Toka, il software che manipola le immagini di video-sorveglianza

Meet Toka, the Israeli cyber firm founded by Ehud Barak, that lets clients hack cameras and change their feeds – just like in Hollywood heist movies

Omer Benjakob, Haaretz, December 26th, 10:13 AM IST

On January 10, 2010, Hamas’ point man with the Iranians, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, was assassinated in Dubai. A month later, the local police force stunned the world – and Israel – by painstakingly piecing together hours of closed-circuit TV footage. The videos were combed to trace the 30 Mossad assassins’ steps and reveal their faces.

If Israel’s espionage agency had the technology currently being provided by the Israeli cyberfirm Toka 12 years ago, it’s likely the hit squad would have never been identified.

Toka was co-founded by former Israeli premier Ehud Barak together with the former Israel Defense Forces cyber chief Brig. Gen. (ret.) Yaron Rosen – and its capabilities are being revealed here for the first time.

The company sells technologies that allow clients to locate security cameras or even webcams within a given perimeter, hack into them, watch their live feed and even alter it – and past recordings – according to internal documents obtained by Haaretz and reviewed by a technical expert. Its activities are regulated by the Israeli Defense Ministry.

It was set up in 2018 and has offices in Tel Aviv and Washington. It works solely with state clients in government, intelligence bodies and law enforcement agencies, almost exclusively – but not just – in the West. According to the internal documents, as of 2021, the company had contracts with Israel valued at $6 million, and had also planned an “expansion of existing deployment” in Israel. Toka did not respond to Haaretz’s queries regarding its activities in Israel.

Niche operator

Cameras play a number of roles in regards to national security and defense.

Last month, Iranian hackers leaked footage of the deadly terrorist bombing that had taken place at a bus stop in Jerusalem the previous day. It was lifted from one of many security cameras installed by an Israeli security agency for surveillance purposes. According to the Israeli state broadcaster, Iran gained access to that camera a year ago. Toka’s product is intended for such scenarios, and much more: hacking into a camera network, monitoring its live feed and accessing its archive, and altering them – all without leaving any forensic trace.

While Israeli cyberoffense firms like the NSO Group or Candiru offer bespoke tech that can hack into popular devices such as smartphones and computers, Toka is much more niche, a cyber industry source explained. The firm links the worlds of cyberoffense, active intelligence and smart surveillance.

As well as co-founders Barak and Rosen, the company is run by two CEOs from the world of cyberdefense: Alon Kantor and Kfir Waldman. Among the firm’s backers are venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz, an early investor in Facebook (its co-owner Marc Andreessen still has a seat on the Meta board; Meta is currently suing Israeli spyware maker NSO Group).

According to a company pitch deck obtained by Haaretz, Toka offers what it terms “previously out-of-reach capabilities” that “transform untapped IoT sensors into intelligence sources,” and can be used “for intelligence and operational needs.” (IoT stands for Internet of Things and refers here to web-connected cameras and even car media systems.)

Toka, per the documents, offers tools that allow clients to “discover and access security and smart cameras,” survey a “targeted area” and “stream and control cameras” within it over time, and target cars, to “wirelessly” provide “access” and extract what Toka terms “car forensics and intelligence” – in other words, the geolocation of vehicles.

The services are bundled together and Toka clients, the documents boast, will be able to gather visual intelligence from both “live or recorded videos.” They can even “alter feeds” of “audio and visual” recordings to allow “masking of on-site activities” during “covert operations.”

Security and web cameras have mushroomed in recent years and can be found everywhere: traffic intersections, street corners, malls, parking lots, hotels, airports and even our homes – from baby monitors to smart door buzzers. In order to broadcast a live feed that we can access via our phones or desktops, these cameras must connect somehow to the internet.

Toka’s system taps into these cameras and the different systems supporting them. This can be used for both operational and intelligence needs. For example, during a terror attack, a police force using the technology can remotely track the movement of fleeing terrorists across the city. It also allows covert collection and altering of visual data, which can be invaluable for military ops or criminal investigations.

Dystopian tech

In the 2001 heist movie “Ocean’s Eleven,” the elite crew led by George Clooney and Brad Pitt hack the closed-circuit TV system of the Las Vegas casino vault they are trying to break into, diverting its feed to a mock safe they built in a nearby warehouse. The casino security teams are effectively blind, giving the suave thieves time to crack the safe.

Una recensione di "Uropia" su Il Primato Nazionale

È stata pubblicata domenica 24 luglio una bella recensione di Nicola Mattei su Il Primato Nazionale.

Qui il link per leggerla: https://www.ilprimatonazionale.it/cultura/uropia-spy-story-distopia-ue-verra-239742/

La Commissione Europea riduce la privacy e consegna i dati europei agli USA

Political pressure wins out as US secures preliminary EU data deal

Ursula von der Leyen and Joe Biden stepped in to push through a political deal for data transfers that will likely be tested in court.

BY VINCENT MANANCOURT AND MARK SCOTT

POLITICO, March 25, 2022 2:19 pm

In the final race to secure a new transatlantic data deal, Ursula von der Leyen and Joe Biden pulled rank.

On Friday, the European Commission president and U.S. president announced that Washington and Brussels had signed an agreement “in principle” for a new so-called Privacy Shield pact to keep everything from people's online search queries to company payroll records flowing between the European Union and the United States.

But in the weeks and days building up to the announcement, U.S. and European negotiators — who have spent almost two years hammering out details to give EU citizens greater control over their data when it's transferred to the U.S., while also allowing American national security agencies access to some of that information — had warned that final sticking points are yet to be hashed out.

Other officials cautioned that whatever senior political leaders wanted in terms of securing a new data transfer agreement would still likely be challenged in Europe's highest court. With such legal uncertainty looming, it was critical to ensure any new agreement would be in water-tight compliance with the 27-country bloc's tough data protection standards, they added.

Yet amid efforts to show renewed transatlantic unity following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, both von der Leyen and Biden cast those doubts aside. They framed Friday's announcement as a necessary balance between people's right to privacy and legitimate national security concerns. Spurred on by heat from their political bosses, officials scrambled to get as much over the line as possible to make a political agreement feasible, with one EU official noting talks this week went well into the night. 

"[We're] pleased that we found an agreement in principle on a new framework for transatlantic data flows," von der Leyen said at a joint press conference with Biden. "It will enable predictable and trustworthy data flows, balancing security, the right to privacy and data protection."

A statement from Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders tempered expectations a little more — saying that both sides had “agreed on the principles for a new framework.” That hinted that work still needed to be done behind the scenes before a final deal is in hand. 

The road to a deal

In truth, senior EU and U.S. officials' co-opting of the years-long privacy negotiations had been almost a year in the making.

When the U.S. president first visited Europe last summer for his inaugural summit, American officials hoped to secure a similar political agreement on data transfers — only to see those plans dashed after European policymakers balked at rushing through a new pact.

Washington, again, rekindled those hopes ahead of the first meeting in September 2021 of the EU-U.S. Trade and Tech Council, a transatlantic semi-regular meeting of senior officials including U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager. But, again, those efforts failed to win over EU negotiators. 

The reluctance of some Brussels-based officials to sign off on a transatlantic data pact — born out of their previous work on similar transatlantic data agreements being torn apart by Europe's top court, in both 2015 and 2020 — finally forced the hand of the highest political leaders to step in.

Given the ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe, renewed efforts to build better transatlantic ties in the post-Donald Trump era and the long-standing mutual threat posed by China, von der Leyen and Biden laid down a marker showing that — at least when it came to privacy and data — the EU and U.S. were a united force.

That stance, however, will likely be tested — and quickly.

Despite the political agreement, the details about what a new Privacy Shield pact will include still need to be outlined. That includes what domestic changes Washington is willing to make to give Europeans greater access to U.S. courts if they want to challenge how American national security agencies have potentially mishandled their personal information.

Biden will also have to sign an executive order implementing those changes and establishing a legal framework before the EU can finish its assessment of the U.S.’s new regime. That work is likely to drag on for weeks, if not months.

See you in Luxembourg

Europe's top judges, based in Luxembourg, have already twice ruled the U.S. did not offer EU citizens sufficient protections when their data was shipped across the Atlantic. It will now be down to Biden — most likely via a new administrative body created within the U.S. Department of Justice, to oversee surveillance on Europeans — to prove that any proposed solution will stand the test of time.

Such detail has yet to be published, with officials saying a draft agreement may come as soon as next month. That will fire the starting gun in a separate drawn-out process of ratification within the EU. 

European data protection regulators will have to give their assessment on the decision — and aren’t likely to give the U.S. an easy ride. Though their opinion is not binding, it could well force Brussels and Washington officials back to the negotiating table. EU national capitals will also get a say, and could veto any deal if they see cause for concern. That outcome is unlikely, as governments typically prioritize economic and political links with Washington over data protection concerns.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, which gives the federal government greater leeway to keep national security practices out of the courts, may, however, have complicated final discussions. That ruling could allow Washington to sidestep Europeans' efforts to challenge how U.S. intelligence agencies access and use their data.

For now, though, von der Leyen and Biden wanted a political win — and were willing to override the complexities of European data protection rules to get it done.

With legal challenges almost certain, though, Friday's agreement could soon turn into a short-lived victory if Europe's highest court again throws out efforts to strengthen transatlantic ties.

Il programma della CIA che spia illegalmente i dati dei propri cittadini

 Senators: CIA has secret program that collects American data

FILE - This April 13, 2016, Two Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee say the CIA has a secret, undisclosed data repository that includes information collected about Americans. While neither the agency nor lawmakers would disclose specifics about the data, Sens. Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich allege the CIA has long hidden details about the program from the public and Congress.

By Nomaan Merchant | AP

The Washington Post, February 11, 2022 at 3:44 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON — The CIA has a secret, undisclosed data repository that includes information collected about Americans, two Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee said. While neither the agency nor lawmakers would disclose specifics about the data, the senators alleged the CIA had long hidden details about the program from the public and Congress.

Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico sent a letter to top intelligence officials calling for more details about the program to be declassified. Large parts of the letter, which was sent in April 2021 and declassified Thursday, and documents released by the CIA were blacked out. Wyden and Heinrich said the program operated “outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection.”

There have long been concerns about what information the intelligence community collects domestically, driven in part by previous violations of Americans’ civil liberties. The CIA and National Security Agency have a foreign mission and are generally barred from investigating Americans or U.S. businesses. But the spy agencies’ sprawling collection of foreign communications often snares Americans’ messages and data incidentally.

Intelligence agencies are required to take steps to protect U.S. information, including redacting the names of any Americans from reports unless they are deemed relevant to an investigation. The process of removing redactions is known as “unmasking.”

The CIA on Friday said the program highlighted by the senators and another disclosed this week are “repositories of information about the activities of foreign governments and foreign nationals.” In a statement, the agency said the programs were classified to stop adversaries from compromising them.

The agency also said it kept members of congressional oversight committees “fully and currently informed of its classified activities related to these two programs.”

“In the course of any lawful collection, CIA may incidentally acquire information about Americans who are in contact with foreign nationals,” the agency statement said. “When the CIA acquires information about Americans, it safeguards that information in accordance with procedures approved by the Attorney General, which restrict the CIA’s ability to collect, retain, use, and disseminate the information.”

The CIA released a series of redacted recommendations about the program issued by an oversight panel known as the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. According to the document, a pop-up box warns CIA analysts using the program that seeking any information about U.S. citizens or others covered by privacy laws requires a foreign intelligence purpose.

“However, analysts are not required to memorialize the justification for their queries,” the board said.

Additional documents released Thursday also revealed limited details about a program to collect financial data against the Islamic State. That program also has incidentally snared some records held by Americans.

Both Wyden and Heinrich have long pushed for more transparency from the intelligence agencies. Nearly a decade ago, a question Wyden posed to the nation’s spy chief presaged critical revelations about the NSA’s mass-surveillance programs.

In 2013, Wyden asked then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper if the NSA collected “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.” Clapper initially responded, “No.” He later said, “Not wittingly.”

Former systems administrator Edward Snowden later that year revealed the NSA’s access to bulk data through U.S. internet companies and hundreds of millions of call records from telecommunications providers. Those revelations sparked worldwide controversy and new legislation in Congress.

Clapper would later apologize in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee, calling his response to Wyden “clearly erroneous.”

According to Wyden and Heinrich’s letter, the CIA’s bulk collection program operates outside of laws passed and reformed by Congress, but under the authority of Executive Order 12333, the document that broadly governs intelligence community activity and was first signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

“It is critical that Congress not legislate without awareness of a ... CIA program, and that the American public not be misled into believe that the reforms in any reauthorization legislation fully cover the IC’s collection of their records,” the senators wrote in their letter. There was a redaction in the letter before “CIA program.”

Intelligence agencies are subject to guidelines on the handling and destruction of Americans’ data. Those guidelines and laws governing intelligence activity have evolved over time in response to previous revelations about domestic spying.

The FBI spied on the U.S. civil rights movement and secretly recorded the conversations of Dr. Martin Luther King. The CIA, in what was called Operation Chaos, investigated whether the movement opposing the Vietnam War had links to foreign countries.

“These reports raise serious questions about the kinds of information the CIA is vacuuming up in bulk and how the agency exploits that information to spy on Americans,” Patrick Toomey, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “The CIA conducts these sweeping surveillance activities without any court approval, and with few, if any, safeguards imposed by Congress.”

Link originale: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senators-cia-has-secret-program-that-collects-american-data/2022/02/10/017b6932-8ad8-11ec-838f-0cfdf69cce3c_story.html

A giudizio Meta in Texas per il riconoscimento facciale

Il Texas cita in giudizio Meta: controversie per il riconoscimento facciale di Facebook con possibile multa record

By Sebastiano Spinelli - Computermagazine.it, Febbraio 17, 2022

Facebook sta per subire una punizione senza precedenti e che crediamo non dimenticherà per un bel po’ di tempo. Ma come mai è stata multata, e quali sono le motivazioni a carico?

Il riconoscimento facciale aveva già portato alla luce numerosi problemi non indifferenti, provocati principalmente da Facebook e che, per l’appunto, non smettono di continuare ad esistere per ovvie ragioni. Meta aveva tentato di disabilitarlo del tutto, ma sembra che non sia tra i suoi piani rimuovere il sistema in maniera definitiva.

Ed è proprio a causa di questa scelta che lo Stato del Texas abbia voluto chiamare in giudizio la società in questione, accusandola di aver violato le leggi locali perpetrate principalmente dal sui software di riconoscimento facciale. Ma che cosa è successo con precisione? Approfondiamo subito la questione.

Le ragioni della denuncia

A portare avanti la battaglia legale è stato l’Avvocato Generale Ken Paxton, il quale ha accusato Meta di aver violato il CUBI Act, acronimo di Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier, in vigore nel Texas dal 2009. L’emendamento stabilisce delle regole precise riguardo l’uso dei dati biometrici dei cittadini texani.

Adesso, pare che sia stato preteso un risarcimento economico che l’accusa quantifica in 25.000 dollari per ogni violazione del CUBI e altri 10.000 dollari per ogni violazione del Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, il quale si occupa di regolare eventuali comportamenti commerciali ingannevoli da parte delle compagnie prese in esame.

Sembrano “spiccioli” se pensiamo a quale azienda sia stata richiamata, ma attenzione: viene specificato proprio “per ogni violazione“, e vi possiamo assicurare che siano tantissime quelle citate dall’avvocato. Questo significa che Meta sarà quasi del tutto costretta a pagare diverse centinaia di miliardi di dollari al Texas, il che vale a dire che possa essere una multa così tanto salata da fargli spendere un mucchio di denaro in un istante.

Ma dobbiamo ricordare che non sia la prima volta che Facebook viene accusata di questo, difatti ha già avuto a che fare con situazioni del genere in passato. Se dovessimo fare un esempio concreto e pari a quello del caso del Texas, potremmo prendere in considerazione anche lo stato dell’Illinois, il quale ha multato la società di Mark Zuckerberg per 650 milioni di dollari. Il motivo? Semplice: pure allora il sistema di riconoscimento facciale aveva violato le sue leggi.

Link originale: https://www.computermagazine.it/2022/02/17/il-texas-cita-in-giudizio-meta-controversie-per-il-riconoscimento-facciale-di-facebook-con-possibile-multa-record/

Online la presentazione di "Uropia il protocollo Maynards" sul canale Rumble di LibertàdiPensiero-MeglioDiNiente

È finalmente di nuovo disponibile online la presentazione di "Uropia il protocollo Maynards" sul canale LibertàdiPensiero-MeglioDiNiente:

Link: https://rumble.com/vv64r5-uropia-pietro-bargagli-stoffi.html

A causa della unilaterale ed ingiustificata chiusura del profilo LibertàdiPensieroMDN da parte di YouTube (da una parte con un'imprecisata accusa di pornografia, quanto mai improbabile per chi conosce il canale da anni; dall'altra invece con un vago riferimento a violazione di diritti d'autore) tutti i contenuti - interviste, presentazioni, rubriche - sono diventati indisponibili.

Ma LibertàdiPensiero-MDN non si lascia intimidire, e come una fenice rinasce, con un nuovo profilo Youtube, un profilo su Rumble, uno su Twitch e la storica pagina su Facebook.

Bentornati!

.

Bosch rivoluziona l'industria delle telecamere di sorveglianza. E forse anche il suo abuso.

Kitchen Appliance Maker Wants to Revolutionize Video Surveillance

A platform run by the Bosch-owned startup Azena has the potential to transform the surveillance camera industry. Experts worry it is ripe for abuse.

Zach Campbell, Chris Jones, February 11 2022, 6:45 p.m.

In partnership with Lighthouse Reports

Bosch, the German multinational most famous for its toasters, drills, and refrigerators, is also one of the world’s leading developers of surveillance cameras. Over the last three years, the company has poured tens of millions of euros into its own startup, Azena, which has the potential to completely transform the surveillance camera industry.

Via Azena, Bosch has led the development of a line of surveillance cameras that relies on edge computing — where each camera has its own processor, operating system, and internet connection — to provide “smart” surveillance of people, objects, and places. Like smartphones, these cameras connect to an app store, run by Azena, where customers can purchase apps from a selection of cutting-edge video analytics tools. These apps allow camera owners to analyze video feeds for different security and commercial purposes.

Here, the devil is in the details: In its documentation for developers, Azena states that it will only carry out basic auditing related to the security and functionality of the software available in its app store. According to the company, responsibility for the ethics and legality of the apps rests squarely on the shoulders of developers and users.

In the rapidly advancing field of video analytics, there is a growing market for software that can transform a video feed into a set of data points about individuals, objects, and locations. Apps currently available in the Azena store offer ethnicity detection, gender recognition, face recognition, emotion analysis, and suspicious behavior detection, among other things, despite well-documented concerns about the discriminatory and intrusive nature of such technologies.

Privacy and human rights researchers expressed concern that by decentralizing and facilitating the creation of powerful surveillance software able to analyze people’s traits and activities without their knowledge, Azena has exponentially raised the possibility for abuse. Should we be worried?

Azena says no.

Developers and users “must be compliant with the law,” said Hartmut Schaper, Azena’s CEO. “If we find out that this is not adhered to, we first of all ask for fixes, and then — depending on how severe the violation of the contract is — we can take apps out of the app store or revoke the user’s license.”

Unlike its parent company, Azena doesn’t produce cameras or develop video analytics tools. Instead, it provides a platform for companies and individual developers to distribute their own applications and takes a cut of the sales — much like the Apple and Google app stores, but for surveillance software. According to Schaper, Google’s app store is the direct inspiration for Azena: Within just a few years of releasing the Android operating system, Schaper noted, Google had revolutionized how smartphones were used and achieved domination over the market. With their new surveillance app store, Azena and Bosch hope to do the same.

And like Google’s integration of Android with other smartphone manufacturers around the world, Bosch and Azena are working with a number of companies that produce surveillance cameras running their operating system. Schaper thinks this will lead to drastic changes in the surveillance economy: “In the end, there will be just two or three operating systems for cameras that dominate the market,” he said, “just as is the case in the smartphone market.”

So far, the strategy has resulted in swift growth: The Azena store currently contains over 100 apps, and Schaper has boasted of how the business model made it possible to provide “the first face mask detection app within two weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic beginning.” Other apps directed at shops and public spaces promise crowd and line counting alongside more intrusive offers of individual identification, face recognition, and biometric detection.

The company has also actively courted new types of software: Azena’s “App Challenge 2021,” which was judged by representatives from a host of major security companies, resulted in apps claiming to detect violence or aggression and offering the ability to track individual movements across multiple cameras.

Applications for video analytics can broadly be divided into two categories, explained Gemma Galdon Clavell, a technologist and director of the Eticas Foundation. The more basic applications involve identifying people, objects, barriers like doors or fences, and locations, then sending an alarm when certain conditions apply: someone passing an object to another person, leaving a bag on a train platform, or entering a restricted area.

Attentatori al servizio dell'intelligence? Un retroscena che i lettori di Uropia conoscono bene

 Spanish intelligence helped mastermind of 2017 attacks become imam, say reports

Secret services recruited Abdelbaki Es Satty as informant in exchange for not deporting him

18 July 2019 11:34 AM

 

by

ACN | Barcelona

The Spanish intelligence center (CNI) helped the mastermind of the 2017 Barcelona terror attacks to become an imam in Ripoll, where the subsequent cell was based, three years before the incidents, according to a report by the ‘Público’ digital newspaper.

Spain's secret services recruited Abdelbaki Es Satty as an informant in 2014, in exchange for not deporting him, says the same source.

These are the main items in the media outlet’s third report on the links between the CNI and Es Satty, which lays out evidence that the mastermind of the attacks was an informer for the secret services right up until the events on La Rambla.

The report also states that a paper written by the secret services shows that some cell members were tracked and their conversations tapped until five days before the deadly incidents, although they were unable to prevent the 16 fatalities caused by the events on August 17, 2017.

Jailed for drug dealing

In its third report, ‘Público’ says that Es Satty spent four years in jail from 2010 to 2014 for drug dealing, and it is during this period that he was hired as an informant.

Mentioning sources of CNI itself, he was told that if he collaborated, he would not be deported – when he finished his sentence, the government seat decided to send him back to his country, Morocco, but a judge overturned the decision.

Infiltrating in European jihadist networks

Carlos Enrique Bayo, the journalist signing the article, also states that the secret service “fixed recommendations and guarantors” so that he could be admitted as imam in Ripoll, where presumably he created the cell.

CNI’s intention, reads the text, was for him to infiltrate in the European jihadist networks.  

Esquerra party asks EU to take action

The report has sparked outrage in the past few days among Catalan politicians. On Thursday, pro-independence ERC called on the European Council and Commission to ask Spain for an explanation over the issue.

Through a parliamentary question, MEP Diana Riba has also called for the Catalan police, Mossos d’Esquadra, to be granted access to international bodies such as Interpol, Europol and Sirene.

Request for a meeting with Spain’s vice president

Also on Thursday, the Catalan government spokesperson sent a letter to Spain’s executive second-in-command to ask her for a meeting over the controversy.

She urges Madrid an “explanation” on Es Satty so that it can “put an end to social unrest.”

Link originale: https://www.catalannews.com/politics/item/spanish-intelligence-helped-mastermind-of-2017-attacks-become-imam-say-reports

Giornata della Memoria: il contesto sociale e culturale in cui l'Olocausto si è sviluppato

Oggi 27 gennaio si celebra la Giornata della Memoria".

La data coincide con la liberazione del campo di concentramento nei pressi della città polacca di Oświęcim (in tedesco Auschwitz).

Poco si parla invece delle Norme sulla difesa della razza italiana, una serie di decreti promulgati a partire dall'estate e autunno del 1938, poi convertiti in legge.

In questi giorni si è spesso solo citato, quasi ritualmente, il termine "Leggi Razziali", ma nessuno nel nostro paese le sviscera articolo per articolo, le legge pubblicamente, le insegna nelle Università, le studia a scuola, ne rende obbligatoria la conoscenza in alcun programma di studio.

Ancora nel 2022 in Italia - a differenza che in Germania - sembra si faccia fatica a riconoscere e ad elaborare questa pagina della nostra storia e della storia del nostro Diritto.

Qual'era il substrato sociale e culturale in cui l'Olocausto ha potuto attecchire?

Qui sotto il testo integrale della voce "Razzismo" dell'Grande Dizionario Enciclopedico UTET del 1939, quando tutto cominciò:

Polizia tedesca utilizza "Pegasus" di NSO contro il parere di avvocati ed esperti, e senza fornire dati sul suo utilizzo.

German police secretly bought NSO Pegasus spyware

Sources have confirmed media reports that federal criminal police purchased and used the controversial Israeli surveillance spyware despite lawyers' objections.

    

NSO makes Pegasus spyware favored by governments and intelligence agencies worldwide

Deutsche Welle - 07.09.2021

The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) bought notorious Pegasus spyware from the Israeli firm NSO in 2019, it was revealed Tuesday.

The federal government informed the Interior Committee of the Bundestag of the purchase in a closed-doors session, parliament sources said. That confirmed earlier reports published in German newspaper Die Zeit.

The software was procured under "the utmost secrecy," according to Die Zeit, despite the hesitations of lawyers as the surveillance tool can do much more than German privacy laws permit.

However, the version purchased by the BKA had certain functions blocked to prevent abuse, security circles told the paper ­— although it is unclear how that works on a practical level.

The revelations were a result of joint research by Die Zeit as well as daily Süddeutsche Zeitung and public broadcasters NDR and WDR.

What has the German government said?

According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, BKA Vice President Martina Link confirmed to lawmakers that her organization had purchased the software. In late 2020, the BKA acquired a version of the Pegasus Trojan virus software. It has been used in select operations concerning terrorism and organized crime since March of this year.

Germany's Federal Constitutional Court has ruled that security services are only permitted to use spyware on the cellphones and computers of surveillance targets in special cases, and can only initiate certain types of operations.

While the rule of law has placed limits, the technology available has grown seemingly limitless.

The German government has been asked specifically about the use of NSO spyware three times in recent years and has largely refused to account for its use or subject itself to scrutiny for it.

In a written statement to an official inquiry, Left Party lawmaker Martina Renner was told the parliament's right to information conflicted with the "confidentiality interests justified by the welfare of the state in exceptional cases."

Why are NSO and Pegasus controversial?

NSO sells the Pegasus surveillance tool to police and intelligence agencies globally. The tool itself is powerful enough that it can spy on iPhones and Android smartphones in real time, enable the microphone and video functions to record conversations and settings, read location data and bypass encryption on chat messages.

The BKA began its negotiations with NSO in 2017. For years, the BKA had made use of its own in-house surveillance software, but it became cumbersome and outdated, which is why authorities turned to NSO.

Among the targets of NSO Pegasus software: Emmanuel Macron

Pegasus makes use of vulnerabilities in the security of smartphones to open a privacy-violating Pandora's box of surveillance tools. More troubling yet is who has been targeted by governments around the world that have purchased the tool.

In July, a consortium of news organizations including Die Zeit reported on the extensive abuses of the technology drawn from a list of potential targets in 2016 that included more than 50,000 phone numbers.

Among the targets were human rights activists, journalists and lawyers as well as a dozen heads of state and several government ministers and senior diplomats.

Technical analysis of the cellphones of several of these individuals revealed the phones had been successfully hacked using Pegasus software.

How has Germany reacted?

Green Party member of parliament Konstantin von Notz called it a "nightmare for the rule of law." He demanding "full clarification" from the federal government as to who "specifically bears responsibility for the purchase and use of the spy software."

Frank Überall, the chairman of the German Journalists' Association, said the union wanted to know "whether journalists were spied on without their knowledge, whether their sources are still safe."

Überall called the BKA's action "incomprehensible" and added Interior Minister Horst Seehofer should "lay his cards on the table."

ar/rt (AFP, epd)

Link originale: https://www.dw.com/en/german-police-secretly-bought-nso-pegasus-spyware/a-59113197

QED: servizi segreti che orchestrano attentati e compromettono politici e uomini d'affari per ricattarli, dove trovarli

2017 terror attacks orchestrated by Spain's secret service, says former police official

José Manuel Villarejo claims aim was to destabilize Catalonia before independence push, sparking outrage

CatalanNews - 11 January 2022 07:33 PM byACN | Barcelona

A former high-ranking police official, José Manuel Villarejo, has said that he believes the 2017 terror attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils were orchestrated by Spain's secret service.

Talking before Spain's National Court on Tuesday, he said the aim was to destabilize Catalonia before the independence referendum, but the outcome, 16 deaths, was a miscalculation.

According to him, the August 17, 2017 incidents, including a truck running over passers-by on the Catalan capital's La Rambla, "were a serious mistake" on the part of Spain's former National Intelligence Center (CNI) director, Féliz Sanz Roldán.

The CNI head "wanted to give Catalonia a fright" ahead of the October 1, 2017 referendum, but "miscalculated the consequences."

Villarejo has been in the spotlight for years, being famous in Spain for some secret operations he has taken part in along with CNI – indeed on Tuesday he admitted contributing to "try to fix the mess" that the attacks caused to the secret services. Shortly after the events, it was revealed that its alleged mastermind, Ripoll's imam, had been an informant of CNI.

The former high-ranking official spent over three years in provisional jail and he still has to face several trials for some of the operations he discreetly executed. 

Calls for an investigation

His comments on Tuesday have sparked outrage among part of the Catalan political parties, especially those in favor of independence. 

For years, they have urged Spain to run an investigation on the links between its intelligence and Abdelbaki Es Satty. After Villarejo's comments on Tuesday, the current Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, demanded Madrid to look into it again and requested his government's legal team to review the former police officer's remarks. 

"If his words are true, we need an explanation now," said Aragonès. 

Parliament speaker Laura Borràs also requested for the chamber's legal team to take the case to the public prosecutor. 

Carles Puigdemont, who was Catalan president in 2017, said that Spain should be accountable for the attacks "for its rejection to investigate" the alleged links between Es Satty and Villarejo.

Seven parties in Spain's Congress will request for a parliamentary committee on the issue to be launched. 

Villarejo was ordered to discredit Catalan pro-independence politicians

Villarejo has become a famous character in the past few years after he leaked a number of recordings of private conversations he had with important figures, such as former King Juan Carlos' lover Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. After some of these leaks, the prosecutor in Switzerland began an investigation against the former monarch for allegedly having received $100 million from Saudi Arabia in 2008. 

Especially after being accused of several crimes related to his discreet operations and being imprisoned, the former inspector has revealed the content of such conversations and some of his activities, involving the Spanish state in operations such as trying to discredit Catalan pro-independence politicians.

In 2018, some recordings leaked by the media outlet moncloa.com revealed that Villarejo explained to the then prosecutor Dolores Delgado that he had created a prostitution network in order to get information from politicians and businesspeople.

Link originale: https://www.catalannews.com/politics/item/2017-terror-attacks-orchestrated-by-spain-s-secret-service-says-former-police-official