በዩናይትድ ስቴትስ ኦፍ አሜሪካ፣ በእንግሊዝና በሌሎች አገራት የሚገኙ የኢትዮጵያ መንግስት ተቃዋሚዎች የአዶቤ ፍላሽ ማሻሻያና የፒዲኤፍ ፕለግኢን በማስመሰል የተራቀቀ የስለላ ሶፍትዌር በያዙ ኢሜይሎች ዒላማ እንደተደረጉ የሚገልጽ ሪፖርት የሲትዝን ላብ ይፋ አድርጓል፡፡ ዒላማ ከተደረጉት መሀል መቀመጫውን በዩናይትድ ስቴትስ ኦፍ አሜሪካ ያደረገ የኢትዮጵያ ዲያስፖራ ብዙኃን መገናኛ፣ የኦሮምያ ሚድያ ኔትወርክ (OMN)፣ አንድ የፒኤችዲ ተማሪና አንድ የህግ ጠበቃ ይገኙበታል፡፡

Ethiopian’s penchant for commercial spyware is notorious, as is its pattern of digital espionage against journalists, activists, and other entities—many of which are based overseas—that seek to promote government accountability and are therefore viewed as political threats. Yet the Ethiopian government and others like it have faced little pressure to cease this particular strain of digital targeting.

This report describes how Ethiopian dissidents in the US, UK, and other countries were targeted with emails containing sophisticated commercial spyware posing as Adobe Flash updates and PDF plugins. Targets include a US-based Ethiopian diaspora media outlet, a PhD student, a lawyer, and even a Citizen Lab researcher.

Strathmore Law School in Kenya and the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) have published a report on Internet shutdown in Ethiopia.

The research findings documented in this report suggest that Hacking Team may have continued to provide updated versions of its spyware to the same attacker who have targeted ESAT journalists based in the United States in 2014, despite reports of use of the spyware against journalists.

Cyber Stewards Network (CSN) partner Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) released a report outlining the policies and practices surrounding Internet freedom in East Africa. Titled “The State of Internet Freedoms in East Africa,” the release of the report has drawn key individuals from the continent’s ICT industry to Kampala, Uganda for a forum.

Today, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) launches The State of Internet Freedoms in East Africa research report which is an Investigation into the policies and practices defining internet freedom in East Africa.

Citizen Lab has collaborated with Human Rights Watch to document Internet censorship in Ethiopia.

Citizen Lab research into FinSpy, a suite of surveillance software marketed exclusively to governments by the Gamma Group of Companies, has helped in the recent lawsuit put forth by an American citizen living in Maryland.

In this report, we 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), programmed and sold exclusively to governments by Milan-based Hacking Team.