** Special report on Internet surveillance, focusing on five governments and*** *
five companies that are Enemies of the Internet**** Published on Monday 11 March 2013.**** Printable version PrintSend this article by mail Send français**** http://en.rsf.org/special-report-on-internet-11-03-2013,44197.html**** ** ** ** ** ENEMIES OF THE INTERNET 2013**** ** ** Today, 12 March, World Day Against Cyber-Censorship, Reporters Without**** Borders is releasing a Special report on Internet surveillance, available at **** surveillance.rsf.org/en. It looks at the way governments are increasingly*** * using technology that monitors online activity and intercepts electronic**** communication in order to arrest journalists, citizen-journalists and**** dissidents. Around 180 netizens worldwide are currently in prison for**** providing news and information online.**** ** ** For this year’s “Enemies of the Internet” report, Reporters Without Borders* *** has identified Five State Enemies of the Internet, five “spy” states that*** * conduct systematic online surveillance that results in serious human rights* *** violations. They are Syria, China, Iran, Bahrain and Vietnam. Surveillance** ** in these countries targets dissidents and has grown in recent months.**** Cyber-attacks and intrusions, including the use of malware against**** dissidents and their networks, are on the increase.**** ** ** China, whose Electronic Great Wall is probably the world’s most**** sophisticated censorship system, has stepped up its war on the use of**** anonymization tools and has enlisted private-sector Internet companies to*** * help monitor Internet users. Iran has taken online surveillance to a new**** level by developing its own national Internet, or “Halal Internet.” As**** regards Syria, Reporters Without Borders has obtained an unpublished**** document – a 1999 invitation by the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment* *** to bid for a national Internet network in Syria – which shows that its**** Internet was designed from the outset to include extensive filtering and**** surveillance.**** ** ** Without advanced technology, authoritarian regimes would not be able to spy* *** on their citizens. Reporters Without Borders has for the first time compiled **** a list of five “Corporate Enemies of the Internet,” five private sector**** companies that it regards as “digital era mercenaries” because they sell**** products that are used by authoritarian governments to commit violations of* *** human rights and freedom of information. They are Gamma, Trovicor, Hacking** ** Team, Amesys and Blue Coat.**** ** ** Trovicor’s surveillance and interception products have enabled Bahrain’s**** royal family to spy on news providers and arrest them. In Syria, Deep Packet **** Inspection products developed by Blue Coat made it possible for the regime** ** to spy on dissidents and netizens throughout the country, and to arrest and* *** torture them. Eagle products supplied by Amesys were discovered in the**** offices of Muammar Gaddafi’s secret police. Malware designed by Hacking Team **** and Gamma has been used by governments to capture the passwords of**** journalists and netizens.**** ** ** “Online surveillance is a growing danger for journalists,**** citizen-journalists, bloggers and human rights defenders,” Reporters Without **** Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “Regimes seeking to**** control news and information increasingly prefer to act discreetly. Rather** ** than resort to content blocking that generates bad publicity and is early*** * circumvented, they prefer subtle forms of censorship and surveillance that** ** their targets are often unaware of.**** ** ** “As surveillance hardware and software provided by companies based in**** democratic countries is being used to commit grave human rights violations,* *** and as the leaders of these countries say they condemn violations of online* *** freedom of expression, it is time they took firm measures. Above all, they** ** should impose strict controls on the export of digital arms to countries**** that flout fundamental rights.”**** ** ** Negotiations between governments already led in July 1996 to the Wassenaar** ** Arrangement, which aims to promote “transparency and greater responsibility* *** in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, thus* *** preventing destabilizing accumulations.” Forty countries, including France,* *** Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States are nowadays party to the* *** agreement.**** ** ** By demonstrating the importance of online information, the Arab Spring**** reinforced authoritarian governments’ understanding of the advantages of**** monitoring and controlling Internet data and communication. Democratic**** countries also seem increasingly ready to yield to the siren song of the**** need for surveillance and cyber-security at any cost. This is evident from** ** all the potentially repressive laws and bills such as FISAA and CISPA in the **** United States, the Communications Data Bill in Britain and the Wetgeving**** Bestrijding Cybercrime in the Netherlands.**** ** ** Reporters Without Borders has made a “digital survival kit” available on the **** WeFightCensorship.org website in order to help online news providers evade** ** increasingly active and intrusive surveillance.**** ** ** ==========================================**** (F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this **** message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to* *** these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed **** within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with**** "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. **** The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The**** Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain**** permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials* *** if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting,**** teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria* *** for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies** ** as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four** ** criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is**** determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not*** * substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. 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