The “ unprecedented ” repression of Egyptian civil society would have been “ facilitated by a massive cybersurveillance system installed by three French companies, with the tacit agreement of the authorities “, disclose and Télérama.
The first, called Nexa Technologies, is run by the founders of Amesys, a company accused of having provided surveillance equipment to Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorship in Libya. The second, Ercom-Suneris – a Thalès subsidiary since 2019 – is known to secure one of Emmanuel Macron’s mobile phones. The third is none other than Dassault Systèmes, the technological subsidiary of the French armament heavyweight and builder of the Rafale aircraft.
Nexa Technologies has installed monitoring software there. ‘Internet called “ Cerebro “, and Ercom-Suneris a telephone tapping and geolocation device called “ Cortex Vortex “. Exalead, a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, for its part made it possible to link the various databases together on behalf of the MID, the opaque military intelligence service of the Egyptian regime.
According to a confidential document that Disclose obtained, Cerebro would be able “ to analyze the data to understand the relationships and behavior of suspected persons, to go back in time to find relevant information in several billion recorded conversations ”.
The contract is codenamed“ Toblerone ”, in homage to Swiss chocolate in the shape of a pyramid . The company has a tradition of using candy names for its spyware contracts: “ Candy ” for Libya, “ Crocodile ”for Gabon,“ Finger ”for Qatar,“ Kinder ”for Saudi Arabia,“ Miko ”for Kazakhstan,“ Oasis ”for Dubai and“ Pop Corn ”for Morocco …
Nearly 65 000 opponents would languish in the regime’s jails, recalls Disclose, while 3 000 others would have “ disappeared ” after their arrest, according to the US State Department.
