A new report by a Canada-based inter-disciplinary laboratory at the University of Toronto, CitizensLab, has shown that new equipment has been acquired by the Defence Intelligence Agency, (DIA), to spy on calls and text messages by Nigerians.
The Citizen Lab, based at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto in Canada focuses on investigating digital espionage against civil society.
According to its latest report :“Running in Circles: Uncovering the Clients of Cyberespionage Firm Circles,” Nigeria’s foremost military intelligence agency, which reports directly to President Muhammadu Buhari, may have been spying on your calls.
The lab found that DIA and another body in Nigeria had acquired Signaling System 7 (SS7), a protocol suite developed for exchanging information and routing phone calls between different wireline telecommunications companies.
DIA is reported to have bought the system from Circles, a surveillance firm that reportedly exploits weaknesses in the global mobile phone system to snoop on calls, texts, and the location of phones.
The spy equipment has been active under the leadership of President Buhari as the trace showed their activities from June 2015 — just after the president took office.
Recall that in 2019, the president also inaugurated the National Command and Control Centre as well as the first phase of the Nigeria Police Crime and Incident Database Centre, and electronic surveillance vehicles to maintain order in the country.
