NSO Group’s Impact in Togo
Togo is a nation which has endure more than five decades of dictatorship. Over that period of time, the regime in Togo has engaged in a number of tactics to keep the population suppressed. One of the methods that the government of Togo has employed is digital spying which has been carried out with the assistance of NSO Group. NSO Group is a technology company based in Israel that specializes in developing and selling spyware to government agencies around the world. Its flagship product, Pegasus, is a highly sophisticated spyware that can infect a mobile phone and gain access to all its data, including emails, messages, photos, and even calls. The company claims that its software is designed to help law enforcement agencies fight crime and terrorism, but critics argue that it is being used to violate human rights and suppress dissent.
Spyware is a type of malicious software that is designed to infiltrate a device and gather information without the user’s knowledge or consent. It can be used to monitor a person’s online activities, steal sensitive data, or even take control of the device. The implications of spyware are far-reaching, as it can be used to violate privacy, suppress dissent, and even commit crimes.
NSO Group’s spyware, Pegasus, is one of the most advanced and sophisticated spyware in the world. It is designed to infect a mobile phone through a malicious link or message, which, when clicked, installs the spyware onto the device. Once installed, the spyware gains access to all the data on the device, including emails, messages, photos, and even calls. It can also activate the microphone and camera to spy on the user in real-time.
One of the most alarming features of Pegasus is its ability to bypass the device’s security measures, such as encryption and two-factor authentication. This makes it nearly impossible for the user to detect or remove the spyware. In addition, the spyware is designed to self-destruct if it detects any attempts to remove it, making it even more difficult to get rid of.
NSO Group’s spyware has been at the center of numerous controversies, with critics accusing the company of aiding human rights abuses and suppressing dissent. The spyware has been used to target journalists, activists, and political opponents in countries around the world, including Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and India.
In 2019, WhatsApp filed a lawsuit against NSO Group, alleging that its spyware was used to target over 1,400 of its users, including journalists, activists, and political dissidents. The lawsuit accused NSO Group of violating US and international laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
In Togo it was reported by Citizen Lab that NSO spyware as being used to target those who had been critical of the dictatorship. Togolese activist Farida Nabourema pointed out that the dictatorship was able to find the identities of activists who were operating online through the use of digital spying. Social media had allowed activists to operate anonymously, but through the usage of spyware the government was able to find these activists to arrest and torture them based on private conversations which had taken place on WhatsApp. Nabourema explained that “we received information suggesting that some activists had been arrested and tortured by the government based on evidence gleaned from private conversations that had taken place on WhatsApp, the encrypted messaging app. This gave us a strong hint that the government was spying on us, thus destroying our anonymity as online activists and putting our own security and that of our family members in jeopardy. I was in contact with some of the imprisoned activists for months; many were subsequently forced to flee the country or to go into hiding.”
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Dwayne is the author of Faure Must Go
