Serbian Authorities Use High-Tech Surveillance to Monitor Opponents: BIRN Report

[milos_rs]

As well as the large-scale installation of surveillance systems with facial recognition technology in urban areas, the authorities have sought to monitor opponents, activists and journalists, says a new report by BIRN.

Full report: https://balkaninsight.com/wp-content/upl...Serbia.pdf

Excerpts:

The Hidden Surveillance Infrastructure

Alongside biometric surveillance, Serbian authorities have been using espionage tools for
more than a decade. Domestic investigative journalists and researchers of the Citizen Lab
at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, the University of Toronto, showed
that Serbian law enforcement and intelligence agencies have a history of using big data
analysis tools (Maltego, Mozenda, and Social Links)44 and deploying spyware, such as
Cytrox’s45 Predator, Circles,46 Cyberbit,47 and FinSpy.48

This list is not exhaustive and in October 2023, state-sponsored attackers attempted to
remotely breach the iPhones of the directors of two pro-European civil society
organizations in Serbia. This was verified by three international organizations, Amnesty
International and Citizen Lab in partnership with Access Now, which conducted digital
forensics on the phones and found that attackers attempted to exploit the
PWNYOURHOME vulnerability - a zero-click exploit that was used by NSO Group’s
flagship Pegasus spyware to target iPhones running iOS 15 and iOS 16.49

The Covert Role of Private Companies

The Serbian government is not inclined to negotiate and buy intrusive technologies
directly from vendors. There were a few exceptions to the rule when Aleksandar Vulin,
then Minister of Defence, and Tatjana Matić, then Minister of Trade, Tourism and
Telecommunications, during their visit to Israel, discussed the possibilities of cooperation
on future projects with representatives of the companies Cyberbit and Cognyte.54
This is why powerful individuals and owners of private companies based in Serbia, such
as Delta Holding, Vlatacom Ltd, IntellSec, and Lanus Ltd (now Devellop Ltd), act as
intermediaries. Private actors are outside public scrutiny, which is why their role in the
proliferation of advanced technologies and cyber intelligence tools is largely unexplored.
However, there is evidence that exposes their connections with politicians in power and
involvement in state affairs. For instance, the Cyberbit software was detected in a business
complex center in Belgrade belonging to Delta Holding, owned by a well-known Serbian
businessman Miroslav Mišković, who is a sponsor of the former and current political elite.
Furthermore, media mogul Željko Mitrović, who ownd pro-government Pink TV,
manufactures AI drones for military purposes on behalf of the defence industry. Others
like Vlatacom Ltd. design and sell their own encrypted technologies at home and abroad.
The founder of the Vlatacom Research and Development Institute and special adviser to
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vladimir Cizelj, actively participated in Serbia’s official
campaign for derecognition of Kosovo’s independence.

Cizelj’s ties with the ruling party go back to the former president of the National Assembly,
Vladimir Orlić, who has been a member of the Vlatacom Scientific Council since 2012.
Furthermore, IntellSec Ltd. which equipped the public utility company EPS with espionage
tools is mentioned in an article by the French portal Intelligence Online from 2021 as a
main entry point to government and industry contracts and is seen as a company that
provides Western cyber-intelligence tools in the Balkans.55