On March 13, 2018, Loujain al-Hathloul was kidnapped in the United Arab Emirates.
It is the beginning of a long ordeal for this icon of feminism and tireless activist for women's rights in Saudi Arabia.
Brought back by force in a private jet to Riyadh, placed under house arrest and then sentenced for "various activities prohibited by the anti-terrorism law", she spent nearly three years in prison, suffering torture and sexual harassment according to her relatives, before being released in February.
The 32-year-old is now blaming three former US intelligence agents for their role in her kidnapping.
Supported by an American association for the defense of digital freedoms, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Loujain al-Hathloul filed a complaint, Thursday, December 9, against Marc Baier, Ryan Adams, Daniel Gericke as well as their former employer, DarkMatter, a powerful cybersurveillance company Emirati, close to the government of Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Zayed.
According to the complaint filed in the United States, these three computer mercenaries would have contributed to the arrest of the activist by hacking her mobile phone to gain access to her location and her communications.
“Companies that have developed software and services on behalf of repressive governments must be held accountable for the resulting human rights violations,” argued David Greene, legal officer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in a statement. communicated.
Last September, these three former NSA agents were indicted in a Virginia state court with computer fraud and fraudulent access to computers.
In particular, they are suspected of having participated in cyber attacks against American servers on behalf of DarkMatter.
To stay the prosecution against them, the three men agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department and pay penalties of $ 1.7 million, the amount of money they earned working in the Emirates. .
According to the FBI, the ruling sent "a clear message to anyone, including former US government agents, tempted to enter cyberspace in the service of a foreign government or a foreign company." .
Zero click attacks
Since 2010 and the shock wave of the Arab Spring, many countries in the Middle East have embarked on a race to acquire surveillance software and have recruited ex-spies at a premium to better track down their opponents. .
Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke were part of a team of a dozen former US agents tasked with developing a surveillance program dubbed Project "Raven", according to an investigation by the Reuters news agency. .
Operating from a luxurious villa in Abu Dhabi, these cybersurveillance experts were tasked with making the most sophisticated interception techniques learned within the NSA available to the intelligence services of the Emirates.
Passed under the bosom of DarkMatter in 2016, the “Raven” project was equipped the same year with a formidable weapon: Karma, one of the most pernicious spyware on the market.
Undetectable, it allowed remote infiltration of Apple iPhones.
These so-called “zero click” attacks are considered the holy of holies in the world of computer security because the target does not need to click on a link to compromise their device.
According to Reuters, Karma would have targeted in 2017 the phone of “Purple Sword” (“Violet Saber”), the code name attributed to Loujain al-Hathloul.
Serial scandals
This is not the first time that DarkMatter has found itself in the midst of legal turmoil.
In December 2020, Al-Jazeera star presenter Ghada Oueiss lodged a complaint against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed, as well as Darkmatter officials, for a series of computer attacks targeting his personal data.
The complaint filed Thursday by Loujain al-Hathloul appears as the latest episode in a series of scandals involving actors in private cybersurveillance.
In 2019, WhatsApp, a subsidiary of Meta, formerly Facebook, filed a lawsuit against NSO Group, the Israeli company that developed the Pegasus spyware.
At the end of November, Apple also launched proceedings against NSO for attacks on its iPhones.
>> To read: Pegasus, the tree that hides the forest of the state cyber surveillance market
“No government, nor any individual should tolerate the misuse of this spyware,” said Loujain al-Hathloul in his complaint.
“I hope my case will be an inspiration to fight cybercrime and create a safer virtual space in which to grow, share and learn from each other without having to fear the threat of abuse of power”.
Released from prison in February, the winner of the 2020 Vaclav Havel Prize of the Council of Europe, is not free, however.
The one who became known for her fight against the male guardianship system in her country is currently on parole.
Loujain Al-Hathloul has been banned from leaving Saudi Arabia for five years.
He is also prohibited from speaking about his conditions of detention.
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