Indonesia’s rights groups call for transparency in nation’s purchases of foreign spyware: ‘anyone can be a target’

Indonesia’s law enforcement agencies bought and used ‘highly invasive spyware’ from nations including Israel, and Amnesty International report says

‘Murky ecosystem’ of buyers, sellers and brokers with ‘complex ownership structures’ has also made it hard for public procurement oversight on such purchases

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Indonesian soldiers attend a ceremony. A report by Amnesty International says Indonesia bought spyware between 2017 and 2023 that was used by state agencies such as the national police and the intelligence agency. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:59pm, 8 May 2024Updated: 10:18pm, 8 May 2024

Indonesia’s rights groups are calling for transparency from the government after a new investigation accused the nation’s law enforcement agencies of purchasing “highly invasive spyware” from multiple nations, including Israel, Malaysia, and Singapore.

The investigation, undertaken by rights watchdog Amnesty International’s Security Lab and news outlets, says the spyware was bought between 2017 and 2023 and used by state agencies such as the national police and Indonesia’s primary intelligence agency.

Companies and state agencies in Indonesia imported the spyware from vendors such as Luxembourg-based Q Cyber Technologies, which has been linked to Israel’s NSO Group; Israel-based Wintego Systems and Saito Tech; and Malaysia-based Raedarius M8, the report said.

Israel’s NSO Group created Pegasus, the world’s most infamous spyware that can completely control mobile phones and access everything on it including emails, voice messages, photos, videos and texts. Many countries have bought it to monitor human rights activists, journalists, dissidents, and rival politicians.

An illustration of a smartphone with the website of Israel’s NSO Group, which features Pegasus spyware. Israel’s NSO Group created Pegasus, which can completely control mobile phones and access everything on them. Photo: AFP

Some of the surveillance tools were bought through intermediary companies in Singapore with a history of supplying surveillance technologies and spyware to state agencies in Indonesia, Amnesty said in the report.