(Ottawa) A company that offers an encrypted email service is contesting the assertion of a former RCMP official, who argued at his trial that the firm worked secretly on behalf of an intelligence agency.
At his trial in Ontario Superior Court, Cameron Jay Ortis testified that a foreign ally told him about a plan to encourage targets of investigation to start using Tutanota, an online encryption service that he called it a “showcase” operation created by intelligence agents to spy on adversaries.
Mr. Ortis said he then began luring targets of the investigation by promising them secret information, with the aim, in effect, of getting them to communicate with him through the Tutanota encryption service.
In a statement posted on its website on Monday, Tuta, as the company is now called, called Mr. Ortis’ claims completely false and denied any links to secret services.
Cameron Jay Ortis, 51, has pleaded not guilty to violating the Information Protection Act revealing secrets to three people and attempting to do so in a fourth case.
The Crown argues Ortis did not have the authority to release classified documents and was not doing so as part of some sort of undercover operation.