NAIJAFEED

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Nigerian intelligence bought tool to spy on citizens

Nigeria’s Defence Intelligence Agency has acquired equipment that it can use to spy on its citizens’ calls and text messages, according to a report by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which researches digital surveillance, security, privacy and accountability.

The report, titled Running in Circles: Uncovering the Clients of Cyber-espionage Firm Circles, said a telecom surveillance company by the name of Circles has been helping state security apparatuses across 25 countries, including Nigeria, to spy on the communications of opposition figures, journalists, and protesters.

The Citizen Lab report also said Circles was affiliated with Tel Aviv-based NSO Group, an Israeli hacker-for-hire company, whose software, Pegasus, has allegedly been used by several governments to spy on dissidents by taking control of their smartphone, its cameras and microphones, and mining the user’s personal data.

Circles, on the other hand, is known for selling systems to exploit Signalling System 7 (SS7) vulnerabilities and claims to have sold the technology to several countries, according to the report.

SS7 is a system that allows one mobile network to connect with another.

“Unlike NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, the SS7 mechanism by which Circles’ product reportedly operates does not have an obvious signature on a target’s phone,” explained the report.

The report indicated that Pegasus and Circles products could possibly be integrated.

But there is limited information on how the Circles system integrates with NSO Group’s flagship Pegasus spyware, though a former NSO Group employee told Motherboard that Pegasus had an “awful integration with Circles” and that Circles had “exaggerated their system’s abilities,” according to the report.

Nigerian governors using Circles’ product

According to the report, at least two entities in Nigeria have deployed Circles’ product.

“One system may be operated by the same entity as one of the Nigerian customers of the FinFisher spyware that we detected in December 2014,” said the report.

“The other client appears to be the Nigerian Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), as its firewall IPs are in AS37258, a block of IP addresses registered to “HQ Defence Intelligence Agency Asokoro, Nigeria, Abuja,” it added.

The report also referred to an investigation by online newspaper Premium Times, which concluded that the governors of two Nigerian states “had purchased systems from Circles to spy on their political opponents”.

“In Delta State, Premium Times reports that the system was installed … and operated by employees of the governor, rather than police,” said the report.

“In Bayelsa State, the governor reportedly used the Circles system to spy on his opponent in an election, as well as his opponent’s wife and aides.

“The investigation also found that the two Circles systems were imported without the proper authorisations from Nigeria’s Office of the National Security Adviser,” the report added.

Hacking software

Earlier this year, an Israeli court rejected a request to strip the NSO Group of its export licence over the suspected use of the company’s technology to target journalists and dissidents worldwide.

The case, brought by Amnesty International in January, called on the court to prevent NSO from selling its technology abroad, especially to repressive governments.

While NSO does not disclose its clients, the Israeli company’s cellphone-hacking software, Pegasus, has been linked to political surveillance in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, according to Citizen Lab.

Last year, WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook Inc, sued NSO in a US federal court in San Francisco, accusing it of helping government spies break into the phones of about 1,400 users across four continents.

Targets of the alleged hacking spree included diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and senior government officials.

NSO denied the allegations, saying it only “provides technology to licensed government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help them fight terrorism and serious crime”.

Al Jazeera

US Adds Nigeria to Religious Freedom Blacklist

The United States on Monday placed Nigeria on a religious freedom blacklist, paving the way for potential sanctions if it does not improve its record.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated the U.S. ally — for the first time — as a "Country of Particular Concern" for religious freedom, alongside nations that include China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Pompeo did not elaborate on the reasons for including Nigeria, which has a delicate balance between Muslims and Christians.

But U.S. law requires such designations for nations that either engage in or tolerate "systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom."

Pompeo notably did not include India, which has a growing relationship with Washington, and was infuriated by a recommendation from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to include the secular but Hindu-majority nation over what it called a sharp downward turn under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Other nations on the blacklist are Eritrea, Myanmar, North Korea, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Areas of concern

Pompeo removed from a second tier watchlist both Uzbekistan and Sudan, whose relations with the United States have rapidly warmed after the ousting of dictator Omar al-Bashir and its recent agreement to recognize Israel.

On Nigeria, an annual State Department report published earlier this year took note of concerns both at the federal and state levels.

It pointed to the mass detention of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, a Shi'ite Muslim group that has been at loggerheads with the government for decades and was banned by a court.

The group has taken inspiration from Iran, ordinarily a major target of President Donald Trump's administration.

However, Nigeria has been widely criticized for its treatment of the movement, including in a 2015 clash in which hundreds were said to have died.

The State Department report highlighted the arrests of Muslims for eating in public in Kano state during Ramadan, when Muslims are supposed to fast during daylight hours.

It also took note of the approval of a bill in Kaduna state to regulate religious preaching.

Improve or face sanctions

While the designations relate to government actions, the State Department has already listed Nigeria's Boko Haram as a terrorist group.

The militants began an insurgency in 2009 in northeastern Nigeria that has since spread to neighboring countries, killing more than 36,000 people and forcing 3 million to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.

Under U.S. law, nations on the blacklist must make improvements or face sanctions, including losses of U.S. government assistance, although the administration can waive actions.

AFP

Monday, December 7, 2020

Video - Nigerian Army general sees persisting terrorism in the country

Nigerian Army general sees persisting terrorism in the country that is likely to go for another 20 years.

U.S. removes visa reciprocity fees for Nigerians

The United States lowered the fee paid by Nigerian citizens to obtain a visa after it announced the removal of reciprocity fees for Nigerians more than a year after the West African country implemented a similar move.

“The U.S. Mission to Nigeria is pleased to announce the elimination of visa reciprocity fees, effective immediately. We thank @GovNigeria for its partnership in eliminating these reciprocity fees,” the U.S. Mission to Nigeria tweeted.

“Visa application fees remain at $160,” it added.

The fee, also known as the visa issuance fee, is charged in addition to the nonimmigrant visa application fee.

The US government had imposed the reciprocity fee in August last year after Nigeria failed to change its fee structure for US citizen visa applicants despite engagements on the same since early 2018.

However, shortly after that action, Nigeria lowered the fee paid by US citizens to obtain a visa in line with the government’s reciprocity policy following a recommendation by a committee.

The Nigerian government now required American citizens to pay $160 (currently just over 60,000 Nigerian Naira) down from $180 (about 68,500 Nigerian Naira).

Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the announcement as a “positive development”, adding that the removal of the fee came into effect from December 3.

It also clarified that the removal of the reciprocity fee did not mean that Nigerians applying for a visa to the U.S. would now not pay any visa fees.

By David Ochieng Mbewa

CGTN

Trump is turning Canada into a haven for Nigerians

Nigerians are leading global asylum claims to Canada despite Covid-19’s travel restrictions

Canada working with U.S. in Nigeria to reduce issuing visas for asylum seeker

Stressed out middle class Nigerians want out of Nigeria

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Nigerian 'baby factory' where men were hired to impregnate women before the newborns were sold is busted with ten victims rescued including four bearing children

A Nigerian 'baby factory' where men were hired to impregnate woman before their newborns were sold was raided by police on Tuesday, with ten victims rescued.

Police rescued four children and six woman - four of whom were pregnant - from the illegal maternity home, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

The operation was being carried out at a so-called 'baby factory' in the southwestern Ogun state by a woman already standing trial for human trafficking.

'Acting on a tip-off, our men stormed the illegal maternity home and rescued 10 people, including four kids and six women, four of whom are pregnant,' police spokesman Abimbola Oyeyemi told AFP news agency.

He said the women told police that the owner hired men to impregnate them and then sell the newborns for profit.

The 'factories' are usually small illegal facilities parading as private medical clinics that house pregnant women and offer their babies for sale.

In some cases, young women have been held against their will and raped before their babies are sold on the black market

Oyeyemi said two suspects, a physically-challenged man and the daughter of the owner of the clinic, were arrested in the raid.

'The operator of the centre is on the run but we are intensifying efforts to arrest her and bring her to justice,' he said.

Oyeyemi said the operator had been previously arrested for the same offence.

'She had been standing trial for human trafficking after her arrest early this year but she was on bail when she went back to her usual business.'

Police raids on illegal maternity units are relatively common in Nigeria, especially in the south.

Last year, nineteen pregnant women - aged between 15 and 28 - and four children were rescued from another suspected baby factory in Nigeria.

Investigators said at the time that the children were going to be trafficked and sold for £1,000 for a boy and £700 for a girl.

A majority of the women were tricked into leaving their home villages with promises of domestic work in Lagos before being forced into pregnancy, police said, while a few of the women joined the syndicate voluntarily believing they would be paid.

They never were, according to reports last year.

By Chris Jewers FOR MAILONLINE and AFP