Report: European Patent Office Tapped Computers

A story in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung says, according to an unofficial translation, that it has obtained an internal report that shows the European Patent Office (EPO) tapped two general use computers it had identified as a source for leaked information. The news comes on the eve of a meeting of the EPO president with the European Parliament.

[Update: the alleged leaked surveillance document is available here. The original Süddeutsche Zeitung story, with a full English translation, is here.]

The story says the newspaper obtained an internal report that the European Patent Office’s Security Officer sent to the EPO Data Protection Officer describing that EPO has tapped two computers in a general area (also used by the EPO Board) because they earlier identified these computers as source for leaking information.

The topics of these leaks, according to the internal report by the Security Office, were EPO President Benoît Batistelli’s controversial reform of the system of promotion of employees and also the record of his vice president from Croatia who has been the subject of criticism for alleged behaviour in his own country (IPW, Europe, 15 May 2014).

The systems were tapped by keylogging, and according to the internal report led to suspension of one judge they caught. The news report (in German) is here.

Battistelli is scheduled to appear before the Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs on Monday, 15 June.