Establishment, Syrian Computer Society ..................................................................................... 29 United Arab Emirates: Telecommunications Regulatory Authority and cyber-crime units ........................................................................................... 32 ASIA AND PACIFIC ........................................................................................................ 34 China: State Internet Information Offi ce ........................................................... 34 India: Centre for Development of Telematics ................................................. 37 North Korea: Central Scientifi c and Technological Information Agency, Group 109, Bureau 27 ................................................................................... 40 Pakistan: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ............................................. 43 Vietnam: Ministry of Information and Communications ................................ 45 AFRICA .......................................................................................................................... 49 Ethiopia: Information Network Security Agency .............................................. 49 Sudan: Cyber-Jihadist Unit, National Intelligence and Security Service, National Telecommunication Corporation .................................................. 51 INTERNATIONAL ........................................................................................................... 53 Arms Trade Fairs: Technology Against Crime, Milipol, ISS World ............. 53 RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................................... 55 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ENEMIES OF THE INTERNET / 12 MARCH 2014 3 4 ENEMIES OF THE INTERNET / 12 MARCH 2014 / INTRODUCTION ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// The mass surveillance methods employed in these three ENTITIES AT THE countries, many of them exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, are all the more intolerable because they will be used and indeed are already being used by HEART OF authoritarians countries such as Iran, China, Turkmenis- tan, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to justify their own violations of freedom of information. How will so-called democratic CENSORSHIP AND countries will able to press for the protection of journalists if they adopt the very practices they are criticizing authori- SURVEILLANCE tarian regimes for? Private sector and inter-governmental cooperation Natalia Radzina of Charter97, a Belarusian news website The 2014 list of Enemies of the Internet includes »surveil- whose criticism of the government is often censored, was lance dealerships« – the three arms trade fairs known as attending an OSCE-organized conference in Vienna on ISS World, Technology Against Crime and Milipol. The- the Internet and media freedom in February 2013 when se forums bring companies specializing in communica- she ran into someone she would rather not have seen: a tions interception or online content blocking together with member of the Operations and Analysis Centre, a Bela- government offi cials from countries such as Iran, China rusian government unit that coordinates Internet surveil- and Bahrain. Here again, the contradictory behaviour of lance and censorship. It is entities like this, little known but western democracies should be noted. France hosted two often at the heart of surveillance and censorship systems of these forums in 2013 – TAC and Milipol. At the same in many countries, that Reporters Without Borders is spot- time, it issued a notice in December 2013 requiring French lighting in this year’s Enemies of the Internet report, which companies that export surveillance products outside the it is releasing, as usual, on World Day Against Cyber-Cen- Europe Union to obtain permission from the General Di- sorship (12 March). rectorate for Competition, Industry and Services (DGCIS). Identifying government units or agencies rather than en- The censorship and surveillance carried out by the tire governments as Enemies of the Internet allows us to Enemies of the Internet would not be possible without the draw attention to the schizophrenic attitude towards online tools developed by the private sector companies to be freedoms that prevails in in some countries. Three of the found at these trade fairs. Ethiopia’s Information Network government bodies designated by Reporters Without Bor- Security Agency has tracked down journalists in the Uni- ders as Enemies of the Internet are located in democra- ted States thanks to spyware provided by Hacking Team, cies that have traditionally claimed to respect fundamen- an Italian company that Reporters Without Borders desig- tal freedoms: the Centre for Development of Telematics nated as an Enemy of the Internet in 2013. Even the NSA in India, the Government Communications Headquarters has used the services of Vupen, a French company that (GCHQ) in the United Kingdom, and the National Security specializes in identifying and exploiting security fl aws. Agency (NSA) in the United States. Private-sector companies are not the only suppliers of sur- The NSA and GCHQ have spied on the communications veillance technology to governments that are Enemies of of millions of citizens including many journalists. They have the Internet. Russia has exported its SORM surveillance knowingly introduced security fl aws into devices and soft- system to its close neighbours. In Belarus, Decree No. 60 ware used to transmit requests on the Internet. And they on »measures for improving use of the national Internet have hacked into the very heart of the Internet using pro- network« forces Internet Service Providers to install SORM. grammes such as the NSA’s Quantam Insert and GCHQ’s Tempora. The Internet was a collective resource that the China has begun assisting Iran’s uphill efforts to create a NSA and GCHQ turned into a weapon in the service of Halal Internet – a national Internet that would be disconnec- special interests, in the process fl outing freedom of infor- ted from the World Wide Web and under the government’s mation, freedom of expression and the right to privacy. complete control. An expert in information control ever ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ENEMIES OF THE INTERNET / 12 MARCH 2014 / INTRODUCTION 5 since building its Electronic Great Wall, China is advising In Tunisia, the government gazette announced the crea- Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the Supreme Council for Cy- tion of a Technical Agency for Telecommunications (ATT) berspace and the Working Group for Identifying Criminal on 12 November 2013 for the purpose of monitoring com- Content. Deputy information minister Nasrolah Jahangiri munications in order to assist judicial investigations into announced this during a recent visit by a delegation from »information and communication crimes«. Its sudden China’s State Council Information Offi ce. creation by decree without any consultation with civil soci- ety triggered immediate concern, as it revived memories China’s pedagogic zeal has not stopped there. The Zam- of the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI), the symbol of online bian Watchdog website reported in February 2013 that the censorship under ousted President Zine el-Abine Ben Ali. Zambian government is working with China to install an In- The lack of any safeguards and mechanism for controlling ternet surveillance network. The blocking of the Zambian its activities is particularly alarming. Watchdog and Zambia Reports websites in June and July 2013 showed that Zambia wants to be able control online Dangerous monopoly of infrastructure information.
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