When Boniface Mwangi, the prominent Kenyan pro-democracy activist who plans to run for president in 2027 , had his phones returned to him by Kenyan authorities after his controversial arrest last July , he immediately noticed a problem: one of the phones was no longer password protected and could be opened without one.
计划于 2027 年竞选总统的肯尼亚著名民主活动人士博尼法斯·姆旺吉 (Boniface Mwangi) 去年 7 月备受争议地被捕，当肯尼亚当局将手机归还给他时，他立即注意到一个问题：其中一部手机不再受密码保护，无需密码即可打开。
It was Mwangi’s personal phone, which he used to communicate with friends and mentors, and contained photos of private family moments with his wife and children. Knowing that its contents could be in the hands of the Kenyan government made Mwangi – who has described harassment and even torture – feel unsafe and “exposed”, he told the Guardian.
这是姆旺吉的私人手机，他用它与朋友和导师交流，手机上还包含与妻子和孩子的私人家庭时刻的照片。 他告诉《卫报》，知道其中的内容可能落入肯尼亚政府手中，姆旺吉（曾描述过骚扰甚至酷刑）感到不安全和“暴露”。
A report released on Tuesday by Citizen Lab, which tracks digital threats against civil society, has found with “high confidence” that Kenyan authorities used Israeli technology to break into Mwangi’s phone while he was under arrest last year, when the device was in police custody.
追踪针对公民社会的数字威胁的公民实验室周二发布的一份报告“高度可信”地发现，肯尼亚当局在姆旺吉去年被捕期间（当时该设备被警方扣押）使用以色列技术侵入了姆旺吉的手机。
Authorities’ use of the technology, made by Cellebrite, “could have enabled the full extraction of all materials from Mwangi’s device, including messages, private materials, personal files, financial information, passwords, and other sensitive information”, Citizen Lab said.
公民实验室表示，当局使用 Cellebrite 制造的技术“可以完全提取 Mwangi 设备中的所有材料，包括消息、私人材料、个人文件、财务信息、密码和其他敏感信息”。
The findings, researchers claimed, add to the growing body of evidence that Cellebrite’s technology is being “abused by its government clients, and the company is failing to prevent those abuses from happening”.
研究人员声称，这些发现进一步证明 Cellebrite 的技术“被政府客户滥用，而该公司未能阻止这些滥用行为的发生”。
In a statement to the Guardian, Cellebrite said it maintained a “rigorous process for reviewing allegations of technology misuse” and that it took “decisive action”, including licence termination, when credible and substantiated evidence is presented to the company.
Cellebrite 在给《卫报》的一份声明中表示，它维持了“严格的程序来审查技术滥用的指控”，并在向公司提供可靠且经过证实的证据时采取了“果断行动”，包括终止许可。
“We do not respond to speculation and encourage any organisation with specific, evidence-based concerns to share them with us directly so we can act on them,” the company said.
该公司表示：“我们不会对猜测做出回应，并鼓励任何有具体、基于证据的担忧的组织直接与我们分享，以便我们采取行动。”
The Guardian reached out to Kenya’s police spokesperson and the Kenyan embassy in Washington for comment but did not receive a response.
《卫报》联系了肯尼亚警方发言人和肯尼亚驻华盛顿大使馆请其置评，但没有收到回复。
Amnesty International said last July, after Mwangi’s arrest and charges that he unlawfully possessed ammunition in connection to his role in street protests, that the legal campaign against him appeared to be “part of a broader effort to intimidate lawful dissent and those committed to upholding the rule of law”. Mwangi was released on bond a few days after his arrest and is expected again in court on Wednesday.
国际特赦组织去年 7 月表示，在姆旺吉被捕并被指控非法持有与他在街头抗议活动有关的弹药后，针对他的法律运动似乎是“旨在恐吓合法异议人士和致力于维护法治的人士的更广泛努力的一部分”。 姆旺吉被捕几天后被保释，预计将于周三再次出庭。
In an interview, Mwangi said he knew he operated in an environment of constant surveillance. By the time authorities came for him, he said, they had collected information about him from other people’s phones, and “knew my role in the movement”.
姆旺吉在接受采访时表示，他知道自己是在一个持续受到监视的环境中工作的。 他说，当当局来抓他时，他们已经从其他人的手机中收集了有关他的信息，并“知道了我在这场运动中的角色”。
“We know that I get spied on all the time. I know that my phone calls are monitored and my messages are read,” he said.
“我们知道我一直受到监视。 我知道我的电话被监听，我的消息被阅读，”他说。
Last year, a forensic analysis by Citizen Lab found that the FlexiSPY spyware had been installed on phones belonging to Kenyan film-makers Bryan Adagala and Nicholas Wambugu while the devices were in police possession. Police were investigating them in connection with a BBC documentary incriminating security forces in killings during anti-government protests in 2024 . The BBC denied the two men were involved in the production.
去年，公民实验室的一项取证分析发现，肯尼亚电影制片人布莱恩·阿达加拉 (Bryan Adagala) 和尼古拉斯·万布古 (Nicholas Wambugu) 的手机上安装了 FlexiSPY 间谍软件，而这些设备由警方持有。 警方正在根据 BBC 一部纪录片对他们进行调查，该纪录片指控安全部队在 2024 年反政府抗议活动中杀人。 BBC 否认这两个人参与了制作。
The latest findings by Citizen Lab, Mwangi said, pointed to the role played by “non-state actors” in enabling the surveillance of pro-democracy activists by a government accused of abducting people.
姆旺吉说，公民实验室的最新调查结果指出了“非国家行为者”在被指控绑架的政府对民主活动人士进行监视方面发挥的作用。
“By them giving the government the access to spy on me, they’re putting my life in jeopardy,” he said.
“他们允许政府监视我，他们将我的生命置于危险之中，”他说。
Citizen Lab’s latest findings follow a separate report released in January , in which the researchers said authorities in Jordan appeared to be using Cellebrite to extract information from the mobile phones of activists and protesters who had been critical of Israel and spoken out in support of Gaza .
公民实验室的最新发现是在一月份发布的另一份报告之后得出的，研究人员在报告中表示，约旦当局似乎正在使用 Cellebrite 从批评以色列并公开支持加沙的活动人士和抗议者的手机中提取信息。
In response to the report, Cellebrite said at the time that its technology was used to “access private data only in accordance with legal due process or with appropriate consent to aid investigations legally after an event has occurred”.
Cellebrite 当时在回应该报告时表示，其技术“仅根据法律正当程序或在获得适当同意的情况下用于访问私人数据，以在事件发生后合法地协助调查”。
Cellebrite products have reportedly also been used to target members of civil society in other parts of the world, including in Myanmar and Botswana. There have also been indications of its use in Serbia and Belarus .
据报道，Cellebrite 产品还被用于针对世界其他地区的民间社会成员，包括缅甸和博茨瓦纳。 也有迹象表明它已在塞尔维亚和白俄罗斯使用。
John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, said: “Your phone holds the keys to your life, and governments shouldn’t be able to help themselves to the contents just because they don’t like what you are saying … When Cellebrite sells their technology to a security service with a track record of abuses, journalists, activists, and people speaking their conscience are at risk.”
公民实验室高级研究员约翰·斯科特·雷顿 (John Scott-Railton) 表示：“你的手机掌握着你生活的钥匙，政府不应该仅仅因为不喜欢你所说的内容就自行获取其中的内容……当 Cellebrite 将他们的技术出售给有滥用记录的安全部门时，记者、活动人士和敢于表达自己良心的人就会面临风险。”