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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
British multinational BAE Systems has sold sophisticated surveillance technology to many repressive governments in the Middle East and Africa, an investigation by BBC Arabic and Danish newspaper Dagbladet has revealed.
The technology in question is called Evident, and enables governments to conduct mass surveillance of their citizens’ communications. According to a former employee, the system is capable of intercepting traffic, pinpointing device location, traffic cryptanalysis (i.e. decryption), and voice recognition.
Evident was created by Danish cyber and intelligence company ETI, which was acquired by BAE Systems in 2011. The sales, which were effected through ETI, are technically legal as the export authorization for the technology was given by the Danish government, through the Danish Business Authority.
The export licenses were granted even though the UK government has expressed concern about the sale of the Evident technology to the United Arab Emirates, and has noted that it would “refuse a licence to export this cryptanalysis software from the UK” because of national security concerns.
They were apparently worried that the system’s capabilities could be used to tap communications in the UK and Europe, if the equipment is set up in UAE embassies.
The Evident system has also been sold to the Tunisian government (before the Arab Spring protests and successful ousting of longtime president Ben Ali in 2011), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Morocco and Algeria, whose governments have questionable human rights records.
Source: Help Net Security
(Score: 2) by lx on Saturday June 17 2017, @07:50AM
While you are right, BAE Systems are arms manufacturers. They have no qualms in selling fighter jets etc. to known human rights abusers, so it doesn't really come as a shock that they would sell them surveillance equipment.
What is sickening is that some western governments not only allow this to happen but actively encourage it.