A COUNTER-SURVEILLANCE COMPANY which carried out a security sweep of the Garda Ombudsman headquarters has dismissed a report by journalist Paul Williams into the source of the anomalies found in the building.
Verrimus, a technical surveillance and privacy company based in the UK said the story about possible reasons for the security breaches was “wholly inaccurate”.
The report by Paul Williams in the Irish Independent today said that a wi-fi network in a nearby coffee shop had been the source of an external wi-fi network identified as an anomaly in the security sweep.
The report also suggested that the detection of a UK phone network during the sweep was caused by one of the phones used by an employee of the company.
In a statement, Verrimus said it cannot comment specifically on the task for GSOC or its findings, but said it will “correct technical inaccuracies in reporting”.
The company said it was not possible for a mobile phone of one of its employees to have been the source of the detected readings.
“A mobile phone cannot create a 3G base station, so it is impossible that Verrimus operator’s phones were the source of the fake Mobile Country Code (MCC) and fake Mobile Network Code (MNC) that was detected,” the company said in a statement.
It also dismissed the suggestion that the coffee shop had been responsible for the external wi-fi network.
Calls have been growing for an independent inquiry into the covert surveillance of the office of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission since it was revealed more than one week ago.
Sinn Féin is to hold a debate in the Dáil this evening pushing for an investigation into who was behind the bugging.
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