The issue passed by the Colombian media agenda without major complications, but the issue is not minor. A week ago it started leaking classified information Hacking Team, a reputed Italian company that specializes in cyber surveillance (as is, the hacker was hacked) and that way business details were known worldwide. Its flagship product is a software that allows computers to intercept, skype calls, emails, instant messages and passwords: Remote Control System (RCS, in English). And the Colombian police have this software to spy, which has been strongly questioned.
The response of the entity was a statement in which he said that “the purpose of this purchase was potentiate the detection capability threats of terrorism and organized crime in cyberspace. ” In a country like this that the security forces resort to all possible tools to fight crime is the least that citizens expect. Viewer , however, he requested an interview with the director of the Police General Rodolfo Palomino, as are several questions that remain to review in detail the leaked information. The press office reported that it would not give interviews on this subject.
But no doubts vanished. For starters, the police said “has not sustained business relationship with the firm Hacking Team,” but with Robotec Colombia SA, which could be a half-truth. On the one hand, as explained Robotec manager, Jaime Caicedo, this newspaper, which was acquired Police licensed software owned and rights belong to the manufacturer, which is Hacking Team (HT). Viewer Caicedo asked if the police knew that HT was behind the business, but the response merely explained Caicedo who owned the software.
Moreover initially HT did not want the police to know who was behind the business. That intention is read in the history of post-and disclosed filtered platform Wikileaks between representatives of HT and an Israeli company called Nice, who served as a member of HT in the business. In July 2013, employees of both companies discussed how and when would be the presentation of the proposal to the Director of the Colombian police, and then Daniele Milan, COO of HT, he said Zohar Weizinger of Nice: “As anticipated, we’ll be there together as Nice, because at this time we can not present ourselves as HT “.
In large part, HT showed great interest in the Colombian police because, they said their employees, the institution had approved it a budget $ 60 million and “at least 20MM will be invested in technologies to improve capabilities and cyber technologies (hacking tools)”, warned delegates Hacking Team who were tracking the issue. “It’s not a small business,” they said. However, the end result was the sale of a software license to spy, in force between 2013 and 2016, which cost US $ 336,000 (in 2013, less than $ 600 million) and an annual maintenance fee of US $ 35,000. There is another important detail that is found among the hundreds of messages sent while negotiations were advancing, that the sales director of Hacking Team, Marco Bettini showed intent to mislead the police offering, through its partner Nice, a product which, apparently, he had already acquired Robotec in a different business. “If the customer acknowledges the console, what will your reaction to know (…) we are trying to sell the same product twice?” Asked Bettini account director HT, Alex Velasco. “If the demonstration the client recognizes the console, Nice can say you are integrating the technology. The most important thing is that HT is not involved, “Bettini said.
In another message, Bettini explained that HT had engaged in espionage software offer to Colombia because Nice had insisted it was a project “billionaire” and that they wanted to keep the principle of anonymity because they would not harm another proposal that had walking in the country. In the end, the president of HT, David Vincenzetti accepted that someone in your company who had never been in contact with police in Colombia to travel to Nice to negotiate, as called for Nice, for HT not be business-related. In August 2013, the alliance between Nice, Robotec and Hacking Team was a fact.
In March 2014, the business was about to go under. HT engineer, Sergio Rodriguez-Solis wrote to his company informing him that the police were about to disqualify the RCS spy software because it allegedly did not serve. “Let’s get two things Rodriguez warned: first, users do not know much about computers or cell phones, so they are asking for magic. And second, they do not understand a word of English. ” In another message he said: “The problem is the hierarchy, the chiefs who want results today without leaving them without professional practice. It is a political problem and magical wishes. . Nothing new in HT “
A detail: the messages appear more than the police could clarify, is that in December 2013 Hugo Ardila, of Robotec, director of the area of defense and national security Robotec sent these words to HT and Nice: “Our friends told us that the police got the contract Puma. Congratulations. Here we are to anything else. ” If Robotec was the ally of HT and Nice, why do we talk business Puma (Single Platform Monitoring and Analysis) as something apart? Did they offer twice the same to the police, and said other messages or were different businesses?
In the financial records of Hacking Team to figure reported a business with the Directorate of Police Intelligence ( Dipol) for US $ 335,000, with Robotec partner. And we read a second project with the Dipon (National Police), specifically for the Puma program, for which US $ 608,000 is expected in 2014 and in 2015, $ 750,000. But Puma is not working. In fact, it could not start by fierce opposition from the attorney general, Eduardo Montealegre, who noted that Puma could become a loose wheel and that only the prosecutor had the power to intercept communications. “
An entity like police can not do anything but deal with kid gloves a theme such as espionage. Not only for the obvious antecedents, such as the DAS wiretapping opposition in the Uribe era. Or irregular interceptions, which reached up to government negotiators in Havana that were detected in the Grey Room of the Central Military Intelligence and places façade and “Andromeda” in Bogota. Or the appearance and subsequent conviction of hackers as Andrés Sepúlveda, who admitted making illegal cyber jobs hired by the then presidential candidate of the Democratic Center, Oscar Ivan Zuluaga.
In addition to all these precedents, the police have his own spot: in 2007, the journal Week found that the agency had illegally tapped characters of public life as Claudia Gurisatti, now director of Noticias RCN, or Carlos Gaviria, the former magistrate of the Court Constitutional who he died last March 31. “It was discovered that staff of the Directorate of Intelligence of the National Police (Dipol) illegally recorded members of the government, the opposition and journalists for two years so,” then said the magazine. The scandal cost the head 11 generals, including the head of the time, Jorge Daniel Castro.
Background complicated
Colombia, like any other country, you need tools to fight crime . But the spy software of choice to do so, the RCS of Hacking Team, has received criticisms from before it acquired Colombia. In July 2012, the US news website Bloomberg’s computer revealed that pro-democracy activist Ahmed Mansoor, of the United Arab Emirates, had been intercepted illegally. In the same month, history repeated itself with a group of journalists in Morocco. What was the common factor? The software, through a Trojan virus, had been installed on computers. What was the software? RCS, Hacking Team.
El Espectador asked the manager Robotec, Jaime Caicedo, if he knew this background the company markets its software (question that also would have made to the police). His response: “It is regrettable misuse give any tool. The purpose of technology Hacking Team is to provide law enforcement agencies a tool that allows them to conduct their research, prevent crime and prosecute those responsible for having committed it. RCS is a surveillance tool that is sold only to government agencies law. Each agency must have procedures to ensure their proper use “
Caicedo said something else.” The manufacturer indicates Hacking Team (which) researchers have a complete record of the investigation using tools Hacking Team. Nobody can trace its use. ” However, there is an organization that has analyzed, at least since 2012, the RCS HT: Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, which indicated that this software does have a way of being tracked. Citizen Lab highlighted another important aspect: “The combination of the global proliferation, and doubtful promises of secrecy, leading to possible dangers in unregulated and non-transparent market”
This absence of control could be reflected. in episodes like the mess between Hacking Team and the United Nations. Last year, the UN sent several communications to them both Hacking Team as the representative of Italy to the United Nations asking why Hacking Team had sold the RCS software to Sudan, a country that had an arms embargo and could use that program “Electronic military intelligence.” In April this year, HT responded that the RCS could not possibly be considered a weapon and had always proved a reliable company that operated within the law.
While these questions are resolved, Robotec, the HT partner in Colombia since 2009, says his priority now, while confidential information Hacking Team continues surfacing, is “the relationship with our customers,” because the details of the operation of the RCS could also hinder criminal investigations. Since HT was hacked, the company said it was in a “dangerous situation”, assessing how to mitigate the danger. “All our customers have stopped using the system was compromised in the attack,” the company said.
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Other customers Hacking Team
The list of countries or organizations have acquired a license to use spy software RCS, created by Hacking Team, is extensive. The list includes the Italian police, the National Intelligence Center Spain, Luxembourg tax authorities, the FBI and DEA in the United States.
They also appear, however, countries with disastrous records on protection of human rights. This is the case of Oman, Uzbekistan, Morocco police, the national security apparatus Egypt, Qatar agencies and Saudi Arabia.
The theft of information they did to Hacking Team was 400 GB. Wikileaks joined a few days ago and rose to its platform more than a million emails that went or came from employee accounts Hacking Team. “These internal messages show, from within, work such a global industry as controversial: the surveillance,” said the portal
The issue Hacking Team in the media .
Three Colombian media in particular he paid some attention to this issue. The first was the portal The 2 Banks, who questioned why police had hired a service business intelligence. Soon after, the police say in a statement that “the purpose of the acquisition of this tool was the protection of Colombian”
The daily El Tiempo also stopped on the issue. Technosphere explained section Similarly the information he had disclosed the 2 shores and explained the more technical part of the software Hacking Team: “A system installed directly on the device to be monitored”
The W, meanwhile,. also he covered the subject. He interviewed Jaime Caicedo, Robotec manager, and a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, who warned that the operation of HT in Colombia is very aggressive
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