Wary of Israel’s spyware
THE ELECTRONIC monitoring of motor vehicles for road-traffic management and related law-enforcement purposes is common practice in many countries. It’s efficient, and saves much time and resources, if cameras automatically snap the licence plates of errant vehicles and their owner receive tickets in the mail, rather than the state deploying cops to patrol highways and write citations. These released police can be used in other areas of crime deterrence.
It’s no big thing, and likely to be welcomed, therefore, that the Government last week tabled a ministry paper signalling its intent to use digital technology to capture traffic violations. Indeed, the new Traffic Act, approved by Parliament several months ago, although not yet in force, allows for this type of surveillance.
But the devil, they say, is in the details, of which there are, thus far, few. Which is why last week’s Green Paper would have jogged people’s memories about other issues of cybersecurity, and the rights of citizens, about which the Government remains opaque.
CYBER ACADEMY
More than a year ago, Andrew Wheatley, the former energy, science and technology minister, disclosed that the Government had agreed with the Israeli firm Israel Aerospace Industries, an arms and technology company that is close to Israel’s government, to establish a cyber academy in Jamaica. This school is to be used to train people, and provide certification, in cybersecurity, cyber defence and cyber intelligence.
Dr Wheatley has since fallen precipitously from grace, ensnared in the scandal over cronyism, nepotism and other forms of corruption at agencies in his portfolio. He now appears to slink furtively around the Government’s backbenches, from where he follows parliamentary proceedings.
That, however, doesn’t mean that the cyber academy is off the agenda, although Dr Wheatley’s successor, Fayval Williams, hasn’t publicly spoken of it. On the balance of probabilities, the project is still on.
After all, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has been cosying Jamaica up to Israel since his visit with Benyamin Netanyahu nearly two years ago. Last October, Mr Holness said Jamaica was open to establishing a “framework for cooperation” with Israel on security issues, while deflecting criticism of his perceived distancing of Jamaica, on this matter, from traditional western partners. “It doesn’t mean that there is a change or shift in the cooperation … (with) our traditional partners,” he said.
However, the absence of specifics on the arrangement with Israel, including what other companies Jamaican might be working with, and from whom it may have acquired technology, is cause for concern, especially in the context of the global scrutiny of Israel’s cyberwarfare and spyware companies. The most notorious of these is NSO Group Technologies, against which Israeli human rights and civil society groups – supported by Amnesty International and the New York University’s Law School’s Bernstein Institute of Human Rights – went to court in May seeking revocation of export licences for its products. That case is ongoing.
The export of NSO’s products is covered by a regime similar to those for the sale of traditional arms – guns, fighter jets, missiles, etc. NSO’s best-known offering is a spyware called Pegasus, which, when deployed to the mobile phone of a target, scoops information from even an encrypted device. It can also allow the phone to act as a listening device, even when it is not active.
NSO says it sells its spyware only to law-enforcement and security agencies, to be used against criminals and terrorists. However, Pegasus is widely believed to have been used by regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere, against human rights and democracy activists in regions as diverse as Canada, Mexico, Britain and Scandinavia.
Indeed, the progam was used to spy on the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was last year lured to the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, where he was murdered. It is also widely accepted that it was NSO spyware that was able to capture people’s mobile phone information via the call application of WhatsApp.
This newspaper has no evidence that Jamaica’s Government is engaged with any of these companies and believes it unlikely that it would deploy spyware like Pegasus against law-abiding citizens – and without due process. But for our peace of mind, and that of all Jamaicans, our Government should talk to us frankly about its Israeli connections.