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Chinese technology firm denies it had access to Dutch government’s phone calls

April 21, 2021 by Joseph Fitsanakis Leave a comment

Huawei Poland A LEADING CHINESE TELECOMMUNICATIONS firm has strongly denied a claim by a newspaper that its service personnel could listen in on calls made by Dutch telephone users, including senior government officials. The report dates from 2010 and was authored by consultancy firm Capgemini on behalf of KPN, one of Holland’s largest telecommunications service providers. The Rotterdam-based firm had hired Capgemini to conduct a risk analysis on whether more equipment should be purchased from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. By that time the Chinese company, one of the world’s largest in its field, was already supplying KPN with hardware and software equipment.

According to the newspaper De Volkskrant, which accessed the 2010 Capgemini report, the consultants cautioned KPN against purchasing more equipment from Huawei. They told KPN bosses that the Chinese firm had “unlimited access” to the content of phone conversations by subscribers through Huawei-built hardware and software that was already present in the Dutch company’s telephone system. These included Holland’s then-Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, and virtually every government minister. The report claimed that privacy standards existed in theory, but there was no mechanism in place to ensure that they were being followed.

On Tuesday, Huawei issued strong denials of the De Volkskrant report. The firm’s chief operating officer in the Netherlands, Gert-Jan van Eck, said that the Capgemini report allegations, as reported by the newspaper, were “just not [technically] possible”. Van Eck added that such claims were “patently untrue” and represented “an underestimation of the security of the interception environment” that Huawei was operating under in Europe. The Dutch government has made no comment on the De Volkskrant report.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 21 April 2021 | Permalink

Filed under A specialized intelligence website written by experts, since 2008 Tagged with China, Huawei Technologies, Jan Peter Balkenende, Netherlands, News, telecommunications industry, telephone surveillance

Leaked documents show capabilities of new surveillance technologies

November 21, 2011 by Joseph Fitsanakis Leave a comment

Net Optics logo

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A trove of hundreds of documents, obtained by participants in a secretive surveillance conference, displays in unprecedented detail the extent of monitoring technologies used by governments around the world. The Wall Street Journal, which obtained the leaked documents, says they number in the hundreds; they were reportedly authored by 36 different private companies that specialize in supplying government agencies with the latest surveillance hardware and software. They were among dozens of vendors that participated in an unnamed conference near Washington, DC, in October, which attracted interested buyers from numerous government agencies in America and beyond. The Journal, which has uploaded scanned copies of the leaked documents, says that many include descriptions of computer hacking tools. The latter enable government agencies to break into targeted computers and access data stored in hard drives, as well as log keystrokes by the targeted computers’ users. Other applications target cellular telecommunications, especially the latest models of so-called ‘smartphones’; one vendor in particular, Vupen Security, gave a presentation at the conference, which describes how its products allow for electronic surveillance of cell phones by exploiting security holes unknown to manufacturers. Some of the most popular products at the conference related to what the industry calls “massive intercept” monitoring, namely large-scale software systems designed to siphon vast amounts of telephonic or email communications data, or to capture all Internet exchanges taking place within a country’s computer network. One conference participant, California-based Net Optics Inc., bragged in its presentation about having enabled “a major mobile operator in China” to conduct “real-time monitoring” of all cell phone [and] Internet content on its network. The stated goal of the surveillance was to “analyze criminal activity” and “detect and filter undesirable content”. Read more of this post

Filed under A specialized intelligence website written by experts, since 2008 Tagged with communications interception, computer hacking, conferences, Net Optics Inc., News, surveillance, telephone hacking, telephone surveillance, telephony, Vupen Security, wireless communications interception

News you may have missed #592

September 14, 2011 by Ian Allen Leave a comment

Nguyen Van Tau

►►Tripoli Internet spy room packed with Western technology. Excellent technical analysis of how several Western –and some Chinese– Internet software and hardware suppliers provided the Gaddafi regime with the tools to exercise mass online surveillance against the country’s citizens. Where have we seen this before?
►►Interview with Vietnamese ex-master spy. Interesting interview with Nguyen Van Tau, who led the Vietnamese H63 clandestine intelligence group during the war with the United States. H63 maintained extensive spy cells in South Vietnam, playing a major role in the 1968 Tet Offensive.
►►MI5 seeks ‘telephone spies’ for London 2012 security. MI5 is recruiting ‘telephone spies’ to listen in on plots against the 2012 Olympics. The Security Service hopes to find candidates able to eavesdrop on potential terrorists by getting foreign language speakers to play an interactive “game” online. By logging on to the official MI5 website, wannabe spooks can tune into an audio tape of a conversation in a foreign language and are later quizzed about it.

Filed under A specialized intelligence website written by experts, since 2008 Tagged with 0 Interview with Vietnamese ex-master spy, 0 MI5 seeks 'telephone spies' for London 2012 security, 0 Tripoli Internet spy room packed with Western technology, communications surveillance, H63 (North Vietnam), intelligence recruitment, Libya, MI5, News, news you may have missed, South Vietnam, telephone surveillance, Tet Offensive, Tripoli, UK, Vietnam, Vietnam War

Western companies help Bahrain spy on democracy activists

August 24, 2011 by Joseph Fitsanakis 2 Comments

NSN Logo

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
While Western governments preach to the world about the benefits of democracy, Western companies supply some of the most detestable dictatorial regimes with surveillance technologies for use against pro-democracy activists. One example in point is the repressive government of Bahrain, which, according to Amnesty International, is responsible for some of the most extensive human rights violations anywhere in the Middle East. Bahrain is the kind of place where even medical professionals who treat people wounded by police or soldiers in demonstrations are charged with “incitement”. Despite the fervor of the pro-democracy movement that has risen as part of the Arab Spring, the oil-rich royal clique that rules the nation has managed a series of debilitating hits against the reformists. The success of the crackdown is largely due the use of sophisticated telecommunications surveillance systems that allow Bahraini authorities to spy on cell phones and social networking platforms used by members of the pro-democracy opposition. Who supplied the Bahraini dictators with this equipment? Step forward German engineering conglomerate Siemens AG, and Finnish multinational Nokia. An article published this week in Bloomberg’s Markets magazine, fingers the German company as the primary supplier of telecommunications surveillance systems to the Bahraini royals. The latter rely on contracts with Nokia’s Trovicor GmbH subsidiary to maintain the sophisticated software and hardware. Bloomberg says it was notified of the Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) partnership by two unnamed insiders, “whose positions at the companies gave them direct knowledge of the installations and the sale and maintenance contracts”. Read more of this post

Filed under A specialized intelligence website written by experts, since 2008 Tagged with Bahrain, Ben Roome, civil liberties, Finland, Germany, Iran, Middle East, News, Nokia Corporation, Nokia Siemens Networks, Siemens AG, social networking, telecommunications hardware, telephone surveillance

Emirates police says US, Israel, use BlackBerry to spy

September 8, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Dahi Tamim

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The alleged use of encrypted BlackBerry communications by adversary intelligence services operating in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is prompting local authorities to consider a nationwide ban on the popular phone. This was revealed late last week by Dubai Police chief, Lt. General Dahi Khalfan bin Tamim, who repeated a warning by UAE authorities that BlackBerry services in the country will be curtailed on October 11, unless the government is given access to BlackBerry’s encryption code by the manufacturer. Several other countries in the Middle East and beyond have made similar moves, including Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, India and Indonesia, all of which have cited security reasons for the ban. But Lt. General Tamim’s comments provide the first known connection between a threat to ban BlackBerry and its alleged use by rival intelligence agencies. Read more of this post

Filed under A specialized intelligence website written by experts, since 2008 Tagged with BlackBerry, Canada, Dahi Khalfan bin Tamim, Dubai, encryption, India, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Middle East, News, Research in Motion Ltd., Saudi Arabia, Syria, telecommunications, telephone surveillance, telephony, United Arab Emirates, United States

FBI wiretaps broke the law thousands of times from 2002 to 2006

January 25, 2010 by intelNews 1 Comment

FBI memos

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Considering the extent of illegal domestic telephone surveillance practiced by US intelligence agencies after 9/11, the disclosure of yet another wiretap scandal can hardly surprise anyone. But the latest revelation by The Washington Post points to an alarming collusion between FBI agents, their supervisors, as well as telephone industry employees, all of whom consciously disregarded even the severely lax standards of the USA PATRIOT Act. The paper says it acquired several internal FBI memos (.pdf), through “a government employee outside the FBI, who gained access to them”. These memos appear to show widespread abuse of more than 2,000 US telephone call records (but not content, it appears), which FBI agents obtained between 2002 and 2006, by presenting telephone companies with fake National Security Letters (NSLs). The NSLs claimed the records were required for emergency counterterrorism investigations. But in reality these investigations bore no connection to terrorism, and the NSLs were never followed up with actual subpoenas, as they were supposed to. Read more of this post

Filed under A specialized intelligence website written by experts, since 2008 Tagged with civil liberties, communications interception, FBI, National Security Letters, News, telephone surveillance, telephony industry, United States, US Electronic Communications Privacy Act, USA PATRIOT Act, Valerie Caproni, warrantless communications interception, whistleblowing

Australian premier in ministerial spying scandal

November 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Nathan Rees

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The premier of Australia’s state of New South Wales has been accused of trying to spy on local government officials by planning to install telephone surveillance equipment in their work offices. Nathan Rees, a Labour Party politician, who is one of six Australian state chief executives, is reportedly planning to employ phone-tracking software in an attempt to “put the screws on suspected dissidents” within his cabinet. The technology in question appears to be a real-time phone call data monitoring system, which records basic information of telephone exchanges (i.e. who calls whom, at what time, etc), but not their content. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Rees’ envoys have already contacted at least one telephone surveillance equipment provider, KNet Technology, whose representatives say they briefed the Premier’s people. Read more of this post