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Telstra’s Digicel Pacific operation has been used by spy firms to track mobile phone users as far away as Africa, according to a report from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
The investigation, which utilised analysis from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, was conducted by the OCCRP and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Digicel Pacific was bought by Telstra in July 2022, backed in part by the Australian government, over fears of Chinese interference in the network.
But according to the report, nation-states weren’t the only threat – private spy firms have been using the network for their own operations in the meantime.
According to data supplied by the Mobile Surveillance Monitor project, these spies-for-hire have been leasing the use of “global titles” belonging to the Telstra-owned network for their spying activities.
According to Gary Miller of Citizen Lab, these global titles are a 3G network address that can be used to query other phones across the globe and determine their location or even to intercept calls and messages. Miller believes that the kinds of activity Citizen Lab has seen are “clearly malicious”.
By leasing the global titles, the malicious actors can bypass networks and even hide their identities.
Private surveillance firms often claim to be working with law enforcement to track criminals but are often used to spy on journalists and activists. In fact, a Mexican journalist was shot dead within hours of his device being pinged by similar activity in 2022.
Telstra has been alerted to the activity and has said it “will be exiting the small number of remaining leases by April 2024, or earlier, if investigations reveal they are acting outside of their contractual obligations”.
Miller believes that despite the purchase being made to ostensibly stop Chinese spying efforts, Telstra could have done more following the initial purchase.
“It doesn’t appear that they’ve taken the proper steps,” Miller said in the OCCRP report, which was also published by the ABC.
“What should have happened is that all these leased global titles should have been just pulled out. But we didn’t see that.”
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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