<
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-01/australia-owned-pacific-mobile-network-likely-exploited-by-spies/102784160>
"A Telstra-owned mobile phone operator in the Pacific Islands has likely been
used by private spy firms to track people on the other side of the world and
steal their data, according to expert cybersecurity analysis.
Digicel Pacific's network resources appear to have been exploited to target
unsuspecting mobile phone users in Africa in a type of attack that has been
used in the past by spy-for-hire operations and state actors, according to
analysis by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab shared with the Organized
Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the ABC.
The revelations come after Telstra purchased Fiji-based Digicel Pacific in July
2022.
The purchase was backed with more than $2 billion in Australian government
financing amid fears that China's government could use the network — which
operates in six Pacific countries — to carry out spying in the increasingly
contested region.
But Citizen Lab's analysis suggests that Telstra has had to contend with
another security threat on the network: for-profit surveillance companies.
Typically based in the West, such operations market their services to
governments as a way to track criminals and terrorists.
Previous reporting, however, has found these services are frequently used to
spy on journalists, activists, and political dissidents."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
