2014-12-18
OSLO - One of the journalists behind Norwegian daily Aftenposten's recent investigation into secret surveillance in Oslo will be speaking at Journalismfund.eu's Dataharvest+ Conference 2015. Per Anders Johansen will show how they revealed the secret surveillance of Norway's leaders.
The story: together with colleagues Andreas Bakke Foss and Fredrik Hager-Thoresen, Per Anders Johansen discovered that secret transmitters have been installed in the vicinity of Norway's most important state institutions in Oslo. These transmitters, called IMSI-catchers, probably behave like fake mobile base stations and can monitor all mobile activity nearby.
We are proud to announce that Per Anders Johansen will be at our Dataharvest+ Conference in Brussels early May to speak about secret surveillance and this investigation in particular. Dataharvest+ is the biggest Europe-wide conference for investigative and data journalists. It takes place from 8 to 10 May 2015.
The investigation shows that it doesn't always take a whistleblower or a leak to reveal secret surveillance. It is something journalists can do themselves. Aftenposten explains how the team did it in a step-by-step breakdown on their website. In short: they used one of the world’s most advanced encrypted mobile phones to identify suspicious mobile activity in Oslo during the months October and November 2014. They made 50 000 measurements and then submitted the material to two mobile companies, the Police Security Service, and the Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority for comments. Read the English story on Aftenposten here.
