Special services can tap phones - media

    Kazakhstan’s state security services are capable of intercepting telephone conversations, controlling Internet traffic and accessing SMS and MMS messages, CA-NEWS reports, citing the Access Global Movement for Digital Freedom report.
    The author of new research on the export and resale of Russian surveillance technology to Central Asian countries, Peter Bourgelais surveyed four countries: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, which collectively have a population of 55 million people.
    “The state security services of Kazakhstan are able to tap into communications on fixed-line phones, track Internet traffic, semi-structured data such as SMS, MMS, posts on forums, as well as perform automatic recognition of voices and faces. They have certain capacity for tracking cellular communications, as well as the advanced software for data analysis,” he writes.
    The report says Kazakhstan’s surveillance is allegedly conducted using OIMS technologies, just like in Uzbekistan.
    OIMS (Operational-Investigative Means System) is Russian technology made by the KGB that intercepts telephone calls. According to Access, this system was copied and distributed around Central Asia. Its new versions are capable of performing target surveillance of specific persons throughout all types of Internet and telephone communications.
    According to Access, Russian company MFI-Soft with offices in Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow supplies the equipment and software. Via its agent ALOE Systems, MFI-Soft lists Kazakhstan telecommunication companies Astel OJSCm JSC Nursat and KazakhTelecom (51 percent owned by the state) among its clients.
    The speech technologies center (a Saint-Petersburg company specializing in speech phonograms) also allegedly has business in Kazakhstan.
    Besides, the report states the Semantic Archive system developed by the Moscow-based Analytical Business Solutions (ABS) is used for accessing SMS, MMS, forums, blogs and social media.
    Systems similar to Semantic Archive are developed for collection of information from various sources into one database with an optimized search engine.
    The report says this system is being used by Kazakhtelecom.
    ABS advertisement materials also mention several major telecommunication companies in the region, such as MTS and VympelCom’s brand Beeline.
    The Xfiles system, which is developed by the Russian i-Teco, is similar to these systems. The company lists the Kazakhstan Justice Ministry and several regional telecommunication companies among its clients, www.tengrinews.kz wrote.