May 14, 2013

This post describes the results of a comprehensive global Internet scan for the command and control servers of FinFisher’s surveillance software. It also details the discovery of a campaign using FinFisher in Ethiopia that may have been used to target individuals linked to an opposition group. Additionally, it provides examination of a FinSpy Mobile sample found in the wild, which appears to have been used in Vietnam.

This edition of the Southeast Asia CyberWatch covers Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam.

This edition of the Middle East and North Africa CyberWatch covers topics such as censorship and surveillance, blogger and netizen arrests, cyber attacks and technological developments from the region.

This appendix contains countries of interest in which Blue Coat devices were located.

Our assessment of events that took place in 2012 has found that freedom of expression continues to be under threat in these parts of the world, although some progress has been made in certain countries. This review discusses trends in cyber attacks, changing legal norms, social media use, technological development, censorship and filtering, and arrests of rights activists.

This edition of the Latin America and the Caribbean CyberWatch covers related developments from Costa Rica, Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Brazil, and Bolivia.

This edition of the Latin America and the Caribbean CyberWatch covers related developments from Cuba, Argentina, Panama, Brazil, and Antigua.

Ethiopia remains a dangerous country in which to express dissent online. The recent conviction of a number of bloggers and journalists, combined with the country’s history of filtering critical political content online, demonstrates the restrictive nature of the country’s information environment. This blog post describes recent developments in the country and reports on the results of ONI testing conducted in September 2012.

PEN Canada and Citizen Lab are hosting a panel of experts to examine freedom of expression and censorship in the online world.