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Surveillance Firm Pays $1 Million Fine After 'Spy Van' Scandal

posted by janrinok on Monday November 15 2021, @11:14PM   Printer-friendly

upstart writes:

Surveillance firm pays $1 million fine after 'spy van' scandal:

The Office of the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection in Cyprus has collected a $1 million fine from intelligence company WiSpear for gathering mobile data from various individuals arriving at the airport in Larnaca.

While this is just an administrative fine under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it is related to a scandal two years ago widely publicized as the "spy van" case.

In 2019, a Chevrolet van packed with at least $3.5 million worth of equipment that could hack Android smartphones and steal data including WhatsApp and Signal messages, was stationed near the Larnaca airport.

The van had been in the area for months when politicians in Cyprus criticized the government for being passive about the activity of the vehicle after seeing its capabilities in action close to the airport in a video from Forbes.

In a press release today, the data protection watchdog in Cyprus announced that WiSpear paid an administrative fine of 925,000 euros for GDPR violations.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Monday November 15 2021, @11:42PM (3 children)

    by looorg (578) on Monday November 15 2021, @11:42PM (#1196518)

    Is there more then one van? The one here is mentioned to contain equipment worth $3.5 million, in the article there is a $9 million dollar van. Not quite sure if they are the same van or different vans. Anyhow if you equip a van (or two) with that kind of equipment you can be sure that they made their money back and/or more so then a fine of €925k (or about $1 million) is nothing but the cost of doing business. Size wise nothing but a slap on the wrist.

    Collecting this data was part of “tests and presentations of technologies” from the company, which constituted mitigating factors, said Nicolaidou, adding that an investigation found that “no device monitoring or interception of any private communication” occurred.

    Suuuuure.

    “Nine antennas of innovative technology out of which, three were installed in phase 1 to be tested as long-range Wi-Fi access point for visitors and tourists to enjoy high quality and high-speed internet access.”

    Coolest backstory ever.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Some call me Tim on Tuesday November 16 2021, @02:04AM (1 child)

    by Some call me Tim (5819) on Tuesday November 16 2021, @02:04AM (#1196542)

    I've got a $4.00 can of metallic spray paint for the antennas that just rendered your $3.5 million dollars worth of equipment useless. If that doesn't work I can always go to the bananas in the tail pipe.

    --
    Questioning science is how you do science!

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by epitaxial on Tuesday November 16 2021, @03:28AM

      by epitaxial (3165) on Tuesday November 16 2021, @03:28AM (#1196562)

      I was thinking a molotov would work better.

  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday November 16 2021, @09:12AM

    by mhajicek (51) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 16 2021, @09:12AM (#1196593)

    The van and it's contents are implements of criminal activity, and should be forfeited.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek