http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/02/19/65452.htmInternet Domestic Spying
Spreads Like the Flu
By RYAN ABBOTT
country covertly seized control of his computer and monitored his web
activity through clandestine spyware - including email and Internet phone
calls - and that dozens of others countries are doing the same thing.
John Doe, aka Kidane, sued the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in
Federal Court, under the Wiretap Act.
Kidane says he believes an Ethiopian agent sent him an email with an
infected Microsoft Word document attached.
"The attachment then caused another clandestine client program to be
surreptitiously downloaded onto his computer," Kidane claims in the
lawsuit. "The downloaded clandestine client program then took what amounts
to complete control over plaintiff's computer. Afterwards, it began copying
and sending some, if not all, of the activities undertaken by users of the
computer, including plaintiff and members of his family to a server in
Ethiopia."
Kidane claims the programs infecting his computer are a computer
wiretapping system called FinSpy, a surveillance tool developed by the
European company Gamma Group.
According to the complaint, Gamma markets its monitoring programs to
"governmental agencies only."
According to a 2013 report from the Citizen Lab of the Munk School of
Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, governments are using FinSpy
and FinFisher, Gamma's line of remote intrusion and surveillance software,
to spy on political dissidents.
"Although touted as a 'lawful interception' suite for monitoring
criminals, FinFisher has gained notoriety because it has been used in
targeted attacks against human rights campaigners and opposition activists
in countries with questionable human rights records," the Citizen Lab
report
<
https://citizenlab.org/2013/03/you-only-click-twice-finfishers-global-proliferation-2/>
states.
The Citizen Lab says its findings show that FinSpy programs have been
detected in 25 countries, including Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei,
Canada and United States.
According to the Gamma Group's website, the company has been supplying
governments with "turnkey surveillance projects" since the 1990s.
Kidane claims that five days after the Citizen Lab report was
published, the FinSpy software was mysteriously uninstalled from his
computer, though traces of it remained.
"The FinSpy installation on Mr. Kidane's computer was active for at
least four and a half months, from early November 2012 until the middle of
March 2013," the complaint states. "Plaintiff is informed and believes that
throughout that period, Ethiopia had unlimited access to Mr. Kidane's
computer via the transmission of his activities to the Ethiopia server."
During the period of infection, Kidane says, his Skype calls were
monitored and recorded, along with his emails and web search history,
including a web search of the history of sports medicine that his son
conducted for his ninth-grade history class.
"This is a straightforward case challenging the wiretapping and
invasion of privacy of an American citizen at his home in suburban
Maryland," Kidane says in the complaint.
He says Ethiopia violated the Wiretap Act and intruded upon and
invaded his solitude and seclusion.
He seeks statutory damages to be proven at trial and attorneys fees.
Kidane is represented by Mitchell Stoltz of the Electronic Frontier
Foundation <
https://www.eff.org/document/complaint-32>in San Francisco.
Received on Wed Feb 19 2014 - 19:16:50 EST