- cross-posted to:
- canada@lemmy.ca
- cross-posted to:
- canada@lemmy.ca
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🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
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.
Saved 67% of original text.
This comment basically demonstrates the weakness of these AI driven summarizes in their current state. It doesn’t tell who is who or why each fact offered is relevant to the larger story. A good summary strips out the details but preserves the high level summary information, while giving context as necessary. This generated summary kinda does the opposite, by going down a largely irrelevant rabbit hole of how he was caught, and who he was affiliated with.
The real, actual TL;DR:
Cameron Ortis, former intelligence chief of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, has been convicted of leaking state secrets to three foreigners and attempting to leak state secrets to a fourth.
Ortis did not deny leaking the secrets but raised a defense that the leaks were part of a legitimate intelligence operation, and that he was leaking the secrets to entice foreign subjects into using communications platforms monitored by Canadian intelligence and its “Five Eyes” partners (intelligence agencies of the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand). The operators of those platforms deny working with western intelligence.
What a cockjob
Does this mean Tutanota is compromised?
Potentially. They are denying it’s true, and I don’t think any more evidence has come out besides this one claim.
“On 11 November 2023, it was alleged Tuta was being used as a honeypot for criminals with a backdoor from authorities. An ex-RCMP officer, Cameron Ortis, testified that the service was used as a storefront to lure criminals in and gain information on those who fell for it. He stated authorities were monitoring the whole service, feeding it to Five Eyes, which would disperse it back to the RCMP in order to gain more knowledge about the criminal underground. Though, no evidence is ever presented to back up this statement.”
