The National Prosecutor's Office will investigate the circumstances of the purchase of Hermes. There is an official statement
The Prosecutor General's Office announced that it would carry out procedural activities to verify the legitimacy of the purchase and the manner of use of the tool called Hermes, which was widely reported on Monday.
On Monday, reports appeared that in the spring of 2021, the National Prosecutor's Office, then headed by Bogdan Święczkowski, was to purchase the Hermes spy system for PLN 15 million, whose capabilities were to exceed those of the controversial Pegasus. Former National Prosecutor Bogdan Święczkowski denied that any spy software was purchased during his time.
Deputy Prosecutor General Michał Ostrowski commented on the media reports and stated via the Ad Vocem Association's social media that the sensational information published on Monday by leading Polish media is untrue. Ostrowski assured that, contrary to suggestions, the software was not used for operational work
“It works on the principle of a very advanced Internet search engine, obtaining data commonly available on the Internet. Therefore, it is an OSINT tool in the field of criminal analysis. The information obtained in this way was subject to process verification. This is absolutely not a tool for the so-called operational control, does not break any security measures” – wrote Michał Ostrowski.
Even though, contrary to media reports, Hermes did not turn out to be spyware, the National Prosecutor's Office decided to take a closer look at the circumstances of Hermes' acquisition by the former Polish authorities. In an official statement, PK informed that procedural activities would be carried out to verify the legitimacy of the purchase and the manner of use of Hermes.
The National Prosecutor's Office will look into the purchase of Hermes
Proc. Anna Adamiak, Spokesperson of the Prosecutor General, announced in an official statement that the Hermes system is a tool for automating the process of collecting information from open OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) sources. It enables the acquisition and processing of information, among others: from social networking sites, websites, posted on online forums and disclosed in published databases.
“The Regional Prosecutor's Office in Rzeszów was appointed to conduct preparatory proceedings aimed at explaining all circumstances related to the decision-making process leading to the purchase of this system, the mode of purchase and the use of software for OSINT data analyses.” – we read in the official statement of PK.
