A Swiss newspaper had a painful scoop last month: Police in the country used software from Russia to build 3D models of crime scenes. The co-owner of the manufacturer is Ms. Tychonoa, the daughter of the Russian President. She, like her father, is on the Swiss government blacklist.
What is less understandable is that in 2017 they ended up with a Russian company and no investigation was subsequently conducted into the owners. It is unthinkable for a newspaper to discover that it only takes four steps to get a software package to the Kremlin.
Official story
Naturally, the national politicians were not happy when this became known and questions of the Minister ensued. He answered last week. To what extent these answers remove all doubts is up to the reader. The official story is that the software was tested on a limited scale by some police forces in 2017. It was not possible to install the National Police's IT system, let alone integrate with it. In 2023, due to security concerns, everything has been removed from computers, meaning the danger has passed.
puzzle
It is really a mystery why the “evaluation” was decided in 2016. At that time, there were already enough cases of backdoor exploits by Russia and other countries. In that year, the resource's ownership structure was the same as it is today. To say that the software package is capable of creating images of strategic value is an understatement. 3D maps are very important, also to make more cybercrime attacks possible.
You can hope that the purchasing process in Switzerland has now been adjusted and that people will do more than just check whether all the mandatory boxes have been checked. (Whether purchases in the Netherlands and elsewhere work flawlessly is another story)
