Amnesty Says Pakistan Spying on Millions Through Phone-Tapping, Firewall

    > Pakistan's spy agencies can monitor at least 4 million mobile phones at a time through its Lawful Intercept Management System (LIMS), while a firewall known as WMS 2.0 that inspects internet traffic can block 2 million active sessions at a time, Amnesty said.

    > The two monitoring systems function in tandem: one lets intelligence agencies tap calls and texts while the other slows or blocks websites and social media across the country, it said.

    > In court, Pakistan's defence ministries and intelligence agencies denied running or even having the capacity for phone tapping. But under questioning, the telecom regulator acknowledged it had already ordered phone companies to install LIMS for use by "designated agencies."

    > Amnesty said the firewall uses equipment from U.S.-based Niagara Networks, software from Thales DIS, a unit of France's Thales, and servers from a Chinese state IT firm. An earlier version relied on Canada’s Sandvine.

    > Niagara told Reuters it follows U.S. export rules, does not know end users or how its products are used, and only sells tapping and aggregation gear.

    > Amnesty said the phone tapping system was made by Germany’s Utimaco and deployed through monitoring centres run by UAE-based Datafusion.

    > Datafusion told Amnesty that its centres are only sold to law enforcement and that it does not make LIMS, while AppLogic Networks, the successor to Sandvine, said it has grievance mechanisms to prevent misuse.

EU spying ? US spying? Amnesty makes everything it can to loose its credibility.