US man sues Ethiopia for cyber snooping

The Ethiopian government is being sued by an American citizen amid accusations that the country's security forces had planted spyware on his machine and monitored his calls and data. Image: Chanpipat Free Digital Photos

"We have clear evidence of a foreign government secretly infiltrating an American's computer in America, listening to his calls and obtaining access to a wide swath of his private life," said attorney Nate Cardozo of Internet rights group Electronic Freedom Foundation.

"The current Ethiopian government has a well-documented history of human rights violations against anyone it sees as political opponentsm" Cardozo said.

The legal action is based on allegations that the computer of a US citizen living in the state of Maryland was targeted with malicious software that monitored use and snooped on calls made using Internet telephone service Skype.

According to the EFF malware was slipped onto his machine when he opened an emailed document file booby-trapped with a program called FinSpy, .

The EFF went on to say that analysis of the computer showed that recordings of Skype calls and other data was sent to a server in Ethiopia controlled by the government there.

The court was asked to let the plaintiff be identified by the pseudonym "Mr. Kidane" to protect members of his family here and abroad from reprisal.

"The problem of governments violating the privacy of their political opponents through digital surveillance is not isolated - it's already big and growing bigger," said EFF legal director Cindy Cohn.

The complaint filed in federal district court in the US capital of Washington calls for a jury trial along with damages to be paid for violations of US law.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge