Ethiopia: Polish IT firm signs contract with spy agency

ESAT News (February 22, 2017)

Ethiopia’s spy agency, misleadingly called the Information Network Security Agency (INSA), has signed a 1.3 million USD contract with the Poland based ASSECO.

The Ethiopian regime spends millions of dollars on spy gadgets to obtain the latest technologies to snoop on citizens at home and abroad.

In 2014, Hacking Team, an Italian firm was exposed for selling malicious software to INSA, which used to spy on computers of ESAT journalists.

ASSECO in a news release said the new contract will cover consulting in the “field of construction ERP solutions, and billing for the energy sector, as well as providing software such as Document Management System.”

According to the company, previous contracts signed between ASSECO and INSA, which amounts to 7.4 Million USD, focused and utility management for the Ethiopian Electric Power.

Sources close to INSA however say the technology would mainly be used to spy on dissidents and journalists at home and abroad.

Earlier this month the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argued at an appellate court in Washington, DC on behalf of an Ethiopian American whose computer had been infected with custom spyware by INSA.

With the help of EFF and the Citizen Lab, the plaintiff, who goes by the pseudonym Kidane for safety reasons, found Ethiopian government spyware on his personal computer. EFF said investigations concluded that it was part of a systematic campaign by the Ethiopian government to spy on perceived opponents.