soloojos (Mastodon)We identified a single Circles system in Guatemala, Ginetta Galileo. The system appears to have been operated by the General Directorate of Civil Intelligence (DIGICI), as public WHOIS information records that the firewall IPs are registered to “Dirección General de Inteligencia Civil.”
Seen in Scan: 2015/6/1 – 2016/5/2
Firewall IPs: 190.111.27.165 – 167
Surveillance Abuses in Guatemala
A 2018 investigation by Guatemalan newspaper Nuestro Diario found that an Israeli arms dealer sold a variety of spy tools, including NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware and a Circles system, to a secret unit within DIGICI. The unit reportedly used the equipment to conduct illegal surveillance against journalists, businesspeople, and political opponents of the government. The surveillance arose amidst extreme physical threat to members of civil society. A recent report identified over 900 attacks between 2017-2018 in Guatemala, originating from both government and non-state actors.