Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan) (AFP)
Internet giants like Google and Apple have announced measures to block a security device introduced by the authorities of Kazakhstan and likely to intercept internet traffic, for fear that it will be used for bad purposes in this country authoritarian Central Asia.
Qaznet, a "root certificate" developed by the Kazakh authorities, made waves in the country in July when residents were told to order them, in online messages, to install it on their mobile phones.
A root certificate is a file containing credentials. It can be used by its developer to gain access to the internet traffic of the user who installed it.
In turn, the biggest Internet companies announced in the night of Wednesday to Thursday their intention to oppose this initiative.
Chrome, the most popular internet browser developed by the US giant Google, said in a statement that "it is not appropriate that this mechanism is used to intercept Internet traffic."
A spokesman for Apple, Safari browser developer, told AFP "have implemented actions to ensure that the certificate is not validated by Safari and that users are protected."
Mozilla, developer of the Firefox browser, also promised to block the Qaznet certificate.
The Kazakh authorities claimed that users were free to download Qaznet or not, the purpose of which is to protect them from hacking.
One of the country's leading mobile network providers, Kcell, had in July described the installation of the certificate as "necessary" in a message to its subscribers.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that Qaznet will be introduced "only in case of external intrusion", without giving further details.
Human rights organizations regularly criticize Kazakhstan for repressing the press or opponents. Before the presidential election last June, several news sites and social networks were blocked by the authorities.
© 2019 AFP