As I was minding my on
business going through group conversations on whatsup comes this link to an
article on how the government of Kenya is planning to tap on our voice call
conversation.
At that point I felt
like throwing my phone off the windows and go old school by sending people
letters because we also not safe on mail however we encrypt them. Guess what I
found out they were opening and reading letters back in the day dame we are fucked
all the nine ways.
What’s going on?
The government of Kenya
though the Communication authority (CA) is seeking permission to install a
tapping device (not sure if its hardware or software) on the service provider
so as they can listen in on call and sms.
This does not get better
as all the work will be done by a third party. We do not know the integrity
level of this so called third party. Worries of data integrity comes in to
question.
How sure are we
that they will give the correct info without altering (unless the SP will be
hashing the info).
They reason they give
the general public is that they are in the process of tracking counterfeit
goods.
“Kindly facilitate
our principal contractor, M/S Broadband Communications Networks Ltd, to access
your site and install the link at the data-center or the mobile switching room.
"The link should
terminate close to the core network elements that shall integrate to the DMS
solution.
"The DMS block
diagram and integration requirements for this setup was shared with your
technical team on January 17, 2017,” read the letter signed by the authority’s
director, licensing, compliance and standards Christopher Kemei on behalf of
the director-general.
The companies affected
include: Safaricom, Airtel, and Orange
So what used to happen
in the past if the police or any investigating agency would require a to access
a previous phone call or sms they would have to get a warrant from a judge to
proceed but what will happen now is that all traffic will pass though.
Up in arms
Everyone has gone nuts
on this move including and not limited to Kenya Human Rights Commission
and other activist to prevent this from happening.
If this is to happen the
right to privacy will off the table and what makes us more scared is the fact that
the CA website was hacked some time back. What happens when this is hacked?
Some time back safaricom
was ordered to hand over all money transactions info thank God that did not
happen.
The positive side
If all this goes well
the government will be able to cub and hold to account all counterfeit phones
(just for the record if you make a call the IMEI is captured and this is what
might be used as a bench mark just saying ).
Elections is just around
the corner and this may be a good tool to catch those of whom might be planning
evil.
For those young boys and
girls this will be involved in this project will be a great experience in terms
of experience (we got a lot of white hats all over jobless)
All in all we will be
following this closely as not all info is in the public domain.............