“The case has not been made to the public for the use of this powerful spyware, particularly given the profoundly dangerous uses of this technology around the world.” “The creation of the metaphor of ‘police investigations going dark’ because of advances in technology is the public relations coup of the 21st century,” said Brenda McPhail, director of the privacy technology and surveillance program for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. In the document, the police force claims it needs to use spyware because new technologies, like end-to-end encryption, make it “exponentially more difficult for the RCMP to conduct court-authorized electronic surveillance”. The RCMP says it only uses the tools when less intrusive means have failed. “Developing export controls and putting more transparency and accountability around procurement practice is a no-brainer,” he said. In contrast, Canadian authorities have shown little appetite to take similar action, said Deibert, who has briefed senior Canadian officials within successive governments.
#DARKNESS RISES HACK 2020 SOFTWARE#
In 2021 the commerce department in the United States announced it had placed mercenary spyware companies like NSO on the country’s Entity List, effectively blacklisting them for their “malicious cyber activities” amid growing concern from US officials that the software posed a grave risk to national security. Last year, a collaborative investigation between the Guardian and other major international outlets, called the Pegasus project, revealed that spyware licensed by the Israeli firm NSO Group had been used to hack smartphones belonging to journalists, lawyers and human rights activists. “Because we know there are some companies that are horrible when it comes to due diligence and routinely sell to governments that use it for grotesque human rights violations.”
“That’s my biggest unanswered question,” he said.
But absent from the disclosure was any indication of who the government is purchasing the software from. “There’s a culture of secrecy that pervades the intelligence and law enforcement community in this country,” he saidĭeibert, one the world’s leading experts on the surveillance techniques used by authoritarian regimes, said he and others have long suspected police and government agencies in Canada were using the technology. Ron Deibert, a political science professor at the university of Toronto and head of Citizen Lab, said the spyware, which gives police an “extraordinary window into every aspect of someone’s personal life” is akin to “nuclear-level technology” – but has little government oversight.
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