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9 Dec, 6 tweets, 3 min read
Three American spies who helped the UAE's DarkMatter surveillance program spy on journalists and activists are now being sued by one of the targets of those spy operations, along with DarkMatter. The three - Marc Baier, Ryan Adams, Daniel Gericke - were recently charged by DoJ
The lawsuit says the spying the 3 Americans helped DarkMatter do led to the arrest of Saudi human rights actvist Loujain Hathloul Alhathloul by UAE security services, and to her rendition to Saudi Arabia "where she was detained, imprisoned, and tortured" eff.org/files/2021/12/…
"The acts committed by Defendants against Ms. Alhathloul are inextricably linked to the US. Defendants carried out these actions using sophisticated cyber-technology developed in the US and obtained from US companies, and used this technology...to infect Ms. Alhathloul’s phone"
For more on how former US spies helped DarkMatter and the UAE set up a surveillance program that spied on human rights activists, journalists, political dissidents and others, see:

theintercept.com/2016/10/24/dar…

foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/21/dee…

reuters.com/investigates/s…

zetter.substack.com/p/former-nsa-h…
"On or about May 21, 2018, Saudi security officers transferred Ms. Alhathloul to a secret prison in Jeddah, where she was interrogated and subjected to electric shocks, flogging, and threats to rape, sexually assault, and kill her."
Notably, EFF is suing the three Americans under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The CFAA is not just a criminal statute - it allows for civil cases as well. An amendment to allow civil actions was added to the CFAA in 1994.

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More from @KimZetter

Kim Zetter Profile picture
6 Dec
Owner of Mitto, Swiss company that sends marketing/security codes/ads via txt, had privileged access to telecom SS7 networks and sold that access to surveillance companies to track location of mobile phones. One phone tracked was a US State Dept official
thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2021-1…
Mitto has had partnership with Google and Twitter to txt security codes to users, and has had partnership with 100+ telecoms, incl Vodafone, Telefónica, MTN, Deutsche Telekom. Gorelik sold the service to surveillance companies which in turn contracted with government agencies
“sources who said their former company worked with Gorelik to carry out surveillance for governments added that he installed custom software at Mitto that could be used to target certain people…there was virtually no oversight of surveillance carried out using Mitto’s systems”
Read 6 tweets
Kim Zetter Profile picture
24 Nov
Using supposedly impregnable encrypted phones, Serbian hit men discussed plans to kill a judge. But as they texted, their messages also flashed up on the computer screens of a secret police team in Belgium that had hacked into the messenger service they were using, Sky ECC.
Sky sold phones w/ encryption software installed and GPS/camera/microphone disabled. Messages got automatically deleted after 48 hrs if contact wasn’t reachable, and devices could be wiped remotely. Sky said platform was impenetrable and offered $5 mil to anyone who could hack it
Authorities found Sky server in northern France and worked w/ officials to get access. At first they could only see metadata, not messages. Until an international team of hackers found way to decrypt about half of the 3 million daily messages, and used keyword filters to sort
Read 7 tweets
Kim Zetter Profile picture
24 Nov
Sebold, author of the novel Lovely Bones, was assaulted as a college freshman. She later identified Broadwater as her attacker in court, though she'd identified someone else in police lineup. Broadwater was falsely convicted from her identification of him and faulty hair analysis
Wondering how the film adaptation of Sebold's memoir "Lucky" will handle the news revealed today that the person Sebold identified as her attacker years ago was not the person who attacked her. variety.com/2021/film/news…
Interesting detail. It was due to film adaptation of Sebold's memoir that Broadwater’s conviction was overturned. Producer on film grew skeptical of Broadwater’s guilt when reading the script. He dropped out of film project and hired private investigator.
theguardian.com/us-news/2021/n…
Read 4 tweets
Kim Zetter Profile picture
26 Sep
Wild story that comes just as UK court set to decide if Assange should be extradited to US. Pompeo wanted CIA to assassinate Assange for role in publishing CIA’s Vault7 hacking tools & DNC emails. Actual scenarios were proposed. Great reporting @zachsdorfman @SeanDNaylor @Isikoff
Potential Assange escape set off wild scramble among US, UK and Russian spy agencies who all stationed undercover operatives around embassy. “every human being in a 3-block radius was working for one of the intel services—whether they were street sweepers or…security guards”
Obama administration, fearful of interfering w/press freedom restricted investigations into Assange/WikiLeaks. “We were stagnated for years. There was a reticence…to allow agencies to engage in” certain kinds of intel collection against WikiLeaks, including signals & cyber ops.
Read 4 tweets
Kim Zetter Profile picture
24 Sep
A draft report of the controversial Maricopa County election audit shows that Biden won by more votes than previously believed. The report shows that Biden gained 99 votes in the recount and Trump lost 261. zetter.substack.com/p/controversia…
In the Arizona senate race between Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Mark Kelly, both candidates lost votes in the recount, though Kelly still came out as the winner in the race, according to the draft document. Kelly lost 60 votes in the recount; McSally lost 541 votes.
Several copies of the draft report have been circulating among media outlets on Thurs, raising questions about its authenticity. But a local ABC news station obtained a copy of the draft report directly from secretary of state thru records request; it matches circulating versions
Read 4 tweets
Kim Zetter Profile picture
15 Sep
Should be noted that he was only fired last wk, days before a public hearing into bureau’s flawed investigation of the sex-abuse allegations - the agent learned about allegations in 2015. Recent inspector general report also found that he lied to investigators about it
Although the agent interviewed a gymnast in 2015 about abuse allegations, he didn't write report until 17 months later. Nassar was arrested in late 2016. Between 2015 when the agent learned about the abuse and Nassar's arrest, Nasser went on to abuse between 70-120 more victims.
During this same period, the fired FBI agent's boss Jay Abbott was speaking with US Gymnastic's about a job for Abbot with the Olympics Committee. Abbott applied for the job but later lied to investigators with the inspector general's office and said he never applied for the job.
Read 4 tweets

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