Thread by @GhanaCrimes

🚨Ghana Govt Spent $5.5M On “unused” Pegasus Spyware

About Pegasus:
Pegasus is a powerful spyware that remotely accesses a mobile phone's contents and location info, generating live feeds using microphone and camera functions, and can install itself without user interaction.

Details:

The NSO Group claimed that the Pegasus software was never operational in Ghana but there has been evidence pointing to the contrary as some of its employees confessed to having trained Ghanaian officials on how to use the spyware.

Some Ghanaian activists have also alleged that they, alongside journalists and political opposition, were the targets of the spyware.
With the revelation, the Gov’t of Ghana tried former govt officials for their roles in procuring the spyware, and those found guilty were jailed.

Freedom House group also cited a report which alleged former director of Ghana’s CID, Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, confirmed that the country’s security forces had access to Israeli company Cellebrite’s digital forensics, a tool she stated was used for decrypting encrypted devices.

The Government of Ghana claimed that the hacking tool was a gift from the US, UK, and Interpol.
In the report, the authors noted that Ghana had also acquired spyware technology from two other Israeli companies, Quadream and Mer Group as well as telecommunication interception

technology from an unnamed Swiss company.
The details of these technologies and their costs are shrouded in secrecy.

The report also noted that Ghana is implementing a safe city project, the Integrated National Security Communications Enhancement Network (ALPHA) project which will incorporate the use of facial recognition CCTV cameras.
These CCTV cameras are being installed around Accra,

Ghana’s capital city, its regional capitals, entry ports, and other state infrastructure, and are powered by Chinese company Huawei’s facial recognition AI.

The contract for Phase 2 of the project, to install 8,400 CCTV cameras, was signed in 2018 with Phase 2 of the project

financed with US$200m from the ExportImport Bank of China and US$35.5m from Barclays Bank of Ghana. Other components of the project include the installation of 50 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) devices at checkpoint sites, expansion of an existing data centre, and

establishment of a backup data centre, a video transmission network, and an intelligent video analysis system. Huawei maintains that its surveillance system is for public safety and improved security but there have been reports from Uganda that the same Huawei AI-powered facial

recognition technology was used to target for arrest hundreds of supporters of opposition politician Bobi Wine. This suggests that the system is liable to abuse.

Reference:

opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitst…