Myanmar Security Forces Using Western Surveillance Tech Against Civilians
Myanmar security forces appear to be using surveillance technology sourced from European and North American companies against civilians who have spent months protesting against a military coup.
At least 863 people have been killed by security forces
since the February 1 power grab, which ended Myanmar’s decade-long experiment
with democracy after almost half a century of unbroken military rule.
On Monday, ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has
been in house detention since the military seized control, faced her first day
of a closed-court trial on what critics say are trumped up charges designed to
stop her holding office.
Almost 5,000 people have been arrested, charged, or
sentenced as part of the crackdown on nationwide protests, according to the
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a Myanmar civil society group.
Some of them may have had information extracted from their
phones by security officers using digital forensic technology bought from
Western companies before the coup.
“After seizing the phone, they check all of the data on the
detainee’s phone. They even check people’s phone on the bus or vehicles in their
checkpoints. They check Messenger, Viber, Facebook status,” Ko Ting Oo, a
pro-democracy activist, told Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper.
The revelations are based on leaked Myanmar government
ministry budgets and other documents, as well as interviews with technology
experts and people detained by security forces. The documents were provided by
the activist group Justice For Myanmar to the surveillance newsroom of
Lighthouse Reports, which initiated an investigation by several media
organizations including OCCRP.
Two Canadian companies, OpenText and Magnet Forensics, told
the Globe they had sold digital technology that can extract and decrypt deleted
data and other information. The sales took place before the coup, and do not
appear to have violated Canada’s arms embargo. Both companies said they have
since halted further sales.
The type of digital forensic technology acquired by Myanmar
security forces is used by police and other authorities around the world to
target criminal networks. But rights advocates warn that such tools can be
dangerous in the hands of agencies such as those in Myanmar, which have been
using brutal methods to quell dissent.
“This type of technology ends up being used adjacent to
torture and other serious human rights violations,” said John Scott Railton of
Citizen Lab, a technology, security, and rights research center at the
University of Toronto.
“For example, the information gleaned from phones through
the use of digital forensic tools may be used to convict a human rights
defender or a journalist of crimes in their jurisdiction,” he told OCCRP.
One detainee told journalists that police assaulted him and
then demanded he unlock his phone.
“When they first caught me, about 30 just beat me up quite
badly. They also dragged me on the road for about 100 meters and I think I lost
consciousness,” he said.
Police could have extracted information from his phone using
technology made by Sweden’s Microsystems AB, The Intercept reported.
The company said it had sold the equipment to Myanmar’s
civilian police force. Leaked 2019 budget documents show that funds were
allocated to a cybercrime office of the Ministry of Transport and
Communications, which collaborates with police.
Sales made by some companies could violate the European
Union embargo against providing equipment to Myanmar’s military that could be
used for repression, including so-called “dual use” products that have both
civilian and military functions, Italy’s Domani newspaper reported.
Among the 40 Western technology companies in the leaked
budgets is Italy’s SecurCube. The company had previously said it did not sell
directly to Myanmar, but intermediary firms that purchased SecurCube technology
appear in the documents, according to Investigative Reporting Project Italy
(IRPI).
SecurCube did not respond to requests for comment.
An Al Jazeera documentary scheduled for broadcast on June 17
on the program 101 East will shed further light onhow the Myanmar military is
using digital surveillance, abductions and covert interrogation facilities.
Just months before the coup, OCCRP reported that Myanmar’s
military had been stepping up efforts to acquire equipment ranging from
German-made software to military and civilian planes manufactured by the
European aerospace giant Airbus. After the military seized power, one company
said it had cancelled a contract with the military to refurbish an aircraft
with “VIP configuration” features.
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