New digital tools have provided the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) with numerous opportunities to spy on everyday activity on smartphones and websites. Russian services may track certain types of activity in encrypted i.e. i.e. Signal, monitor the location of phones, identify anonymous users and hack into people’s accounts – writes “”, referring to the documents of Russian spyware producers and security experts.
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Russian services are able not only to determine the identity of people who talked to each other via these applications, but also to determine the time of the conversation, and even check the files sent. “The software cannot intercept specific messages, but it can determine if someone is using multiple phones, map their relationship network by tracking communications with others, and determine exactly which phones were in certain locations on any given day. Another product may collect passwords entered on unencrypted websites.
New spy tools were created by a company controlled by a Russian oligarch
Behind the creation of spy tools is the Citadel group, which in the past was controlled by the oligarch Alisher Usmanov, who collaborated with the FSB. The daily notes that Russia has not yet possessed such effective Internet traffic surveillance capabilities as China and Iran, but is now rapidly catching up with these regimes. In addition, Russian companies are already planning to export their tools abroad – we are talking about the countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa and South America. – China is the pinnacle of digital authoritarianism. But in Russia, increased efforts are being made to reform network regulations along Chinese lines. Russia will come out of this as a competitor of Chinese companies, Adrian Shahbaz, an expert at Freedom House, told the “NYT”.
Source: Gazeta
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