The President’s Men? Inside the Technical Research Department, the secret player in Egypt’s intelligence infrastructure, published 24 February 2016

This Privacy International report sheds light on the existence of the Technical Research Department (TRD), a secret unit that most likely sits within the Egyptian General Intelligence Service (GIS). The TRD has come to our attention because of their extensive ambitions to purchase surveillance technologies. [Privacy International has] uncovered evidence of a number of European surveillance companies that have been dealing with the TRD. [In the report Privacy International states that it] contacted the following companies in the development of this report: Advanced German Technology (AGT), A6 Consultancy, GNSE Group [part of Mansour Group], Hacking Team, Nokia Group, Siemens, Solve IT and Universal Advanced Systems...Attempts to reach Egyptian German Telecommunications Industries (EGTI) were unsuccessful.  [The report Annex includes responses by Hacking Team, Nokia and Siemens].