How U.S. Technology Is Used For Spyware, Nationwide Censorship In Turkey

Back in 2016, after Turkish state-run media outlets published WhatsApp messages of military officers involved in Turkey's attempted military uprising, the conclusion of the experts was that such messages could only have been intercepted by the Turkish government through several methods, including a “security flaw or backdoor”. This was a major signal flare on what may have been going on to employ mass surveillance of Turkey's digital domain.

Later that year, researchers at Symantec's Norton division found that Turkey had the largest number of total “bot” infections in the world, with internet users in the country plagued with 18.5 percent of all of the bots across the EMEA region. 

These facts revealed how bots were being regularly used to infect millions of Turkish citizens.

In a reflection of how the menace continues to prevail in Turkey, security firm Citizen Lab has revealed how deep packet inspection middleboxes on the Türk Telekom network are now being used to expose Turkish nationals in the country and those in neighbouring Syria to nation-state spyware:

According to Citizen Lab researchers, Turkish internet users trying to download legitimate Windows applications from official vendor websites such as Avast Antivirus, CCleaner, Opera, and 7-Zip are being redirected to malicious websites that are infested with malware. At the same time, those trying to download software from Download.com are instead redirected to websites containing spyware.

In late 2016, Forbes had reported a mini uprising at the Swedish branch of major U.S. networking vendor Procera Networks. Multiple staff members quit over a sale in Turkey of technology capable of supporting the repressive actions of the state.

The Citizen Lab findings indicate Procera technology was not only key in helping direct hundreds of targets to spyware downloads in Turkey, but also were used to impose censorship in Turkey and Egypt.

Here is the story that would turn Orwell in his grave.