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yemenA country in transition with its share of cyber challengesWalid Al-Saqafwww.yemenportal.netIntroductionBeing one of the least-developed countries in theworld, it was natural to see Yemen trail all neighbouringArab countries in utilising information andcommunications technologies (ICTs). With an internetpenetration not exceeding 14%, it was also notsurprising to see Yemen rank lowest on the GlobalWeb Index 1 released in 2013 by the Web Foundation.Yet despite suffering from a weak telecommunicationinfrastructure and lack of human resources inthe domain of internet services, the country recentlywitnessed significant growth in internet usage.Part of this may be attributed to wider use of Facebookin discussing political and social issues and inmobilising mass protests following the emergenceof the Arab Spring in December 2010.After hundreds of protestors were killed, jailed,maimed or injured during the 2011 popular revolts, apeaceful transfer of power deal was secured, endingthe 33-year reign of Ali Abdullah Saleh and handingthe presidency to his deputy Abd Rabbuh MansurHadi. Within the last several years, much has happenedin the Yemeni cybersphere, particularly in thearea of online freedom of expression. While Yemen’sinternet is relatively modest and limited in scopeand impact, cases of online restrictions, privacyviolations, and cyber attacks occurred, as will bedescribed in this report.A brief backgroundUnder Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule, practices of repressionwere committed using the 1990 Pressand Publications Law and the Penal Code, whichrestricted free speech on multiple levels under thepretext of protecting national security, religion,foreign relations, etc. Despite the low level of internetactivity compared to other countries, casesof website blocking were documented and severalindividuals complained about surveillance of theirphone calls and hacking of their email and Facebookaccounts. While there were no documented1 https://thewebindex.org/data/indexcases of digital surveillance in Yemen, some cyberactivists have expressed concern that if it is not alreadythe case, surveillance technology will soonbe used by the authorities, particularly the nationalsecurity agency, to spy on digital communication.While broadcast media remain the most popularmethod to reach the public, internet has takena modest share because it grants users the abilityto publish, share and consume content much moreeasily than other forms of media. Internet usage hasincreased steadily since it was first introduced in1996 by the Ministry of Telecommunication’s PublicTelecommunications Corporation (PTC) and Teleyemen,which was formed in 1990 as a joint companyowned by PTC and the United Kingdom’s Cable andWireless plc. Today, those two companies monopolisethe internet service provider (ISP) business asno private companies are allowed to operate. Thishas created an environment that lacks accountabilityand transparency and in which not many choicesare provided to the public.An environment of fearOne of the country’s most feared arms is the nationalsecurity apparatus – sometimes called stateintelligence – which, as is the case in many Arabcountries, often keeps track of dissidents and monitorstheir activity. Prominent blogger and foundingmember of the Internet Society Yemen ChapterFahmi Al-Baheth was one of the victims of this apparatuswhen he was told he would be detained orcaused to “disappear” because of his online activitiesin support of the 2011 anti-Saleh popularrevolution. Al-Baheth described how he discoveredthat the phone line of a fellow activist was tappedwhen a national security officer listed to him thepeople he called a day earlier. While it is known thatthe intelligence apparatus monitored and trackedregular dissidents and political activists, it hasbecome clear that they have started to track andmonitor cyber activists as well.Among the more aggressive forms of attacksthat targeted online journalists and activists duringSaleh’s rule was the blocking of websites by the government-runISP Yemen Net, based on instructionsfrom the national security. This practice has beenverified by many websites that contained dissidentcontent or even news and opinion articles that containedcriticism of the Saleh regime. In some cases,extensive long-term blocking of websites effectivelykilled their prospects and led to their permanentshutdown due to the lack of access for readers.While the government announced that blocking ofnews websites ceased in 2012, websites that allegedlycontained socially inappropriate content (e.g.pornography and nudity) remained blocked.A doctoral study 2 I carried out during 2010-2012 has demonstrated that forms of restrictionsthat targeted Yemeni websites and their operatorsranged from prosecution to intimidation, and fromhacking to filtering. Such violations have resulted inan environment of fear where online journalists andeven regular users succumbed to self-censorship toavoid harm.Breaches of privacyAs Yemen has no laws or regulations protecting theprivacy of citizens, cases where private informationwas published online have emerged. The monopolyover the ISP sector maintained by the governmentresulted in a lack of transparency and accountabilitywhen it comes to the data transferred through orstored on the local servers. According to a sourcewho requested to stay anonymous, the national securityhas backdoor direct access to the servers ofYemen Net, which exposes sensitive and personaldata of millions of Yemeni users to potential abuse.The United States Department of State’s 2012 humanrights report 3 has also given credibility toreports that the Yemeni authorities monitored emailand internet chat rooms.An app entitled Yemen Phone was produced, allowinganyone to access millions of Yemeni citizens’names and phone numbers and even physical addresses.Such an app, according to several privacyadvocates, is a violation of privacy and should havebeen investigated by the authorities.The Yemeni government was accused of breachingthe privacy of citizens as early as 2009, whensubscribers to the Yemen Mobile GSM service,which is run by the PTC, were assigned a special ringtone 4 in the form of a national song without theirconsent, causing outrage among some subscribers.The lack of sensitivity to citizens’ privacy wasdemonstrated again in 2013 when the SupremeCommission for Elections and Referendum made2 The full text of the study can be found at: oru.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:7104773 www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2013/nea/220385.htm4 A news story in Arabic can be accessed at: marebpress.net/news_details.php?sid=16695&lng=arabicpublic the databases of citizens who applied towork in voter registration positions. Initially, all theapplicants’ information was made public, includingtheir name, data and place of birth, academicqualifications, place of work, addresses, telephonenumbers, email addresses, and even their nationalidentity card numbers. To many privacy advocatessuch as Fahmi Al-Baheth, this was a major privacybreach that was only partially remedied by removingtelephone numbers and email addresses whilekeeping all the other information public and accessibleon the Commission’s official website. 5Victims of hackingThe fact that Yemen is a relatively inexperiencednation when it comes to technical internet-relatedoperations has contributed to creating a fertile environmentfor hacking websites, emails and socialmedia accounts. The lack of awareness of how thetechnology works and how to take proper precautionsto prevent attacks was exploited during thepeak of the popular revolution during 2011-2012.According to an anonymous source working for YemenNet, the national security apparatus hired alarge team of hackers in 2011 to target many websites,personal social media accounts and emailaccounts.Hamza Alshargabi, who was active on Facebookin supporting the 2011 anti-Saleh uprising,indicated that his Facebook account and those ofmany of his friends were hacked during that period,probably due to their activities in support of the revolution.He discovered that his account was hackedwhen he realised that notifications were marked as“read” during the time he was logged off. He furtherindicated that an anonymous source working for YemenNet verified the existence of advanced spyingtools utilised by the national security.Among the highest profile individuals attackedduring that time was Nobel Laureate Tawakkol Karman,whose Facebook account was hacked multipletimes. Due to her vocal opposition to the Saleh regime,she was subject to both physical and cyberattacks over the course of the revolution. In a recentcorrespondence, she described how Facebookdecided to close her account due to the apparentchanging of the telephone number used for verification.She remained unable to get her account backdespite applying the instructions provided to her byFacebook. She also indicated that her email accountwas attacked several times, but not hacked due tothe added security measures she has taken.5 web.scer.gov.ye/ar-page.aspx?show=47276 / Global Information Society Watch yemen / 277