China built and paid for the African Union building and its computer network in 2012 – leaving a backdoor to access the organization’s confidential information until it was discovered last year
BY JOAN TILOUINE | LE MONDE AFRIQUE *
At the headquarters of the African Union (AU), in Addis Ababa, elevators still speak Mandarin and the trunks of the plastic palm trees are branded China Development Bank. New buildings under construction by the company ‘s Beijing or Hong Kong surround the modern glass tower offered in 2012 by Chinese to Africa.
This is where on Sunday 28 and Monday 29 January, the 30th summit of the Pan-African organization should take place.
The controls are strict to enter this building where ministers and heads of State meet twice a year to discuss the major issues of the continent. Yet, there is an invisible security threat ignored by most of the leaders and diplomats, but one that is of utmost concern to some senior AU officials.
In January 2017, the small computer unit of the AU discovered that its servers were strangely saturated between midnight and 2 a.m. in the morning. The offices were empty, the activity was dormant, but data transfers were at a peak.
A zealous computer scientist then looked into this anomaly and realized that the internal data of the AU were massively diverted. Every night, the secrets of this institution, according to several internal sources, found themselves stored more than 8,000 km from Addis Ababa, on mysterious servers hosted somewhere in Shanghai, the Chinese megacity.
The new building, “China’s Gift to Friends of Africa”, was donated just six years ago. It has been fully equipped by the Chinese. The computer systems were delivered, turnkey. And Chinese engineers have deliberately left two flaws: backdoors, which give discrete access to all internal exchanges and productions of the organization.
According to several sources within the institution, all sensitive content could be spied on by China. A spectacular data leak, which would have spread from January 2012 to January 2017. When contacted, the Chinese mission to the AU did not reply our requests.
“It has lasted too long. As a result of this discovery, we thanked, without making a scandal, the Chinese engineers at our headquarters in Addis Ababa to manage our systems,” says a senior AU official on condition of anonymity.
“We have taken some steps to strengthen our cybersecurity, a concept that is not yet in the hands of civil servants and heads of State. We remain very exposed. “
Since then, the AU has acquired its own servers and declined China’s offer to configure them. On the ground floor of the glass tower, in a room that goes unnoticed, is a data center that focuses much of the information system of the organization. All electronic communications are now encrypted and no longer pass through Ethio Telecom, the public operator in Ethiopia, a country renowned for its cyber surveillance and electronic espionage capabilities.
Now, the highest officials of the institution have foreign phone lines and more secure applications.
During the 29th AU Summit in July 2017, new security measures have been proven. Four specialists from Algeria, one of the institution’s biggest financial contributors, and Ethiopian cybersecurity experts inspected the rooms and found microphones placed under the desks and walls.
“Nothing to be listened to by the Chinese, let go the head of the diplomacy of a great African power. They at least have never colonized us, supported the struggles of independence on the continent and help us economically today.”
A new computer architecture, independent of the Chinese, has also been deployed. Like this video conferencing system, developed by the internal IT teams and used by the heads of state, which works by cable and not by Wi-Fi. Thus, a few cautious diplomats and heads of state can continue to use their air unhindered jammer waves.
The African Union allocated just only 10 million dollars (8 million euros) of budget to information technology. With the exception of the World Bank, which has paid a part of the new data center, foreign partners are showing little interest in financing a Cyber Security Agency.
“It suits all the world be it a colander,” laments one official already present at the time of the Organization of African Unity (OAU, 1963-2002).
“We let ourselves be listened to and we do not say anything. The Chinese are here twenty-seven hours a day, have planted a lot of microphones and cyber espionage tools when they built this building. And they are not the only ones! “
According to the documents obtained by Le Monde , in collaboration with The Intercept , archives of the former consultant of the US National Security Agency (NSA) Edward Snowden, the antennas of the secret British intelligence agencies (GCHQ) have not spared the AU.
Between 2009 and 2010, several officials saw their calls and e-mails intercepted, such as Boubou Niang, the then special advisor to the UN and AU mediator in Darfur, Sudan.
Some Western powers prefer human intelligence at the AU. Like the French intelligence services who, in addition to their technical espionage devices, tried to convince heads of state of the French squares to inform them behind the scenes of these summits. To the point of trying to “recruit” those who have acceded to the rotating presidency of the AU or the head of the Commission, according to many of them, annoyed by this “humiliating” approach.
The Pan-African organization has always been particularly attached to the defense of the sovereignty and territorial integrity, two principles that feature in the AU Constitutive Act. However, due to lack of resources and awareness among Heads of State and most officials, Pan-African digital territories remain at the mercy of foreign intelligence services.
“Here, it’s safe, Inshallah ! ” quips a senior official. Attributed to China, the huge infiltration of computer information systems operation, for five long years, has nevertheless reminded some senior officials of the AU that it may be time, while the reform of the institution at this January summit discussed, to secure their cyberspace. (* software translation from French)
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