A Danish subsidiary of British defense contractor BAE Systems is selling an internet surveillance package to the government of the United Arab Emirates, a country known for spying on, imprisoning, and torturing dissidents and activists, according to documents obtained by Lasse Skou Andersen of the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information.
The documents from the Danish Business Authority reveal an ongoing contract between the defense conglomerate, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence A/S, and the Middle Eastern oil federation dating back to at least December 2014.
The contract describes an internet surveillance product capable of deep packet inspection — “IP monitoring and data analysis” for “serious crime” and “national security” investigations. That could include capabilities like mapping a target’s social networks and extracting personal information and communications from devices including voice recordings, video, messages, and attachments.
According to the company’s contract, revealing any details about the agreement could have extreme consequences for its relationship with the “End User,” presumably the UAE government.
In a written statement, BAE Systems said, “It is against our policy to comment on contracts with specific countries or customers. BAE Systems works for a number of organizations around the world, within the regulatory frameworks of all relevant countries and within our own responsible trading principles.”
The Danish Business Authority told Andersen it found no issue approving the export license to the Ministry of the Interior of the United Arab Emirates after consulting with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, despite regulations put in place by the European Commission in October 2014 to control exports of spyware and internet surveillance equipment out of concern for human rights. The ministry told Andersen in an email it made a thorough assessment of all relevant concerns and saw no reason to deny the application.
According to Edin Omanovic, a research officer with Privacy International, this is one of the first tests of the commission’s new export controls, which are due to be updated next month.
“This comes at a crucial time, just before the European Commission is set to decide whether or not it proposes updates to regulations regarding the export of surveillance technologies,” he wrote in an email to The Intercept. “The fact that the export license was granted by the Danish authorities to the UAE, where human rights abuses are well established, and that this information was not publicly available, underlines why these reforms are urgently needed.”
“Without such safeguards, the current assessment criteria used by European governments to approve license applications will only serve as a rubber stamp,” he continued.
The disclosure of the BAE Systems deal comes after researchers from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab reported that a prominent human rights activist in the UAE was the target of an attempt to install potent spyware on his iPhone in an attack linked to the Israeli company NSO Group.
Human Rights Watch writes that the UAE “often uses its affluence to mask the government’s serious human rights problems,” which include arbitrary detention, torture allegations, threats to free speech, labor exploitation, and more. The UAE has led a systematic crackdown on members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other dissidents. Reporters have written about the UAE developing an emirate-wide surveillance program, while security researchers have uncovered weaponized malware attacks targeting Emirati activists and journalists.
And it’s not the first time the subsidiary, formerly known as ETI, has sold spyware to repressive regimes. Before being acquired by BAE Systems, the company sold surveillance equipment to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Information previously reported, as well as the corrupt Zine El Abidine Ben Ali regime in Tunisia prior to the Arab Spring uprisings.
Following Bloomberg’s exposé on the sale to Ben Ali and the acquisition by BAE Systems, representatives from BAE told a Danish documentarian, Mads Ellesøe, that the company has since “enhanced” the subsidiary’s export control process to comply with its human rights policies — drawing the new sale to the UAE into question.
A spokesperson for BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, also known as BAE Systems Detica, said in an emailed statement that “Since acquiring ETI in March 2011, we have enhanced its processes including introducing the BAE Systems Code of Conduct and associated policies on ethical conduct which are now integrated into the processes that govern all aspects of the day-to-day business. … BAE Systems Detica has instituted a further formal process, governed through a business conduct committee, which assesses relevant opportunities on the basis of responsible trading risks, ethical concerns and reputational risks.”
Some surveillance companies have suffered after being exposed for selling equipment to repressive regimes, like Hacking Team — the Italian firm whose internal emails were leaked last summer. Hacking Team also sold spyware to the UAE, reportedly to help the government spy on pro-democracy activists. However, Hacking Team may be bouncing back, as it’s due to present new “cutting edge” surveillance tools at the trade surveillance show ISS Latin America in October.
The U.S. government’s National Security Agency hosts some of the top hackers and surveillance tools in the world, capable of “touching” more of the internet than Google through deep packet inspection. Its XKeyscore program, first revealed by The Guardian, feeds off of a truly massive stream of worldwide online traffic from the backbone of the internet and automatically analyzes and inspects that traffic as it flows in.
Top photo: U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown visits the London offices of BAE Systems Detica, now BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, in 2009.
We vitally need an “international” Bill of Rights with criminal penalties enforced by the International Criminal Court.
Or perhaps something slightly more powerful? Some kind of untouchable SI general AI that is given the scope to destroy in the most painful way imaginable, any and all people using, or “having used” technologies in any way, shape or form against other human beings?
I’m from UAE and I agree for this deal
My country is trying to save me from terrorist and I would love to be secured
This guy Mansoor has no evidence of torture he just lieong on the word and he is one of the torrerst!
First learn to read and write English.
Interesting parallel to what happened when CMoH recipient Dakota Meyer blew the whistle on BAE selling superior night scopes to the PakistanI military:
http://historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=dakota_meyer_1
It’s difficult to sell spyware to open regimes, their governments tend to be blissfully unaware of the threat posed by their own citizens. Fortunately, very few governments fall into that category, so the ETI business model appears sound.
Since the West already sells those governments weapons for killing their own citizens, I doubt anyone will get too worked up about a bit of spyware. At the worst, they will require companies to sell the spyware to a third party broker, rather than direct to the end user. This may dent their profits a little, but does have the advantage of plausible deniability when the end user starts using the spyware to locate, round up and execute its dissidents.
The planet is going to hell in a hand basket. It’s just a matter of how we get there.
Just saw this on “Information”. Nice to see the affairs of my own country being covered by the Intercept. On a sort of unrelated side-note, it’s interesting how the Danish parliament loves denouncing other countries for human rights abuses but won’t grant Snowden asylum despite the fact that he would probably get the same horrible treatment that Chelsea Manning did should he be captured by the US. Unfortunately noone is interested in upsetting the US since it would be a bad strategic and diplomatic thing to do (aren’t geopolitics fun!?).
Well, there actually are countries that aren’t shy about upsetting the US, and which call it out for both the crimes and oppressions it commits directly, and those it is complicit in. The thing is, those countries are also so systematically demonized and derided as ‘corrupt’, ‘dictatorships’, or, most frequently, both, that association with them is a reputational death sentence, at least in the US and those countries closest, or most heavily tied, to it.
Thank you, well put.
This is perhaps interesting:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2016/06/hillary-clinton-bae-documents-state-224912
The UAE has all kinds of ties to the defense contractors and the U.S. government; they’ve been bombing Yemen in alliance with the Saudis and the U.S. military:
The UAE has been buying weapons from BAE and Raytheon, which the Pentagon claims are for use against ISIS, although the UAE is a lot closer to Yemen than to Syria:
If the Pentagon was allowing BAE and Raytheon to sell the arms to UAE for use in Yemen, would they admit it?
Do you know if the NSA agency or US intelligence contractors are being defunded or resources reallocated elsewhere?
Near as I can tell theyre getting funded more, not less. And of course if that funding does dwindle (I have my doubts), my guess is we will see a lot of people with dangerously targeted skill sets, accustomed to a high operational tempo, plying things even more in & to the private sector. That level of power is probably highly addictive.
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/02/02/black-budget-requests-remain-secret
Doesn’t look like it. Seems that they are trying even harder now to hide the funding from the US public.
So about two weeks ago the NYT got a scoop on spyware being sold on the internet. Then – lo and behold – the Intercept came out with a story saying oh, we knew all along from Snowden documents which the Intercept – meaning Glenn Greenwald – kept secret until they did their – I knew first story.
As mentioned in the article a powerful spy tool was discovered and traced – with evidence – to an Israeli firm, unlike the constant unproven allegations across the establishment press (of which the intercept is a full member) of cyber spying by evil Putin and the commie Chinese.
It’s Friday so maybe Tuesday or Wednesday we’ll find out Snowden gave documents to people about this but they decided to keep it a secret.
Yet another security scoop by others while the Intercept – supposedly dedicated to spying and security – exposes the corruption of Hillery Clinton for the 1001st time, or reprints stories uncovered elsewhere.
This is how we get to see the Snowden documents – every time someone discovers something the Intercept can publish two or three more documents and say: I knew it all along.
Censorship under the cover of “responsible journalism” which protects criminal activity and government oppression from scrutiny has no moral high ground on which to stand.
This is just more of your “publish all the Snowden documents to Wikileaks” screed.
I doubt you’ve even bother to read this:
https://citizenlab.org/2016/08/million-dollar-dissident-iphone-zero-day-nso-group-uae/
Conclusions:
Instead of bothering with the details of the story, you post another whining attack on the Intercept. At least you left out the “Snowden is my hero, but. . .” line this time.
Upon reflection you are right on all points. My ragging on the Intercept doesn’t help when there are multiple topics far more important.
I would like to know or confirm that quantum communicating would produce a system in which data can’t be accessed without disturbing the quantum state and everyone immediately knowing. If that is the case then this will all be over in few years.
The thing is that even if the theoretical security of quantum data storage devices and quantum data transmission maps over to real world versions, we are still going to be vulnerable, because of the complexity of the operating systems that will be offered, and needed to effectively and efficiently use those things. It doesn’t matter if it is impossible to access data without leaving a trace when the very system that accesses the data, and monitors for unauthorized accessing, is compromised to give someone else access, and report the accessing as legitimate.
http://www.etsi.org/news-events/events/1072-ws-on-quantumsafe-2016?tab=1
So then private communication is truly a thing of the past. Our circumstance is this and our options few:
Try To Praise The Mutilated World
by Adam Zagajewski
Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June’s long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You’ve seen the refugees heading nowhere,
you’ve heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the grey feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.
So this is completely different from the set of malware and spyware called Pegasus, made and sold for upwards of a million dollars by a Zionist company called the NSO Group to nation-states that wanted to surveil dissidents and journalists.
Let’s be fair, NSO Group is an Israeli company. It may also happen that some fraction of its employees are also Zionists. The Israeli war industry has a long record of selling weapons to whoever can afford them.
For instance selling to the apartheid regime in South Africa
Another for instance, this time a bit hilarious: having obtained the design for an infrared antiship missile seeker from DARPA, they sold it to the PRC, who incorporated it into an actual missile. Some of those missiles were then sold to Iran, who provided a few to Hezbollah, who fired one, hitting an Israeli navy ship, causing casualties. Milo Minderbinder would be proud.
NSO Group is just Israeli-based; ownership resides in the United States:
Francisco Partners recently acquired Dell’s software unit:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-20/dell-agrees-to-sell-software-unit-to-francisco-partners-elliott
What do you bet they’re installing backdoors in all that software, which claims to be:
Great idea, buying data protection software from the same firm which owns NSO Group. Hopefully they will lose all customer confidence and have to seek bankruptcy protection.
NSO Group shares the same building with EMC’s RSA and a secure mobile phone maker.
What’s that I hear?…Crickets.
Secure Software Distribution is often achieved using public key based Digital Signatures where important information
is digitally signed and the resulting signature is appended, transmitted and stored beside the original information and
later used to authenticate. For example, software updates to a mobile handset’s operating system will usually include a
digital signature and before the mobile handset will install the software update, it will first verify that the update is
authentic and was issued by the phone manufacturer and not an impostor. This ensures that the mobile handset may
only run operating system software designed by the manufacturer that has not been tampered with prior to or during
transmission. For example, Apple and Microsoft issue developers with code signing certificates containing RSA public
keys.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/08/25/everything-we-know-about-nso-group-the-professional-spies-who-hacked-iphones-with-a-single-text/#452a0cfe3d65
The operating partner of Francisco Partners in Washington is the ex CEO of Nice syatems, NICE is an Israel-based company, specialising in telephone voice recording, data security, and surveillance, as well as systems that analyse this recorded data
http://www.nice.com/
Francisco Partners have London offices to, and they have massive investments across IT. They have even acquired Click Software who is a market leader in the mobile workforce management space.
Francisco Partners need investigating by The Intercept – here is a link to their web site and their investments :
http://www.franciscopartners.com/investments
It would be really interesting to find out where their money is coming from, and which US elite is behind them.
“For instance selling to the OTHER apartheid regime in South Africa.”
I suppose this exam doesn’t go under Corporate Social Responsibility!