Nigeria and six other countries in Africa are reportedly using the surveillance technology developed by Circles, Israeli telecom company to snoop on the personal communications of opposition politicians, human rights activists and journalists.
According to the report titled "Running in Circles: Uncovering the Clients of Cyberespionage Firm, Circles", by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab; the other countries are Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Morocco, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The report which investigates digital espionage against civil society , said that the seven African countries are among 25 around the world using Circles, which is affiliated with the notorious NSO Group whose invasive Pegasus spyware has been used to target human rights defenders and journalists around the world.
How does it work?
Circles technology is sold to nation states only, and intercepts data from 3G networks, allowing the infiltrator to read messages and emails, and listen to phone calls in real time. Using only the telephone number, a Circles platform can identify the location of a phone anywhere in the world within seconds.
Circles exploits flaws in Signalling System No.7 (SS7), the set of protocols that allows networks to exchange calls and text messages between each other.
This allows government agencies to track individuals across borders without a warrant, bypassing international conventions.
In 2019, 3G became the leading mobile technology in Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for over 45 per cent of all connections. With the faster — and possibly more secure — 4G networks being at least five years away from becoming the standard for mobile connectivity on the continent, Circles' 3G-manipulating technology is ideal for power-hungry African leaders looking to cling to power by spying on critics.
The spying revelations came as African governments — including some named in the Citizen Lab report — are cracking down brutally on protestors and opposition groups.
In Nigeria
Recent #EndSARS protests triggered a deadly response from Nigeria's state security apparatus, with the government able to infiltrate the movement's organisational structures successfully.
Citizen Lab identified two Circles systems in Nigeria that both began operating in June 2015.
One of them was being used by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).
In 2016, the governors of Delta and Bayelsa states also purchased Circles systems to spy on political opponents and critics.
The presence of Circles products in Nigeria goes back more than a decade, when former Rivers state governor, Rotimi Amaechi, became the first Nigerian politician to use the surveillance technology in 2010.
Circles' government clients in Nigeria have a long history of abusing surveillance technologies to conduct mass surveillance of citizens' telecommunications.
Femi Adeyeye, a Lagos-based political activist who has been detained several times for criticising the Nigerian government, is not surprised that Muhammadu Buhari's regime is using the invasive spying technology.
Adeyeye cited several cases where Nigerians were swiftly traced, arrested and detained after criticising the government.
These include journalists Omoyele Sowore, Abubakar Idris Dadiyata and Stephen Kefas.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has also reported numerous cases of the Nigerian authorities abusing phone surveillance by targeting journalists' phones to reveal and track sources for stories investigating government corruption.
"We are already in the worst stage of dictatorship," warned Adeyeye.
"Freedom of expression, media, and political association have been further weakened by this spying technology."
He said that Nigerian political analysts now self-censor when commenting on national political issues, after witnessing the government's infiltration of #EndSARS.
"They have seen how people have been traced, their passports seized and bank accounts frozen, and how they have been forced to go into exile."
