Listen to and even record Skype calls. Access emails and chat applications like Whatsapp, Viber, Hangout or Telegram. Activate the microphone and camera cell phones. Detecting the location of a phone. Record all actions taken with the keyboard, which can include passwords. All this is what gives the spy program that the Italian company Hacking Team (HT) named in honor of two of its most prominent compatriots: “Galileo” and “Da Vinci”. The same software that the prosecution presented last year. That the police acquired in 2013. In 2008 he was offered nothing more and nothing less than the DAS.
At this point it is known that the equipment and licenses HT (a multinational happened reputed a question by the scope of its spying software and customers to which it has sold) came to Colombia in 2013 by the National Police. Five years ago, in the Uribe era, HT had already sought to do business with the DAS. At that time, they would know later in the Administrative Department of Security intercepted communications of high court judges, journalists, dissidents and human rights defenders illegally.
In 2008, in Bogota, he’s meeting between representatives of HT and DAS: and let him know one of the participants by the security agency, William Merchan Lopez, in a message sent on 14 August last year to [email protected] . This email is part of the universe of thousands of messages that entered or left HT accounts that were leaked two weeks ago (can be found at Wikileaks). Merchan also wrote: “We are interested in knowing if they have a supplier in Colombia (the software” Galileo “) and ask for contact information and a budget.” “We” who? The prosecutor’s office.
Because Merchan is one of nearly 4,000 DAS agents, when it was liquidated in 2011, he came to the investigative body. And now, as it is an important piece of CTI, is both investigated by the same entity you work on behalf of illegal wiretapping by the DAS.
On Wednesday July 15, The Spectator met with a senior official of the Prosecutor to discuss the issue of “Galileo” program. The official, who is aware of everything that makes the CTI, said he had no further information on this software or HT. The leaked emails, however, say the opposite: a month after the mail Merchan, a delegate from the company Robotec -company member of HT in Colombia from 2009-HT he confirmed that he had met with the director of CTI, Julian Quintana; William Merchan, and two other officials of the Office.
At that meeting, the spokesman was Hugo Robotec Ardila, head of defense and national security of the company. His conclusions were: “I loved the system, the demonstration was good. They are expanding their current system of legal interception (…) Roadmap: wait until next week for feedback. Regards. Hugo Ardila “. El Espectador found that the senior official of the Prosecutor-the same who said he knew more thing “Galileo” – knew every detail of that meeting which took place on September 16 last year at 9 am
Ardila not only helped HT to get a contract with the Police for which it paid 335,000 (dollars or euros, the leaked documents do not specify the currency) for the licensing of “Galileo” was also the who urged negotiations with the National Secretariat for Intelligence Ecuador (Senain). Ecuador’s government denied any “contractual relationship” with HT, while the disclosed emails showed that in October last year, Senain to argue with HT and Robotec for some payments. Colombian police, meanwhile, said in a brief statement the same as Ecuador. I had no business relationship with HT
In Colombia, explained this newspaper a week ago, it was true that there was no relationship between the Italian company and the police: the business was done as an intermediary Robotec and Ecuador, reveal mails, the business closed in the same way. The neighboring country paid 535,000 (dollars or euros). So, without signing contracts with Hacking Team directly, both Colombia and Ecuador bought this spy software. In Ecuador, reported the newspaper El Universo, the defense minister of that country said that “no public official is authorized to spy on anyone, even in the name of national security”.
The Spectator Hugo sought to Ardila. He called his office and his cell Robotec but did not respond. Suffice it to say that last week the manager Robotec, Jaime Caicedo, attended the requirements of this newspaper and stated that “the purpose of the technology Hacking Team and why it was developed is to provide law enforcement agencies a tool that allowing them to conduct their research, prevent crime and prosecute those responsible for its commission. It is a surveillance tool that only sold to government agencies. “
is coming Puma
This week, again, El Espectador asked interview with Police Director, General Rodolfo Palomino, by concerns generated by software that allows full control over the computer or cell phone hacks. And General Palomino, again, did not respond to the request of this newspaper, despite our day to call his press office.
To this day, the question of Hacking Team is important for three reasons . The main one: the doubts that cause the same software on their uses and possible abuses. Second questionable clients had HT, as the RAB of Bangladesh, noted for four years by Human Rights Watch of being a death squad. And finally, for what’s going on in the world since the files of HT they leaked: a week ago, for example, gave the chief of the Intelligence Service of Cyprus when it was learned that the body had acquired the “Galileo program “.
What I was clear this week, the interview Palomino gave the newspaper El Tiempo five days ago, it is that the only platform Monitoring and Analysis (Puma) Police could start very soon. “I expect to (that) two months this can move forward,” said the senior officer. Puma was suspended by the attorney general, Eduardo Montealegre, in August last year arguing that the platform the police would be able to make interceptions independently, when he could only do so under the coordination of Hope, the system of prosecution.
Since then, the police and the prosecution have been working together to Puma to work. At the end of the day, on that platform it became an investment of $ 48,000 million in 2007 with the consortium Nice-Eagle. Nice is an Israeli company that has also served as a member of Hacking Team in their businesses in Colombia with the police. Last year equipment was bought Puma rooms in Bucaramanga and Villavicencio. And besides, they license for the “Galileo” existing software were purchased until 2016. If Puma takes almost a year suspended, that means “Galileo” takes almost a year without being used.
Prosecutor also they confirmed that the only thing missing for Puma boot is that, technologically speaking, the necessary adjustments so that the entire platform is subordinate to the Esperanza system are made, and not that it is a loose wheel interceptions.
And who controls?
El Espectador asked the prosecutor who exercises control over their rooms interception. The answer was that, each month, the director of CTI does an audit in which we review what is intercepting match what the judges have approved. In the Police, General Palomino supposed -the could explain better-there are also internal controls. Can a country like Colombia rely on self-monitoring authorities? Is it enough self-control with programs such as “Galileo” whose manufacturers claim that only those who have access to it (judicial investigators) can trace their use, making it difficult to establish when the tool was used?
Javier Paello, Access analyst (an international organization that monitors human rights issues in digital environments), expressed to this day his main concern about “Galileo”: “HT tools are too invasive. It is a complete remote control system. It works as a Trojan virus. One of the principles that are used in matters of security and human rights is that actions must be necessary and proportionate, but it gets very complicated when tools too invasive. “
Privacy International, an organization based in London also monitors online privacy issues, he told this newspaper: “The invasive technologies are able to collect, edit and extract all information stored on a device. The type of “malware” (malicious software) that sells mainly hacks Hacking Team equipment to read emails and messages even if those messages were never sent. It is a useful tool if you focus on the ‘bad guys’, as drug traffickers or pedophiles, with a warrant. But it is just as bad if used against journalists, opposition … “.
With the intelligence law that Congress passed in 2013, the Intelligence Committee now chaired by Senator Carlos Fernando Galán, was created in Radical Change. “For a long time the country’s intelligence apparatus operated without an appropriate legal framework; Law 1621 of 2013 not only seeks to overcome these problems but establishes political control in head of Congress. ” But that control is in “stand by” because, first, the Commission should establish protocols for handling sensitive information. . The drafts are held by the boards of the Senate and House but have not been approved “and, therefore, the Commission was unable to move”
Guy concludes: “Only with an adequate control over intelligence of the country, given the unfortunate history that led to the elimination of DAS, it is possible to ensure that the activity is done properly and respecting human rights “
Epilogue:. the matter Merchan
Another important aspect in this story is the presence of the Prosecutor Merchan. Sources explained that Merchan body “are managing the computer lab of CTI to be set in the bunker, why had contact with potential contractors”, which would explain its initiative to seek people of HT. But, at the same time, Merchan is under investigation: in 2012, when the former director of the DAS, Jorge Noguera, was called to trial, the Prosecution 11 Delegate to the Supreme Court ordered Merchan was linked to a case in which crimes are investigated as unlawful violation of communications and abuse of authority.
In the sentence former officials of the DAS as Enrique Ariza (former director of intelligence), Martha Leal (exsubdirectora analysis) and Jackeline Sandoval (exsubdirectora counterintelligence), is Lee Merchan was subordinate Sandoval and supported the work of so-called G3, the group followed DAS “political targets”. The coordinator of the G3, the late Jaime Ovalle, told the justice that Merchan was “who gave reports and summaries of the interceptions”. Sandoval defended the work of Merchan, noting that both she and he followed orders who, like Ovalle, had authority to make them requirements.
On 18 September last year, in the course of research, Prosecutor determined that there was no reason for Merchan was taken into custody. In the high command of the body, they say they can not ignore that it is being investigated, but not violate the presumption of innocence. “He’s very good at what he does. He is the only person in Colombia certified ethical hacker. He is a teacher, lecturer, has made empirically. But, yes: they put in an administrative position while the investigation continues, he does not have access to interception equipment, “they said in the prosecution.
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