Fears Over Citizens’ Privacy as Iran Reveals New Mandatory Antivirus Mobile App
Iranian authorities revealed a new mobile antivirus software which they plan to make mandatory on all phones, for all citizens.
Named Farez, it’s a security scanner system that promises to check all the apps on a device for any sign of malware to block those categorized as malicious.
The Iranian Cyber Police, also known as FATA, hasn’t disclosed any details on how the system will work in practice. Both citizens and experts now worry that Farez might be another tool for censorship and surveillance.
A state-developed antivirus system
“The Iranian government’s announcement of the Farez antivirus mobile app raises concerns about the privacy and security of its citizens,” Azam Jangravi, Information Security Analyst at Citizen Lab, told me.
Jangravi, a women’s rights activist, experienced the lengths Iranian authorities will go to when it comes to spying on and silencing activists or any other person standing up against the regime. After being arrested for joining the Girls of Revolution Street movement in 2018, she managed to flee Iran for Canada during her temporary release and escaped a three-year sentence.
She explained that one of the risks of having such a government app installed on phones is that authorities may use the software to “filter the content that the government deems inappropriate.”
Looking at Iran’s track record, this hardly takes a stretch of the imagination. The government proposed a similar mandatory software in 2011, in fact. So-called SmartFilter, the system was designed to block access to websites the government regarded as unlawful or inappropriate.
Now, one year after the protests erupted in September 2022 fueled by
the death of Mahsa Jhina Amini, Iran has increasingly been using technology as a tool of control.
VPN service provider Surfshark counted a total of 46 internet disruptions since 2015. Among these, 35 were related to protests, and many of them were enforced following last year’s unrest. From internet throttling, blackouts of mobile data, and restrictions of all the major social media platforms, Iranians living in the Zahedan region have regularly been kept in the dark every Friday during prayers ever since.
The Iranian Cyber Police, also known as FATA, recently launched a new mobile antivirus app called ‘Farez’. The authorities are making this security system mandatory on all phones used by the public. According Iran's deputy police commander said: "All mobile phones must install… pic.twitter.com/VgK6GH0Srv
— Azam Jangravi | اعظم جنگروی (@azijangravi) December 12, 2023
If that wasn’t enough, “given the history of mobile spyware attributed to Iranian government law enforcement agencies, there are fears that it could be used for surveillance,” said Jangravi. This means that FATA’s officers might also use Farez to monitor all citizens’ online activities.
In February, for example, Citizen Lab researchers discovered evidence that Iranian authorities were working on an “unprecedented” mobile spying system. In some instances, state-backed Iranian hackers have been even using fake VPN apps to spread malware to harvest sensitive data and spy on victims.
Considering the emphasis of Iran’s police deputy chief Qasem Rezaei on officers’ roles in “protecting the high values and achievements of the Islamic Revolution,” Farez could be easily seen as the missing tile of the country’s digital surveillance mosaic.
