Ap Exclusive: Colombia 'panic Buttons' Expose Activists

[...] the Associated Press, with an independent security audit, uncovered technical flaws that could let hostile parties disable them, eavesdrop on conversations and track users' movements. When effective, they can be crucial lifelines against criminal gangs, paramilitary groups or the hostile security forces of repressive regimes. Built-in GPS pinpoints the user's location. Because the device can be remotely wiped, it can also be reconfigured from afar, said Deral Heiland, the researcher with Rapid7 who performed the audit. [...] security experts said there are ways a sophisticated adversary could obtain the numbers, including fake cell tower technology that captures numbers and bribes to cell company or government employees. "To me, it's just a device to spy on you," said Rocio Campos, an activist in the Magdalena River refinery city of Barrancabermeja whose brother was disappeared in 1998 and who has been helping prosecutors search for unmarked graves. Activists have good reason to be wary of public officials in Colombia, where murder rates for land and labor activists are among the world's highest, and there is a legacy of state-sponsored crime. The DAS domestic intelligence agency, which provided bodyguards and armored vehicles to high-risk individuals prior to 2011, was disbanded after being caught spying on judges, journalists and activists. Five former DAS officials have been prosecuted for allegedly subjecting Duque and her daughter to psychological torture after she published articles implicating agency officials in the 1999 assassination of Jaime Garzon, a much-loved satirist. Mora rejected any suggestion that his office, which offers protective services to some 6,500 people, distributed panic buttons with the intent of spying on activists. In Mexico, the attorney general's office has issued more than 200 emergency alert devices to journalists and rights activists since 2013. Sweden-based Civil