Bonum Certa Men Certa

Warning: EPO Surveillance May Have Just Gotten Even More Intrusive

Reporters Without Borders on BlueCoat
Source: Reporters Without Borders



Summary: BlueCoat, which the EPO uses to enable oppression inside its European premises, has just gotten even nastier and staff may be at risk

LAST year we wrote about BlueCoat's relationship with the EPO. Some people already know about this, but some do not. BlueCoat is (or at least was) used to spy on EPO staff and censor EPO staff, as we first suspected quite a while back (this was later confirmed to us). We gave some background regarding BlueCoat at the time. It's militarised, just like Control Risks. There are many militaristic elements to the EPO under Battistelli and it's getting worse over time, to the point where one paranoid man in a suit has half a dozen bodyguards, costing a fortune.



"There are many militaristic elements to the EPO under Battistelli and it's getting worse over time, to the point where one paranoid man in a suit has half a dozen bodyguards, costing a fortune.""Please spread this really bad news which I read on Twitter," wrote to us one person earlier today. It's a reliable source.

"BlueCoat," we're told, "the company making TLS MitM equipment allegedly used by govs [AND EPO] to violate human rights, now has a REAL UNRESTRICTED CA."

"Please spread this really bad news."

"BlueCoat is used by the EPO to filter web traffic (at least it was in 2013/2014)," our source told us. This is something that we were able to verify independently. "From now on all these people (bastards) can intercept (as Man-in-the-middle, MitM) and read (possibly) without that you even notice also https:// traffic because your browser will trust them, because they have a real unrestricted certificate -like your bank, and so on.Please spread this really bad news.

"Here are some links."

https://twitter.com/FiloSottile/status/735941957130817536?lang=de

https://twitter.com/FiloSottile/status/735940720931012608

https://twitter.com/kennwhite/status/735956084574326784

This now-deleted tweet said: "network interception device manufacturer granted a Certificate Authority able to MitM HTTPS on any computer."

"Remedy," we're told, "partially, but perhaps not for unlucky sheep in the office," is this. "Here's how to untrust it," apparently believes our source, although that in itself may arouse suspicion from within the Office. This may have gone on for quite some time because, to quote the blog post: "This month an interesting one popped up, generated apparently in September 2015: "Blue Coat Public Services Intermediate CA", signed by Symantec. (No certificates signed by this CA have reached the CT logs or Censys so far.)"

Staff representatives of the EPO, albeit besieged and suppressed, might wish to report to European authorities which kind of parties the EPO is associating itself with. Under Battistelli, in the widely notorious Eponia, human rights are respected no more than in Bahrain.

Recent Techrights' Posts

If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
 
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Snowy Photos and utism is a Spectrum
Links for the day
Microsoft-Sponsored Xenophobia and Nationalism
IBM is very similar in this regard
Vintage is Sometimes Better
Why can't we get back to "simple" if (or where) "simple" means better?
Climate Breakdown Means We'll be Publishing More, Not Less
Press freedom will be a common, recurring theme
Our 5-Year Geminispace Anniversary is Coming Up
I still remember when Gemini Protocol was quite new
It's Right to Point Out Violence From the Right
Violence is a recurring theme
Tentative Summary of Things to Publish in Project 2030
I'll still be in my forties by then
Web Browsers That "Do Hey Hi" (AI)
State-of-the-art plagiarism or "autocomplete on steroids" (not coined by us, nevertheless a nice description) don't have much/any prospect
Links 20/09/2025: Hardware Projects in View, Some Independent Publishers About Russia Prosper After Cheeto Cuts Funding
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Options and TV Time Machine
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Retrocomputer, Antique Phone Experience, and More
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Internet Shutdowns, Media Censorship, and Climate Worries
Links for the day
About 700 New Gemini Capsules in 13 Months (or 54 Per Month)
4.8K would represent a 20% increase
Rust People: Drain the Swap, You're Holding It Wrong
Does Rust make sense?
Techrights the Name Turns 15
About 6 weeks from now we turn 19
Microsoft is Running Out of Time and Floating Fake Figures, Fake Projects, Fake Narratives, Fake Excuses
Also, a lot of Microsoft's "revenue" claims are circular financing (i.e. Microsoft buying from itself, which means Ponzi-like fraud)
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, linuxconfig.org, and Plagiarised Phoronix
Many articles out there are nowadays fake
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 19, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Navigating the Pressures of Modern Life and SpellBinding Accidentally Wrote Another Gemini Server
Links for the day