Paperwork obtained by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) and Israeli newspaper Haaretz reveal how the Bangladesh authorities spent at the very least $330,000 on phone-hacking gear made by an Israeli firm, although the 2 nations wouldn’t have diplomatic relations.
Developed by the Cellebrite safety agency, UFED is a product that’s able to accessing and extracting knowledge from a variety of cell phones. Its potential to hack encrypted cellphone knowledge has anxious civil rights campaigners, who’ve lengthy referred to as for its use to be extra strictly regulated.
Bangladesh doesn’t recognise the state of Israel, forbids commerce with it and prevents its residents from travelling there. The Muslim-majority nation formally stands in solidarity with the Palestinians on the premise they’re denied civil rights and dwell underneath Israeli navy occupation.
It’s unclear whether or not UFED was supplied to Bangladesh instantly by the Israeli firm or through a Cellebrite subsidiary based mostly elsewhere on the earth, presumably with the intention to masks its origins.
In February, Al Jazeera revealed how the Bangladesh navy in 2018 signed a contract to accumulate cell phone interception gear from Israeli agency Picsix Ltd. In February 2019, Bangladeshi officers obtained coaching by Israeli intelligence specialists within the Hungarian capital, Budapest.
The Ministry of Defence in Bangladesh stated the gear, a passive cell phone monitoring system referred to as P6 Intercept, was made in Hungary and was bought to be used on United Nations missions – a declare that was rejected by the world physique.
The contract listed the producer of P6 Intercept as Picsix Ltd Hungary, but no public report of such an organization exists and all Picsix gear is made in Israel.
Coaching in Singapore
The most recent paperwork obtained by I-Unit, which Al Jazeera additionally discovered on the Bangladesh house ministry’s personal web site, relate to contracts signed in 2018 and 2019. They’re from the Public Safety Division, a division within the Ministry of Dwelling Affairs that’s in control of home safety and whose companies embrace the Bangladesh police power and border guards.
The paperwork particulars how 9 officers from the nation’s Prison Investigations Division got the approval to journey to Singapore in February 2019 to obtain coaching on UFED to permit them to unlock and extract knowledge from cell phones. It outlines how the Bangladeshi employees would in the end qualify as Cellebrite Licensed Operators and Cellebrite Licensed Bodily Analysts.
The paperwork additionally say the Speedy Motion Battalion (RAB), a paramilitary power that has a well-documented report of abductions, torture and disappearances, can be skilled on the utilization of Cellebrite’s hacking methods underneath an ongoing undertaking that started in 2019 and is ready to be accomplished in June 2021.
The Bangladesh authorities seems to be investing closely in digital surveillance methods and the leaked paperwork additionally define the usage of a variety of gadgets – from WiFi interceptors and surveillance drones to IMSI-catchers, a device that emulates cell towers to trick mobile gadgets into revealing their places and knowledge.
The most recent revelation that Bangladesh safety providers are being geared up with extremely intrusive gadgets able to accessing encrypted telephones that comprise personal messages comes amid rising issues over the nation’s human rights report.
Bangladesh has confronted worldwide criticism over its 2018 Digital Safety Act (DSA), which supplies safety forces broad powers to arrest and detain journalists and political activists who’re vital of the state on-line.
Final week, ambassadors from 13 nations referred to as for an pressing inquiry into the loss of life of Mushtaq Ahmed, a author who died on February 25 after being held for 9 months with out cost underneath the DSA for criticising, on Fb, the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Halting exports to Bangladesh
Eitay Mack, an Israeli human rights lawyer who has been combating the export of Israeli defence know-how that may very well be used for human rights violations – together with in Hong Kong, the place pro-democracy protesters in 2019 took to the streets for months – defined how intrusive the applied sciences that Bangladesh has purchased from Israel actually are.
“You’re in a position to take all details about the particular person’s life, about their relationships, medical information, title of associates and within the case of journalists the names of a supply,” Mack informed Al Jazeera.
“Within the case of Hong Kong, the police used Cellebrite’s methods to entry the telephones of 4,000 protesters.”
Cellebrite finally stopped its exports to Hong Kong after public outcry and a court docket case introduced by Mack. Now, he’s doing the identical with Bangladesh. On Monday, Mack filed a petition with the Israeli courts, asking them to retract the export licenses of Cellebrite and Picsix to Bangladesh.
“Even when an organization like Cellebrite or Picsix has branches working in Singapore, it’s nonetheless underneath Israeli legislation,” Mack informed Al Jazeera. “So long as the corporate is owned by Israeli residents they want an export license from the Ministry of Defence.”
Mack argued that Israel makes use of the exports of those instruments to construct relationships with nations with poor human rights information resembling Bangladesh, South Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.
“Exporting these instruments is less complicated than, for instance, promoting Bangladesh Israeli rifles. These sorts of methods are much less current and that is how Israel is ready to create secret relationships with these nations,” Mack stated.
“However it’s essential to notice that this isn’t a relationship between the Israeli individuals and the Bangladeshi individuals, or the Emirati individuals. It’s a relationship between the Israeli authorities and the native regime.
“This sort of relationship implies that Israeli helps native repression in lots of locations world wide.”
I-Unit reached out to the Bangladesh Ministry of Dwelling Affairs in addition to Cellebrite. Neither supplied any feedback on the time of publication.