The Information Network Security Administration or INSA ( am, የመረጃ መረብ ደህንነት አስተዳደር , translit=yämäräǧa märäbə dähənənätə ʾäsətädadär) is the national

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...

and

cybersecurity Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...

agency of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

, founded by

Abiy Ahmed Abiy Ahmed Ali ( om, Abiyi Ahmed Alii; am, አብይ አሕመድ ዐሊ; born 15 August 1976) is an Ethiopian politician who has been the 4th prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia since 2 April 2018. He won the 2019 ...

when the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) was the ruling party of Ethiopia.

Creation

The Information Network Security Administration was founded by

, who later (in 2018) became

Prime Minister of Ethiopia The Prime Minister of Ethiopia is the head of government and Chief Executive of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a parliamentary republic with a Prime Minister as head of the government and the Commander-in-Chief of the Ethiopian Armed Forces. The Pri ...

, during the EPRDF's period in power. The legal basis of creating INSA in 2006 was the Council of Ministers Regulation No.130/2006, with goals including defence of Ethiopian information infrastructure. Among the initial activities of INSA was spying on dissidents among the

Ethiopian diaspora Ethiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of ...

using "sophisticated intrusion and surveillance software", and to lay legal charges against journalists and opposition activists and politicians of "treason" and "terrorism".

Legal changes

The Council of Ministers Regulation No.250/2011 and Proclamation No.808/2013 updated the initial legal definitions of INSA.

Leadership and structure

On 20 April 2018,

Temesgen Tiruneh Temesgen Tiruneh is the director general of Ethiopia's National Intelligence and Security Service. On 8 November 2020, Temesgen Tiruneh was appointed to the position of director general of NISS by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, in the midst of the Ti ...

was appointed Director-General of INSA. Who later become director of NISS. As of Februarys 2021 the head of INSA was Shumete Gizaw. In October 2018, responsibility for INSA was given to the Ministry of Peace. It was reverted back to the office of the prime minister in October 2021.

Password incident

In 2019, INSA was the subject of notoriety when a crack revealed that more than half of a sample of 300 agents were using extremely simple passwords.

References

Government agencies of Ethiopia Signals intelligence agencies {{ethiopia-gov-stub