Amnesty International: ‘Serbia uses spyware to spy on journalists and dissidents’

Serbian police and intelligence agencies are using advanced surveillance software and mobile phone forensic tools to illegally hack journalists, environmental activists, and others in a covert surveillance campaign.

According to Amnesty International’s report ‘A Digital Prison: Surveillance and the Suppression of Civil Society in Serbia,’ Serbian police and intelligence services are using technology from a company called Cellebrite to unlock and infiltrate mobile devices from journalists and activists.

Cellebrite is an Israeli company that develops products for law enforcement agencies and government institutions worldwide. The company’s tools can collect data from a wide range of mobile devices, including some of the latest Android devices and iPhone models, without needing a password or code to unlock a device.

According to the human rights watch organization, journalists, activists and dissidents are taken in by police officers for questioning. During that time they have to hand over their smartphone. Using Cellebrite’s technology, the device is being unlocked and spyware called NoviSpy is installed.

This malicious software offers extensive monitoring capabilities, including capturing sensitive personal data from a target’s phone (contact information, photos, messages) and remotely turning on a phone’s microphone or camera to eavesdrop on the subject.

Once the questioning is over, the target will receive their phone and can go about his business without knowing he’s secretly being monitored.

Amnesty International’s Security Lab found that NoviSpy was installed on the mobile devices of a local journalist and an environmental activist, which had a tremendous impact on their lives.

“This is an incredibly effective way to completely discourage communication between people. Anything that you say could be used against you, which is paralyzing at both personal and professional levels. We are all in the form of a digital prison, a digital gulag. We have an illusion of freedom, but in reality, we have no freedom at all,” an activist told Amnesty International.

Amnesty International calls on Serbian authorities to cease the use of invasive spyware. In addition, the human rights watch organization urges companies like Cellebrite to do everything they can to prevent misuse of their technology.

In response to Amnesty International’s written queries, Cellebrite stated that their products aren’t spyware and that they “do not provide cyber surveillance technology.” The Serbian government has not responded to the findings.