Prague, July 8 (CTK) – The Czech parliamentary commission supervising wiretappings asked the police Wednesday about their use of a surveillance programme bought from the Hacking Team company, thanks to which information from private computers can be gained, daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes Wednesday.
Hackers have recently stolen data of the Italian company Hacking Team and released information on its clients who bought surveillance tools to spy on Internet users. It turned out that the Czech police have applied a tool to secretly access personal computers since 2011, or even longer, the paper writes.
Police Presidium spokesman David Schoen confirmed that the police bought the software in a classified regime in order to do their work in the best possible way.
Unlike the wiretapping of phone calls, such violation of privacy has not been checked in the Czech Republic until now.
In 2011, the Czech police bought a key that enabled access to PCs for 12 months. They also bought spyware and software for remote control of computers. These tools cost about 9 million crowns.
The data stolen by hackers indicated that the Czech Republic was an active client of Hacking Team. One of the contracts was extended until 2015.
The tools from Hacking Team were delivered to the police by the firm Bull seated in Prague.
Schoen said these tools were applied in cases of serious crime and the related information was classified. “We cannot comment on the application of the software, procedures and measures,” he told LN.
The lower house commission supervising wiretappings will meet Wednesday to discuss the leak of information about the police’s new investigating methods, its head Daniel Korte said.
The commission would hear Vladimir Sibor, head of the police unit for special activities.
Korte said Sibor would present to the commission a list of cases, in which the surveillance software was applied. The commission would then check whether the software was applied in line with law, he added.
Experts mostly say the application of the surveillance software was legal.
“This technology may be applied, but only after approval from a judge,” lawyer Filip Hajny told the paper.
But Czech Pirate Party head Lukas Cernohorsky said the software application was a moral problem, if nothing else. He said not only the person whom the police want to monitor but other people as well may work on the computer that is under surveillance.
