Summary: Unveiling the cloak of secrecy from long-term surveillance by the European Patent Office (EPO) and a London-based mercenary it hired, bypassing the law

SEVERAL months ago, before the whole EPO surveillance scandal even began (it's now standard practice at the EPO, signed off even by a bogus 'data protection' officer), we got an important headsup. Our sources informed us that the UK-based "independent global risk consultancy" (i.e. private security company) Control Risks had been "engaged by the EPO to carry out an investigation into EPO Staff Representatives."

We previously wrote about Control Risks in the following important posts which add some background:

• More Utter Shame Unveiled at Battistelli's EPO: Intimidation Tactics With Help From 'Control Risks'
• Süddeutsche Zeitung Article About the EPO's Investigation Unit and Control Risks Group
• The EPO Sinks Deeper in a Scandal After Paying Public Money for Military-Connected Control Risks to Stalk Journalists and Staff
• EPO May be Creating Its Own Lawless NSA (or GCHQ) With Control Risks Group Deal
• EPO Officially Confirms That It Specifically Hired Control Risks Group (CRG) to Spy on Journalists and Their Sources
• EPO Corruption Compared to FIFA Corruption While 'Control Risks' Helps EPO Hide/Suppress Evidence of Corruption; Calls on German Authorities to Crack Down on Both
• The European Patent Office Has Become Militarised
• EPO Reluctantly (and Privately) Confirms Giving Public Money for Military-connected 'Control Risks' to Spy on Journalists and Their Sources While Techrights is Under Fresh DDOS Attacks
• EPO Data Protection Officer 'Just a Dictator's Minion', Approved Keyloggers and Hidden Cameras
• European Patent Office (EPO) Now Uses Keyloggers to Spy on Staff
• Investigation Unit a Complete Farce Inside the EPO
• Süddeutsche Zeitung Says Talking Helps While EPO Management Back-stabs Other Side of the Table
• EPO Surveillance, Threats, and Patronisation of Dutch Legal System Covered in Dutch Article From De Volkskrant

This had significant impact because it meant that the EPO was officially on a fishing expedition, trying to find sources and thus targeting reporters. It was always without doubt that we had been put on Control Risks' "targets" list. If we were not, it would just mean that Control Risks may be utterly incompetent. These people don't try to uphold the law but rather to protect those who break the law, by breaking the law themselves (privacy violations and cracking). At a later date we will provide additional details about the EPO's shameful (and potentially illegal) practices.

Our claims, as above, are based not purely on hearsay. We found out about this before the press even talked about it and before EPO staff knew about it. At a later date we had a source tell us that Control Risks' involvement "may also indicate that Control Risks will be involved in "investigating" Techrights (due to the fact that EPO managements is highly concerned about negative publicity from that channel).

"According to information, the EPO or its agents are involved in monitoring Techrights IRC channels and the logs of these channels to try and identify who is feeding information to Techrights."

Look what the EPO has turned into. It's something to be expected from an authoritarian regime. ⬆