Canadian former intelligence chief found guilty of leaking state secrets
Canadian former intelligence chief found guilty of leaking state secrets
Cameron Ortis from RCMP convicted of violating Security of Information Act in one of Canada’s largest ever security breaches
A jury has found the former head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence unit guilty of leaking state secrets, the first time a Canadian has been convicted under the country’s Security of Information Act.
[RCMP is not an "intelligence" agency. Misnomer by the Guardian].
Regarding the designation of "intelligence chief" there may be no error. The RCMP runs an internal program called CIP or Criminal Intelligence Program. It's purpose is to collate, analyze, prioritize, and action information gathered across the country related to criminal investigation and activity. This type of setup is necessary to coordinate enforcement between regions and local jurisdictions. The FBI and Scotland Yard are similar in role. It doesn't say specifically but I'm thinking this would be where this guy was located.
I mean Scotland Yard is just the Met, like the London Metropolitan Police. They aren't a federal force, although locals do call them feds. The NYPD is the largest employer of intelligence operators in the world, it's not like the RCMP is unique in running a CIP division.
Never trust the RCMP.
Interesting that he chose to randomly name drop Tutanota as a compromised encrypted service provider.
This is gonna be real hell on Tutanota's reputation
The description of Tutanota as an "online encryption service" is kind of weird, it's an encrypted email service. I guess that's splitting hairs though.
I use Tutanota myself but I'm in the process of moving off it, not because of security concerns but because the developers are aggressively full-on about security to the point where certain features (search, & interoperability with other clients primarily) are actually hamstrung. So the claim about them being part of some government intelligence apparatus seems somewhat unbelievable to me. But hey, if it's true then I'm extra glad I'm moving off it.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In his defence, Ortis told the court he offered secret material to targets as a way of enticing them to use an online encryption service that would feed information to allied spy agencies.
Ortis said the counterpart informed him in strict confidence about an online encryption service called Tutanota that was secretly set up to monitor communications of interest.
Ortis claimed he then quietly devised a plan, dubbed Nudge, to entice investigative targets to sign on to the encryption service, using promises of secret material as bait.
The trail to Ortis’ arrest began the previous year when the RCMP analyzed the contents of a laptop computer owned by Vincent Ramos, the chief executive of Phantom Secure Communications, who had been apprehended in the US.
Ortis was accused of communicating with Ramos, who helps produce encrypted cell phones used by organised crime to evade police, and two businessmen who were under investigation by Canadian authorities.
Ramos would later plead guilty to using his Phantom Secure devices to help facilitate the distribution of cocaine and other illicit drugs to countries including Canada.
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