Amnesty International, in a report published today, reveals a scandal in Serbia with the surveillance and eavesdropping equipment that Belgrade bought from Israel.
According to the report, Serbian officials installed spyware on the phones of dozens of journalists and activists, citing evidence from digital records and testimony from activists who said their phone conversations had been tapped in recent months.
In two cases, software provided by Israeli surveillance firm Cellebrite DI Ltd was used to unlock the phones before they were infected, the report said.
"Serbian spyware, dubbed 'NoviSpy' by Amnesty International, took images from the screens of mobile devices, copied contacts and uploaded them to a government-controlled server," the report said.
It is further reported that in several cases, activists and a journalist reported signs of suspicious activity on their mobile phones shortly after interviews with Serbian police and security authorities.
Serbia's interior and foreign ministries, as well as the BIA intelligence agency, did not respond to a request for comment, while Cellebrite's chief marketing officer, David Gee, said he was investigating Amnesty's claims.
"If these allegations are true, it could be a violation of the agreement we make with our end-user customers," Gee told Reuters. If that's the case, Gee said, Cellebrite could suspend the use of its technology by Serbian authorities.
Putting tracking software on devices "is not what we do at all," Gee said. He added that Cellebrite had begun contacts with Serbian officials about the case, but declined to elaborate. (A2 Televizion)
A2 CNN Livestream
MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
