NetApp to face US probe for Syria Spy link

U.S. lawmakers are calling for an investigation into NetApp Inc.’s role in an Internet- surveillance system that has been under construction in Syria throughout this year’s political crackdown.

Senators Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois, and Robert Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, will send a letter to the State and Commerce departments requesting an investigation into two U.S. companies whose technology has been used to “monitor activities of Syrian citizens,” according to a draft of the letter. One of the companies is NetApp, whose role in the Internet surveillance system was detailed in a Nov. 3 article by Bloomberg News.

According to Bloomberg, employees of Area SpA, a surveillance company based outside Milan engaged by the Syrian government, are installing the system under the direction of Syrian intelligence agents, who’ve pushed the Italians to finish, saying they urgently need to track people, a person familiar with the project says.

The project includes Sunnyvale, California-based NetApp Inc.  storage hardware and software for archiving e-mails; probes to scan Syria’s communications network from Paris-based Qosmos SA; and gear from Germany’s Utimaco Safeware AG (USA) that connects tapped telecom lines to Area’s monitoring-center computers.

Based on this revelation, Representative James McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts and co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the House, said he has instructed his staff to follow up with government agencies regarding NetApp to make sure U.S. sanctions against Syria are being enforced.

“I find it unconscionable that a U.S.-based company’s technology is being sent to Syria to help spy on peaceful citizens,” McGovern said. “We are concerned about U.S. and U.S.-connected entities providing the tools of repression to Syria,” Kirk said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

The Internet surveillance project for intercepting e-mail and Web sessions would be more intrusive than equipment for blocking websites. It includes NetApp’s hardware and software for archiving e-mails for easy retrieval.

Early project schematics state that NetApp’s technology would provide four petabytes of storage for archiving e-mails and other data. That is more than 15 times the amount of data stored in the online archive of the Library of Congress, or enough storage space for more than a billion digital copies of the epic Leo Tolstoy novel “War and Peace.”

In their letter, Senators Kirk and Casey ask that pending conclusion of an investigation, officials consider suspending all U.S. government work with NetApp, which received more than $111 million in U.S. contracts since 2001. The Sunnyvale, California-based company has a market value of about $15 billion and more than 10,000 employees.

The U.S. has banned most American exports to Syria other than food or medicine since 2004.

NetApp on its part, says it is committed to global trade compliance. “NetApp does not condone the location or use of its products in Syria,” said Jodi Baumann, NetApp’s senior director for corporate communications, in an e-mailed statement. “We are engaged in a vigorous effort to determine what the true facts are. We have also notified the U.S. government about the Bloomberg article and offered our full assistance.”

Eric King, human rights and technology adviser for Privacy International in London, said companies shouldn’t be allowed to recklessly disregard the potential for harm.

“The fact that there may be several degrees of separation between the original seller and the end user does not negate responsibility when products designed to facilitate blanket surveillance of a population are used for exactly that,” King said.

Amid public backlash against the project in recent days, Area Chief Executive Officer Andrea Formenti said Nov. 8 that his company is weighing options that may include exiting the Syria deal. Area has never had any relations with Syrian intelligence agencies, and its dealings comply with all export rules, the company said. Work on the Syria project has been suspended for more than two months, Formenti said, declining to say why. Technical problems “could be one of the reasons,” he said in an interview.

It is worthy to note also that the Nigerian government, in the wake of rising terrorist threats, had indicated interest in intercepting telecom and internet communication and they happen to be the biggest client to NetApp in Nigeria.