The scandal involving NSO Group and its spyware Pegasus has not yet subsided when journalists discovered a new company hiding from the public that tracks politicians, media workers, and celebrities around the world. Information about this was published in the Republic.
The company First Wrap and its system Altamides (Advanced Location and Mobile Information Tracking System) became known for its surveillance methods that do not require physical access to devices.
In July, journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, while at the Casa Cipriani club in Milan, was browsing a map on his laptop when he realized the significance of what he saw. He noticed that his mobile operator, San Marino Telecom, had scanned the Italian network in 2012 to determine the nearest antenna to his phone. This discovery transported him back to a time when he feared for his safety.
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He published the book "His Holiness: The Secret Documents of Benedict XVI," exposing corruption in the Vatican. On the day of the book's release, his phone was under surveillance, and over the following days, there were more than 200 tracking attempts.
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“I was shocked when I learned about this,” Nuzzi noted.
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His movements, reconstructed using the First Wap system, show every detail of his routes through Milan, Rome, and other cities.
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The day after the Vatican police arrested Pope Benedict's butler for document theft, the surveillance ceased.
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How is this Indonesian company connected to the investigation of the Italian journalist? The answers lead us to the mysteries of First Wap.
Last year, the Lighthouse Reports editorial team gained access to a secret archive containing over a million instances of the Altamides system being used to track mobile phones.
This extensive archive, covering the period from 2007 to 2014 and containing about 14,000 numbers from 168 countries, represents one of the largest revelations in the field of surveillance. It not only contains phone numbers but also precise maps of their owners' movements.
During a months-long investigation conducted by Lighthouse, German Paper Trail Media, Mother Jones, Reveal, and an international consortium, the targets of surveillance and the reasons for these actions were identified.
“We identified surveillance targets in 100 countries and interviewed dozens of victims. We gained access to confidential documents describing how Altamides was implemented and sold. We also spoke with industry representatives and former employees to understand how it all works,” the investigation reports.
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“Our findings show that surveillance technologies existed long before Edward Snowden brought attention to them,” the journalists added.
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Despite its significant volume, the archive is only a small part of the data on surveillance conducted using Altamides, but it vividly demonstrates how these technologies were used around the world,” the article emphasizes.
The company First Wrap was founded in 1999 by Austrian Josef Fuchs, who moved to Indonesia. Operating from Jakarta, where favorable export laws facilitated their business growth, the founders of First Wap created an empire of phone tracking that spanned from the Vatican to Silicon Valley.
The Altamides system, according to the company, is a “unified platform for covert real-time location tracking of suspects.” Unlike spyware such as Pegasus, Altamides leaves no traces on devices and does not require the victim to click on suspicious links.
The secret of the Altamides technology lies in the use of the outdated SS7 signaling system, which allows tracking a subscriber's location without leaving any noticeable traces.
First Wap claims that its technologies are intended for law enforcement in the fight against crime and corruption and that it bears no responsibility for the use of its products after sale.
However, similar justifications were also voiced by NSO Group regarding Pegasus, which did not reduce the number of accusations against the company.
Clients of Altamides included figures such as Blackwater founder Erik Prince, executives from Raytheon, and employees of telecommunications companies. For instance, the system tracked the location of Google engineers and 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki as she moved through Silicon Valley.
The system was also used to surveil journalists and celebrities, including Hollywood star Jared Leto and the former Prime Minister of Qatar.
“The company operated in the shadows, avoiding accountability and transparency,” noted Ron Deibert, director of Citizen Lab, who also participated in the exposure of Pegasus.
“This creates opportunities for the most brutal dictators to undermine the foundations of liberal democracy,” he added.
“For a long time, it was claimed that such tools were only available to state structures. However, our investigation of First Wap shows the opposite, revealing the uncontrolled spread of such technologies,” the investigation emphasizes.
According to data and interviews with former employees, clients of Altamides also included authoritarian regimes in Belarus, Malaysia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and other countries.
“This tracking system demonstrates its effectiveness in more than ten countries,” a company representative noted in 2013.
Requests from journalists to representatives of these states went unanswered.
Ron Deibert emphasized that this client list represents a “gallery of authoritarian countries systematically violating human rights.”
“This is despotism on demand,” he added.
