Saudi Arabia must clarify whether it has been infecting telephones with malware to spy on political dissidents, Human Right Watch said. The organization claims the government is cracking down on political activists protesting human rights abuses.
Human Rights Watch has called out the Saudi authorities for deploying surveillance software reportedly created by the Italian firm, Hacking Team. The rights group says it has evidence the government is using the software to stamp out political dissidence in the Gulf country.
“We have documented how Saudi authorities routinely crack
down on online activists who have embraced social media to call
out human rights abuses,” said Cynthia Wong, senior internet
researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It seems that authorities
may now be hacking into mobile phones, turning digital tools into
just another way for the government to intimidate and silence
independent voices.”
Human Rights Watch cited evidence gathered by the University of
Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which revealed the malware had been
embedded in a legitimate news app for Qatif Today – an
Arabic-language news and information service that reports on
events in Saudi Arabia's eastern Qatif region.
Citizen’s Lab also said there was circumstantial evidence that
suggested the malware was being used to spy on Shia dissidents in
the Qatif region.
Once a phone is infected with the spyware, it enables the
government to access the device’s text messages, emails, call
history, contacts and files from applications such as Facebook
and Whatsapp. The spyware can even be used to switch on a phones
camera and microphones to record conversations unbeknown to its
owner.
Citizen lab has not been able to prove that the Saudi Arabian
government has been employing Hacking Team malware in Saudi
Arabia. However, the fact a modified piece of spyware was
embedded into a news website, suggests that people in Qatif with
an interest in current affairs and politics are being targeted.
Qatif is a Shia majority region in Saudi Arabia whose residents
claim they are discriminated against by the Kingdom’s Sunni
majority.
The Saudi authorities keep a close eye on social media and have
arrested people in the past for publishing tweets that defame the
King or the state. Riyadh passed new counter-terrorism
legislation that classifies such posts as tantamount to
terrorism.
In March, a Saudi court sentenced one of its citizens to eight years in jail
for a number of charges, including mocking the King on social
media. Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized the Kingdom for its hardline policies and
its heavy-handed treatment of political dissidents.