U.S. spy servers found in Syria spark queries

 

U.S. spy servers found in Syria spark queries May 25, 2013 12:12 AM By Olivia Alabaster The Daily Star

 

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/May-25/218248-us-spy-servers-found-in-syria-spark-queries.ashx#axzz2UE8q15UF

 

 

           

 

BEIRUT: Reporters Without Borders is calling for explanations from a Californian Web security company after a hacktivist group discovered 34 of its servers were being used by the Syrian government, potentially to spy on Internet users.

 

The Blue Coat servers use Deep Packet Inspection technology "to analyze and control the activities of Syrian Internet users - censuring websites, intercepting emails, obtaining details of sites visited and so on," RWB said.

 

"As the Assad regime recovers territory in the civil war, the installation of Blue Coat servers in what is already the world's third-largest prison for news providers represents an additional threat to news and information, netizens, journalists and their sources," RWB added.

 

Blue Coat has in the past been implicated in selling products to the Syrian government, a charge the firm denies, instead claiming the servers had been sold to the regime of President Bashar Assad by a third-party distributor.

 

In a written response to press enquiries Friday, Blue Coat president and chief operating officer David Murphy said, "We have been aware of the presence of our appliances in Syria and have been cooperating with the U.S.

government since 2011 as part of its investigation into the illegal transfer of our products to Syria by third parties."

 

He added that "we want to clarify that Blue Coat has never permitted the sale of our products to countries embargoed by the U.S., including Syria,"

but that in light of this latest information regarding the 34 servers, revealed by the Telecomix hacktivist group, an internal review was being conducted.

 

In March of this year, RWB had already listed Blue Coat as an "Enemy of the Internet" in a special report on online surveillance, as it was a company which sold "products that are liable to be used by governments to violate human rights and freedom of information."

 

Murphy said Friday that, "We fully support the embargo against the Syria regime and its agents. We respect and support human rights, such as freedom of expression. We do not design our products, or condone their use, to suppress human rights."

 

Jillian York, director for International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who spoke to The Daily Star Friday, said:

"DPI is dual-use and can be used for network management (e.g., spam) but also for mass surveillance. I have no doubt that in the case of Syria, it's the latter."

 

And while Blue Coat denies selling equipment to the Syrian regime, it has sold products to the governments of Burma, Bahrain, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, among others, the RWB report from March claimed.

 

"If the company again claims ... that it does not sell servers to Syria, it must explain their presence in Syria to the Syrian people and to the international community," RWB added.

 

Read more:

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/May-25/218248-us-spy-serve

rs-found-in-syria-spark-queries.ashx#ixzz2UFo9eIrN

(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

 

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