By Nighat Dad
Not surprisingly during the same month, here in Pakistan, the government was found to be using FinFisher – one of the most sophisticated surveillance software suite available in the commercial market. The data shown in Citizen Lab’s analysis “For the eyes only”[2] reported that Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) owns the network where FinFisher server was found in the country. Gamma International UK’s FinFisher suite is an IT intrusion and remote monitoring system whose principal market is state-operated surveillance[3].
Pakistan's government has long been a user of the NarusInsight interception suite too, developed by Boeing subsidiary Narus[4]. NarusInsight provides the tools to gain control of networked devices, intercept communications data, and track Internet and mobile users.
There is a world-wide market for products like FinFisher and NarusInsight; some of which are highly invasive and potentially dangerous technologies. The developers find a fertile market among repressive regimes, as well as governments whose surveillance activities are, in theory, subject to democratic insight.
In Pakistan, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) are the bodies responsible for Internet filtering and surveillance, working under the Ministry of Information. Pakistan is home to some 130 Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and 20.4 million[5] active users in what could be a vibrant and constructive online community. Over the past decade, however, the Pakistani government has become increasingly active in adopting digital censorship and surveillance strategies.
For example, access to sites such as YouTube is frequently blocked, and users are given no indication for how long. In a similar recent case, on November 19 of this year social media was barraged with an outcry from Pakistani netizens wondering why they cannot access Internet Movies Database (IMDb)[6] website anymore. IMDb is only an informative entertainment and celebrity database with seemingly containing no content that could have potential to harm national security or religious morality. On 23rd November, only after two days, ISPs around the country received a directive to reverse the action. However, the reason behind the blockage still remains unclear.
In May 2013, 29 year old Edward Snowden, former CIA employee and technical contractor to the NSA, disclosed thousands of top-secret documents to the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers. These documents carried sensitive information about United States’ Internet surveillance programs such as PRISM, XKeyscore, Tempora, along with details of the interception of U.S. and European telephone metadata. In the U.S. political history, it is perhaps the most significant political leak since Daniel Ellsberg's “Pentagon Papers” in 1971[1].
Pakistan – digital dictatorship in the guise of a democracy:
Net Privacy in
South Asia:
Hightech spying and ominious signs
Illustration Faraz Aamer