ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates \u2014 DarkMatter, a growing cybersecurity company in the United Arab Emirates that’s recruited Western intelligence analysts, is stepping out of the shadows amid concerns by activists about its power and potential targets.<\/p>\n
The company’s founder and CEO, Faisal al-Bannai, says DarkMatter takes part in no hacking, although he acknowledges the firm’s close business ties to the Emirati government, as well as its hiring of former CIA and National Security Agency analysts.<\/p>\n
Activists warn such expertise could be used to target human rights campaigners, some of whom already have been jailed in the UAE, a major U.S. ally in the Mideast.<\/p>\n
Al-Bannai told The Associated Press his company carefully chooses its clients, while leaving the ethical decisions about privacy and surveillance in wielding its powerful technology to its governmental customers, which include the Dubai police.<\/p>\n
\u201cIgnoring that use, in my view, would be silly,\u201d he said. \u201cI think tackling that issue and saying, ‘What is the right balance,’ is the right question and the one I think everyone is trying to figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surveillance is prolific across the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula. Flashing cameras capture license plates of vehicles pulling into gas stations. At Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates, home to an indoor ski slope, shoppers can use a kiosk to find their cars via the mall’s surveillance system.<\/p>\n
Authorities say surveillance keeps the UAE safe. Surveillance footage helped authorities quickly identify the woman who stabbed an American school teacher to death at an Abu Dhabi mall in 2014.<\/p>\n
It also aided Dubai police in identifying members of what it described as an Israeli hit squad that killed an operative with the Palestinian militant Hamas group in 2010, an attack never acknowledged by Israel.<\/p>\n
For al-Bannai, whose father is a retired major general with the Dubai police, cybersecurity seemed like a good bet after he found success with his mobile phone reselling firm Axiom Telecom. He formed DarkMatter in 2015 and today, he said the company has some 650 employees. Most work out of its headquarters in the disc-shaped Aldar building along a major highway connecting Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The firm also has research-and-development centres in China, Finland and Toronto, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only country in the region that’s strong in cybersecurity is Israel,\u201d al-Bannai told foreign journalists who visited DarkMatter on Tuesday. \u201cOther than that, it’s blank.\u201d<\/p>\n
He described DarkMatter as entirely privately held, with a customer base that is 80 per cent government agencies and 20 per cent commercial. He declined to name specific clients, but many suspect they include the Signals Intelligence Agency, the Emirati version of the NSA. The agency is also registered as having offices in the Aldar building.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankly, it’s an alignment of the stars,\u201d al-Bannai said of DarkMatter’s government contracts. \u201cIt is a pure commercial transaction with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since its inception, rumours have swirled around DarkMatter.<\/p>\n
Some hackers described receiving aggressive, repeated job offers by the firm. An Italian hacker wrote a blog post in 2016 alleging that DarkMatter tried to hire him through a third-party recruiter who described the company as setting up a vast domestic spying infrastructure, something denied by al-Bannai.<\/p>\n
However, human rights activists and others have been targeted by hacks suspected to be directed, if not carried out, by the Emirati government.<\/p>\n
Emirati activist Ahmed Mansoor became famous in August 2016 when he worked with security experts to reveal three previously undisclosed weaknesses in Apple’s mobile operating system after he was allegedly targeted with a phishing text message he didn’t open.<\/p>\n
Mansoor and others believed the United Arab Emirates was behind the attack, as it involved so-called \u201czero day\u201d exploits \u2014 flaws in programming that hackers can use to potentially install spyware or gain control of a system \u2014 that can be worth over a million dollars each. Mansoor was arrested by UAE authorities last March for his online posts. Authorities later said he was being held at Abu Dhabi’s central prison and had \u201cthe freedom to hire a lawyer\u201d and receive family visits.<\/p>\n
Another hacking campaign targeting Mansoor and others, dubbed \u201cStealth Falcon,\u201d also appeared to be co-ordinated by the government, said Bill Marczak, a research fellow at Citizen Lab. DarkMatter’s close work with the Emirati government, and the experience of its staff, raised flags about the company, Marczak said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you’re talking about human rights activists like Ahmed Mansoor … there’s nothing he can do and the government gets access to him and his contacts and then can take further actions against his contacts,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s one thing to use them against people you may think are committing terrorist acts or criminal acts, but using them against someone who is just kind of sitting around their living room tweeting, it seems kind of disproportionate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al-Bannai said DarkMatter had no depository of \u201czero day\u201d exploits, nor did it take part in so-called \u201coffensive hacking.\u201d He pointed to one of the company’s signature products, a secure mobile phone called \u201cKatim,\u201d or \u201csilence\u201d in Arabic, as showing the firm’s interest in defensive technology.<\/p>\n
He added that DarkMatter hired CIA, NSA and other ex-government employees for their experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you think an NSA guy is a spooky guy, the NSA guy is the one protecting you in the U.S.,\u201d al-Bannai said. \u201cThese are not the bad guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did, however, acknowledge that questions remain about how much information authorities should have and be able to use.<\/p>\n
Pegasus, a DarkMatter subsidiary, now has a \u201cbig data\u201d contract with Dubai police. An example offered by al-Bannai suggested police could be able to pool hours of surveillance video to track anyone in the emirate.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy team knows what they’re building,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they thought they were building funny stuff, they wouldn’t be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
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