This week, a scandal broke out around Tuta, the developer of the popular email service with encrypted messages (formerly known as Tutanota). The company was accused of collaborating with law enforcement agencies and special services.
The charges were made during the trial of Cameron Ortiz, the former head of the secret division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He is being prosecuted for trying to sell confidential data to criminal groups.
At the trial, the man said that he actually participated in a special operation. According to him, agents used Tuta as a "trap" to monitor offenders on the Internet.
Ortiz claims that he was instructed to create a spy application by one of the agents of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance. The goal was to attract users from criminal circles and secretly collect compromising information on them.
At the same time, Ortiz allegedly did not report to the leadership of the Mounted Police about the details of the secret case.
Tuta representatives categorically deny all the charges. The official statement says that their service is not related to the special services or any government organizations in general. There are no hidden functions in the program code that allow unauthorized access to user data. The source code of the app is publicly available on Github, although the backend code is still not published.
The developers reminded that encryption takes place directly on the client's device.
Tuta is closely monitoring the progress of the trial of Ortiz, who has not yet provided any factual evidence of his words.
Of particular interest is the fact that Ortiz, according to the investigation, passed classified materials to Vincent Ramos, who previously headed the company Phantom Secure. This company produced modified smartphones with special protection against wiretapping and data interception. Obviously, the devices were extremely popular in criminal circles.
The FBI repeatedly tried to force Ramos to install a backdoor in the Phantom Secure software for covert surveillance of a well-known drug cartel. Later, the man was accused of assisting criminals.
Canadian law enforcement agencies were also involved in the investigation of Phantom Secure and the arrest of Ramos. In 2019, Ramos was sentenced to 9 years in prison.
It is not known if there is any connection between the cases of Ortiz and Ramos. So far, the accusations against Tuta look completely unfounded. The developers themselves still deny everything and guarantee users complete confidentiality.
The charges were made during the trial of Cameron Ortiz, the former head of the secret division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He is being prosecuted for trying to sell confidential data to criminal groups.
At the trial, the man said that he actually participated in a special operation. According to him, agents used Tuta as a "trap" to monitor offenders on the Internet.
Ortiz claims that he was instructed to create a spy application by one of the agents of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance. The goal was to attract users from criminal circles and secretly collect compromising information on them.
At the same time, Ortiz allegedly did not report to the leadership of the Mounted Police about the details of the secret case.
Tuta representatives categorically deny all the charges. The official statement says that their service is not related to the special services or any government organizations in general. There are no hidden functions in the program code that allow unauthorized access to user data. The source code of the app is publicly available on Github, although the backend code is still not published.
The developers reminded that encryption takes place directly on the client's device.
Tuta is closely monitoring the progress of the trial of Ortiz, who has not yet provided any factual evidence of his words.
Of particular interest is the fact that Ortiz, according to the investigation, passed classified materials to Vincent Ramos, who previously headed the company Phantom Secure. This company produced modified smartphones with special protection against wiretapping and data interception. Obviously, the devices were extremely popular in criminal circles.
The FBI repeatedly tried to force Ramos to install a backdoor in the Phantom Secure software for covert surveillance of a well-known drug cartel. Later, the man was accused of assisting criminals.
Canadian law enforcement agencies were also involved in the investigation of Phantom Secure and the arrest of Ramos. In 2019, Ramos was sentenced to 9 years in prison.
It is not known if there is any connection between the cases of Ortiz and Ramos. So far, the accusations against Tuta look completely unfounded. The developers themselves still deny everything and guarantee users complete confidentiality.
