Aftenposten reporters reveal spy equipment in central Oslo
Norway’s top daily Aftenposten which is Norwegian for Evening post, has revealed that it found high quality spying equipments outside the Norway Parliament building as well near the Prime Ministers office. Aftenposten also reported they have detected a number of false base stations placed in and around central Oslo, which can monitor the movements of top politicians and flood of data from mobile phones. This is quite similar to fake base stations, journalist Erich Möchel found near the United States regional office in Vienna.
It took Aftenposten two months to get the full report of this fake base station and spying story. Through this two months Aftenposten journalists surveyed and revealed an extensive network of secret base stations in Oslo.
After discovering the possibility of having NSA hearing stations in central Oslo and in the area near the Norway’s Parliament building, the journalist then contacted the security agencies to track the exact locations of the fake base stations.
On locating the correct positions of the base stations, the journalist then conducted tests close important buildings in central Oslo and discovered a number of the devices, including close to the prime minister’s residence on Parkveien and close to the government offices. The equipment, Aftenposten said, were hidden in fake mobile base stations, can be used to monitor all mobile activity in the vicinity. It also added that the purpose of the equipment appears to have been to find out who was entering and passing parliament, the government offices and other buildings in the area. It could also be used to listen to phone calls and monitor data traffic of selected people in the area.
According the paper and the authorities in Norway, only the police, the security police and National Security Agency (NSM) are entitled to use eavesdropping equipment under the Norwegian law but so far none of the three agencies have claimed responsibility.
The security police (PST) said that “very many” organisations could be responsible for the fake base stations. “It could be private actors or state actors,” said the PST’s Arne Christian Haugstøyl.
“I can’t on the basis of these discoveries say that it is a foreign intelligence agency, but I can say that we know that foreign intelligence agencies have this kind of capacity. And in our preventive work we advise those looking after Norwegian interests not to talk about sensitive issues on mobile phones,” he said.
The National Security Agency was told of Aftenposten’s discovery on Thursday, and started its own investigation around central Oslo on Friday.
This could very easy snowball into a very big controversy for the ruling Conservative Party lead by Prime Minister Ema Solberg.
Resource : Aftenposten
