http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-03/syria-crackdown-gets-italy-firm-s-a... As Syriabs crackdown on protests has claimed more than 3,000 lives since March, Italian technicians in telecom offices from Damascus to Aleppo have been busy equipping President Bashar al-Assadbs regime with the power to intercept, scan and catalog virtually every e-mail that flows through the country. Employees of Area SpA, a surveillance company based outside Milan, are installing the system under the direction of Syrian intelligence agents, whobve pushed the Italians to finish, saying they urgently need to track people, a person familiar with the project says. The Area employees have flown into Damascus in shifts this year as the violence has escalated, says the person, who has worked on the system for Area. Area is using equipment from American and European companies, according to blueprints and other documents obtained by Bloomberg News and the person familiar with the job. The project includes Sunnyvale, California-based NetApp Inc. (NTAP) storage hardware and software for archiving e-mails; probes to scan Syriabs communications network from Paris-based Qosmos SA; and gear from Germanybs Utimaco Safeware AG (USA) that connects tapped telecom lines to Areabs monitoring-center computers. The suppliers didnbt directly furnish Syria with the gear, which Area exported from Italy, the person says. The Italians bunk in a three-bedroom rental apartment in a residential Damascus neighborhood near a sports stadium when they work on the system, which is in a test phase, according to the person, who requested anonymity because Area employees sign non-disclosure agreements with the company. Mapping Connections When the system is complete, Syrian security agents will be able to follow targets on flat-screen workstations that display communications and Web use in near-real time alongside graphics that map citizensb networks of electronic contacts, according to the documents and two people familiar with the plans. [...] The price tag is more than 13 million euros ($17.9 million), two people familiar with the deal say. [...] b You may consider that any lawful interception system has a very long sales process, and things happen very quickly,b [the CEO] says, citing the velocity of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafibs fall, only a year after pitching his Bedouin tent in a Rome park on a visit to Italy. b Qaddafi was a big friend of our prime minister until not long ago.b When Bloomberg News contacted Qosmos, CEO Thibaut Bechetoille said he would pull out of the project. b It was not right to keep supporting this regime,b he says. The companybs board decided about four weeks ago to exit and is still figuring out how to unwind its involvement, he says. The companybs deep- packet inspection probes can peer into e-mail and reconstruct everything that happens on an Internet userbs screen, says Qosmosbs head of marketing, Erik Larsson. [...] Area is installing the system, which includes the companybs b Captorb monitoring-center computers, through a contract with state-owned Syrian Telecommunication Establishment, or STE, the two people familiar with the project say. Also known as Syrian Telecom, the company is the nationbs main fixed-line operator. [...] Schematics for the system show it includes probes in the traffic of mobile phone companies and Internet service providers, capturing both domestic and international traffic. NetApp storage will allow agents to archive communications for future searches or mapping of peoplesb contacts, according to the documents and the person familiar with the system. [...] Two people familiar with terms of the deal say that as a final stage of the installation, the contract stipulates Area employees will train the Syrian security agents who will man those workstations -- teaching them how to track citizens. _______________________________________________ liberationtech mailing list liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?" You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders. Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator. Please don't forget to follow us on http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE