Bahrain hacking into activists’ computers: opposition

Bahrain hacking into activists’ computers: opposition
25 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Bahrain has been using a virus to hack into and control the computers of key anti-government activists as they seek to crackdown on an uprising across the country, opposition figures claimed on Wednesday.

The activists’ claimed that forces loyal to the government have been using a British-made system to seek to spy on them, which was downloaded onto computers through a fake attachment.

A number of prominent anti-government figures received an email which purported to be from a journalist at the Qatari-owned television channel al-Jazeera.

It claimed to have an attachment which included photographs of the government torture of Nabeel Rajab, the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights who is currently in jail.

But activists who clicked on it were downloading a virus that allowed the controllers to monitor the computer, intercept Skype calls and log every keystroke.

It was impossible to be certain that the government forces were responsible for the hacking but Ala’a Shehabi, founder of the Bahrain Watch website and one of those targeted by the email, said she thought it was part of a wider cyber war.

“We only received this (email) in April and it seems like a new tactic,” she said. “This is a different technique but its part of a wider cyber war.”

She added that the program, which allegedly cost $500,000, was a waste of funds for the Bahraini government.

“They don’t think they are getting value for money. The software reportedly costs around $500,000, we know that only about 10 people got infected by it.”

The Bahraini government denied it was behind the hacking equipment.

“Such allegations are taken very seriously and if there is any evidence that there is any misconduct in use of such technology, each case will be investigated immediately according to the laws and regulations of the Kingdom of Bahrain,” Luma Bashmi, a spokesperson the government’s Information Affairs Authority, told Bloomberg.

Bahrain has been fighting to suppress an uprising since February 2011, with Saudi forces being deployed to help crush the pro-democracy movement. …source