Ethiopia blocks social media to prevent university exam leakage

July 10, 2016 in Ethiopia

Ismail Akwei with AFP

(Africa News) — Ethiopia has blocked social networking sites in the country since Saturday to prevent leakage of university entrance examination to be held next week.

“This is a temporary measure until Wednesday as the social networks serve as a distraction to the students,” the government spokesman, Getachew Reda told AFP.

Last month, questions for the top examination were posted on social networks causing a national scandal leading to the cancellation of the entire exam.

This is a temporary measure until Wednesday as the social networks serve as a distraction to the students.

The most popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Viber are inaccessible throughout Ethiopia since Saturday morning. Aside these sites, the internet is functioning normally.

The blockade has been criticized by Ethiopian internet users who have found a way around the ban by using theVPN (virtual private networks).

“This is a dangerous precedent. There is no transparency about who took the decision and for how long. This time it is for a few days, but next time it might be for a month,” Daniel Berhane, a blogger and the creator of the influential website “Horn Affairs” told AFP.

He added that they believe the Ethiopian authorities are seeking to test new internet filtering tools and also the reaction of the public.

Ethiopia filters internet regularly using firewalls which often slows network access.

Problems of accessing social networking sites had been reported in some localities of the Oromo region during the anti-government protests, but blocking all sites nationwide is unprecedented in the country.

The UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution last week considering the restrictions of internet access as a violation of human rights. This was a few days after the election of Ethiopia as a non-permanent member of the UN security Council for a two year term.

source:http://www.ayyaantuu.net/ethiopia-blocks-social-media-to-prevent-university-exam-leakage/

Ethiopian Government Uses Cyber-Attacks to Restrict Media Houses

Thehill.com reported during second week of March 2015 stating that the Ethiopian government is using cyber attacks to try to stop news from reaching to its citizens.

Researchers of the University of Toronto discovered attempts by the Ethiopian government to hack the computers of journalists based at US who are working with Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT).

Ethiopian journalists who left their home country after being subjected to criminal charges and government threats are running an independent news outlet.

During November and December of 2014, researchers say that digital attackers tried to place spyware on the computers of two employees of ESAT in Washington, D.C. The software would have allowed the hackers to steal files and passwords and also capture all calls in Skype and instant messages.

The cyberattackers tried to penetrate the computers with a fake email with an enclosed Microsoft Word Document containing the malicious spyware.

Citizen Lab analysed the attacks thoroughly and suggested that attacks were conducted with a spyware known as Remote Control System (RCS) sold by an Italian Hacking Team which sells hacking and surveillance technology.

This spyware was supposedly used in December 2013 in trying to infect systems of ESAT employees. If the spyware is installed successfully on the computer of the target, it would allow the government to control the software access to activity on the PC or phone including files, email, typed passwords on the device, contact lists, audio and video from the gadget's microphone and camera.

Citizen Lab also discovered that the spyware which was used in attacking ESAT seems to have been updated recently in December 2014.

The Ethiopian government did not directly answer questions about usage of products of Hacking Team for the purpose of spying.

Washingtonpost.com published news during second week of March 2015 quoting a statement of Tesfaye Wolde Ambassador of Ethiopia in Washington as "Ethiopia acts according to its own laws and with the laws of nations."

Washingtonpost.com published news during second week of March 2015 quoting Eric Rabe, Spokesperson of the company, as saying "Hacking Team investigates the allegations of the abuse. If we find that an agency is misusing our technology, we can take many actions and even withdraw our support from the system."

» SPAMfighter News - 01-04-2015

Source: www.spamfighter.com