Hamza Idris, an editor with the Nigerian\u00a0Daily Trust<\/i>, was at the newspaper\u2019s\u00a0<\/i>central office on January 6 when the military arrived looking for him. Soldiers with AK47s walked between the newsroom desks repeating his name, he told CPJ. It was the second raid on the paper that day; the first hit the bureau based in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, where Idris had worked for years.<\/p>\n
The soldiers did not know what Idris looked like and his colleagues did not point him out, he said. Unable to find their target, they ordered everyone to evacuate and seized 24 of the paper\u2019s computers. Idris simply filed out with everyone else. In Maiduguri, however, the military arrested Uthman Abubakar, the\u00a0Daily Trust\u00a0<\/i>northeastern regional editor, with his two phones and computer, CPJ\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0at the time. He was held for two days, interrogated about his sources for a report written with Idris about a military operation in the region, and then\u00a0released<\/a>\u00a0without charge.<\/p>\n \u201cThey took the devices to their computer forensics room,\u201d Abubakar told CPJ. \u201cThey conducted some forensic search.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0Daily Trust\u00a0<\/i>raids are emblematic of a global trend of law enforcement seizing journalists\u2019 mobile phones and computers\u2014some of their most important tools. CPJ has documented device seizures around the world, from the\u00a0United States<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Slovakia<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Iraq<\/a>. In Benin, police copied data from the seized computer of Casimir Kpedjo, the editor of\u00a0Nouvelle Economie\u00a0<\/i>newspaper,<\/i>\u00a0CPJ\u00a0report Forensics technology designed to extract information from phones and computers is marketed and sold to law enforcement agencies around the world. CPJ has found at least two companies that produce digital forensics tools\u2014Israel-based Cellebrite and U.S.-based AccessData\u2014operating in Nigeria, where CPJ research shows that security forces\u00a0regularly<\/a>arrest and interrogate journalists.<\/p>\n Recent Nigerian national\u00a0budgets<\/a>\u00a0feature significant financial allocations to bolster surveillance and digital forensics capacities. From 2014 to 2017, the Nigerian government spent at least 127 billion naira (over US$350 million) on \u201csurveillance\/security equipment,\u201d according to a 2018\u00a0calculation<\/a>\u00a0reported by Paradigm Initiative, a Nigeria-based digital rights group. \u201cEvidence showed that these purchases were made for political reasons, especially by the then authorities in power to monitor their adversaries and political opponents,\u201d that\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0said.<\/p>\n One of Nigeria\u2019s major security concerns is the years-long\u00a0conflict<\/a>\u00a0in the northeast against Boko Haram and splinter group\u00a0Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP)<\/a>. Hours before the raids on\u00a0Daily Trust<\/i>\u2019s\u00a0<\/i>offices, the paper had published a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0about a Nigerian military effort to retake six towns from Boko Haram. In a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0published on Facebook the next day, a Nigerian army spokesperson said the report had divulged classified information, \u201cundermining national security\u201d and contravening Nigeria\u2019s Official Secrets Act.<\/p>\n Privacy is enshrined in\u00a0Nigeria\u2019s constitution<\/a>, and law enforcement agents must obtain a judicial warrant to search computer systems under\u00a0<\/b>Nigeria\u2019s 2015\u00a0cybercrime law<\/a>. However, the 1962\u00a0Official Secrets Act<\/a>\u00a0gives sweeping powers for security forces to grant themselves warrants to search and seize all materials considered evidence, as well as arrest those suspected of committing offenses under the act.<\/p>\n On January 10, four days after the raids, Nigerian military investigators summoned Idris and Nurudeen Abdallah, the\u00a0Daily Trust<\/i>investigations editor, to question them about their sources for the report, which they refused to reveal, they told CPJ. Then the officers demanded their phones. \u201cThey said they want to scan it,\u201d Idris told CPJ. \u201cThey said [they] just want to see the contents and then maybe the numbers of the people I talk to\u2014I said no.\u201d The officers told them a server for scanning technology was housed at the Office of the National Security Adviser, the president\u2019s top security aide, Abdallah told CPJ. The journalists said they had not brought their phones, and refused several follow-up requests to return with them.<\/p>\n CPJ reached Sagir Musa, a Nigerian military spokesperson, by phone on October 9 and asked about the\u00a0Daily Trust<\/i>\u00a0raids. Musa said he could not hear and asked to be sent a message before the line went silent; subsequent calls and messages went unanswered. Calls to Onyema Nwachukwu,\u00a0<\/b>director of defense information for the Nigerian military, also went unanswered.<\/p>\n An individual within Nigerian law enforcement told CPJ that security forces use Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) and Forensic Toolkit (FTK) to retrieve information from devices. UFED is sold by the Israel-based company\u00a0Cellebrite<\/a>, which is owned by the Japan-based\u00a0SUNCORPORATION<\/a>, while FTK is sold by the U.S.-based\u00a0AccessData Group<\/a>.\u00a0The individual agreed to speak to CPJ due to concerns about the technology\u2019s possible misuse, but asked that their name be withheld for fear of reprisal.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Cellebrite\u2019s website says their\u00a0UFED product<\/a>\u00a0can \u201c[e]xtract and decode every ounce of data within digital devices\u201d and that their equipment is\u00a0deployed<\/a>\u00a0\u201cin 150 countries.\u201d Company records stolen by hackers and reported by\u00a0VICE News<\/a>\u00a0in 2017 suggest client relationships with Russia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. U.S. federal law enforcement has also invested in the Cellebrite technology, according to government procurement information\u00a0listed online<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0media reports<\/a>. In Nigeria, \u201cauthorities seized [a drug lord\u2019s] Samsung phone\u201d during his arrest \u201cand extracted and analyzed data from it using UFED,\u201d according to a case study publicized on Cellebrite\u2019s\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Separately, Cellebrite\u2019s UFED was used in Myanmar to \u201cpull documents\u201d from the phones of then jailed Reuters journalists\u00a0Wa Lone<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Kyaw Soe Oo<\/a>,\u00a0The<\/i>\u00a0Washington Post\u00a0<\/i>reported<\/a>\u00a0in May 2019. Cellebrite said it required clients to \u201cuphold the standards of international human rights law\u201d or it may terminate their agreements, according to the\u00a0Post\u2019s\u00a0<\/i>report.\u00a0<\/i>Cellebrite\u2019 CPJ reached Christopher Bacey, Cellebrite\u2019s director of public relations, by telephone in mid-September to request clarification about the company\u2019s sales in Nigeria, and if the company reviews countries\u2019 human rights records or considers the rights of journalists to protect their sources. At his request, CPJ sent questions by email, but received no response before publication. Msao Koda, who works in Cellebrite sales for SUNCORPORATION, similarly requested questions by email in September and did not respond before publication.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Like Cellebrite, AccessData\u00a0advertises<\/a>\u00a0FTK as a tool to identify information on \u201cany digital device or system producing, transmitting or storing data,\u201d including from web history, emails, instant messages, and social media. It also\u00a0boasts<\/a>\u00a0capacity to \u201c[d]ecrypt files, crack passwords, and build a report all with a single solution.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2011, System Trust, a Nigeria-based digital security company, established a sales partnership through\u00a0DRS<\/a>, a South Africa-based cybersecurity company, to distribute AccessData technology, the Nigerian\u00a0Vanguard<\/i>\u00a0newspaper\u00a0re Several CPJ calls to AccessData\u2019s corporate headquarters in the U.S. were forwarded by an operator, then rang unanswered. Interview requests sent to two email addresses provided over the phone by people at their London and Frankfurt offices also went unanswered.<\/p>\n CPJ\u2019s repeated calls to DRS in early October were forwarded to cybersecurity specialist Zach Venter. On one occasion, Venter asked that CPJ call back after 30 minutes. Subsequent attempts to reach him via phone and messages were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n Uthman Abubakar\u2019s devices were returned shortly after his release from detention in Maiduguri, but it was nearly seven weeks before the 24 computers confiscated during the second raid were returned, Mannir Dan-Ali,\u00a0Daily Trust<\/i>\u2019s editor-in-chief told CPJ. The paper would not be using them again, he said.<\/p>\n