An Ethiopian refugee has urged police to investigate whether he had been hacked by his home government on British soil.
If taken up, Tadesse Kersmo's call could spark a diplomatically
sensitive inquiry into whether Ethiopia's security services have been
using high tech methods to attack their critics abroad — and whether a
U.K. company has been equipping them for the task.
Speaking at a news conference organized by London-based Privacy
International, Kersmo said Monday that he thought he was safe from
snooping when he left Ethiopia for the United Kingdom in 2009.
"I was wrong," he said.
Kersmo said he realized something was amiss when confidential files kept
on his computer began appearing online. When experts at the University
of Toronto's Citizen Lab, an Internet watchdog group, checked his
machine, they found evidence it had been infected by FinSpy, a powerful
espionage program distributed by the Britain-based Gamma Group.
Kersmo is the latest expatriate Ethiopian to find himself at the
receiving end of powerful cyberattacks. Last year, U.S.-based opposition
figure Berhanu Nega told The Associated that he and his colleagues were
purging their hard drives for fear that they had been compromised. Last
week, Citizen Lab reported that two Ethiopian journalists, one based in
Belgium, the other in Alexandria, Virginia, had been targeted in
electronic attacks.
Dina Mufti, a spokesman for the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
rejected any suggestion that his government was engaged in hacking,
describing the claims as baseless.
In a formal complaint to Britain's National Crime Agency, Privacy
International asked for an investigation into the cyberattack on Kersmo —
and any involvement by Gamma.
The Crime Agency said Monday it was unable to confirm or deny whether an
investigation had been opened into the attack. Gamma did not return a
message seeking comment.
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Elias Meseret in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia contributed to this report.
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