CHINA TO HELP ZAMBIAN GOVT SPY ON ALL CITIZENS

China is facing allegations that it is helping the Zambian government with deep packet inspection technology to eavesdrop, mine data, censor and intercept communications.

The allegations come less than two years after the Chinese government was accused of helping the Ethiopian government block news websites in Ethiopia and jam Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT) and other broadcasters including the Voice of America and Germany’s Deutsche Welle Amharic service.

Deep packet inspection technology (DPI) allows monitoring of traffic from a specific IP address and enables the ability to spy on email even as it is being typed out by the user. The Zambian government reportedly intends to introduce the monitoring mechanism to vet Internet services coming in and out of the country.

Zambian and Chinese security officials have reportedly been traveling between the two countries for the project, expected to cost the Zambian government over $5 million.

Officials from the country’s three mobile operators — MTN, Airtel and Zamtel — and some ISPs have confirmed on condition of anonymity that in the past week, members of the Office of the President (OP) have been visiting them in an attempt to facilitate monitoring of e-mail and voice communications.

Zambian Minister of Information and Broadcasting Kennedy Sakeni and Chinese embassy officials declined to comment about the reports. However, the Zambian government has made it clear in the recent past that it wants to monitor popular social media networks including Facebook and Twitter as well as blogs and e-mails, and block unfriendly news websites.

“The introduction of communication monitoring would clearly undermine civil liberties because the office of the president can snoop on all e-mails and internet traffic,” opposition National Restoration Party President Elias