John Scott-Railton is a Senior Researcher at Citizen Lab. He investigates threats to a free and secure internet. He focuses on: -Abuses of government-exclusive spyware -Online disinformation operations -State-sponsored cyber militias He can be reached at jsr [at] citizenlab.ca
This report maps out covert surveillance networks of “proxy servers” used to launder data that RCS exfiltrates from infected computers, through third countries, to an “endpoint,” which we believe represents the spyware’s government operator.
Our latest report identified three instances where Ethiopian journalist group ESAT was targeted with spyware in the space of two hours by a single attacker. In each case, the spyware appeared to be RCS (Remote Control System), which is programmed and sold exclusively to governments by Milan-based Hacking Team.
