Secure Information Exchange Network Application

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Secure Information Exchange Network Application ( SIENA ) is a communication tool for mutual communication between EUROPOL offices and EU member states and third parties who are involved in EUROPOL's communication. In a report by the Council of Europe from January 2015, SIENA is named as Europol's core application alongside the Europol Platform for Experts (EPE), the Europol Information System (EIS) and the Europol Analysis System (EAS). According to EUROPOL, particular importance was attached to data protection and confidentiality as well as compliance with all legal requirements. SIENA is comparable to the FBI's Law Enforcement Online network . Unlike this, as a network of an international organization like the Interpol Global Communication System 24/7 (I24-7), it is bound by contractual rules. Parliamentary supervision over the use of the system and its content is therefore more difficult.

The aim of introducing SIENA is to enable the system to become a central information management system for case handling, cross-comparisons and the exchange of structured data . For example, EIS can be securely accessed through SIENA.

Quantitative data

According to EUROPOL, at the end of 2014 573 participants with 4722 users were configured in SIENA, of which 28 are member countries, 14 directly connected "third parties" and 19 indirectly involved parties. In addition to direct EU members, services from non-EU members such as Australia , Norway and Switzerland also cooperate , but according to EUROPOL information from 2012, these are not yet directly integrated into the information network. Information from the British civil rights movement Statewatch suggests that Interpol also has access to the system. In addition, Statewatch 2012 reports on the involvement of Australia, Croatia (now EU member), Iceland and Norway as well as the establishment of regional platforms in Ghana and Senegal .

Technical specifications

Little is known about the SIENA system, and references from various documents only provide an incomplete picture. The file size of transmitted data in SIENA is limited to 50 Mbytes. When larger files need to be transferred, a solution called "Large File Exchange" (LFE) is used.

historical development

Before the introduction of SIENA, a system called the Information Exchange System (InfoEx) was used from 1996 onwards. When further considerations about data security were made in November 2005, InfoEx was also discussed more intensively. From 2007 detailed plans were drawn up to replace InfoEx with SIENA. SIENA's commitment to Europe-wide communication between police authorities was made during the Danzig Talks, which took place in Germany for the first time in 2008. SIENA was developed in Sweden . The first version of SIENA went online on July 1st, 2009. The core of the application was a system that can translate police queries into 24 official languages ​​and three alphabets. Further versions were published in quick succession (V1.0, V1.1 and V1.2). Version 2.0 was released in March 2010. SIENA 2.1 was activated at the end of 2011, which enabled third parties to be integrated into the SIENA network. Version 2.3 offered a universal message format at the end of 2013, with which data could be exchanged in PDF form in accordance with the Prüm Agreement. In 2014 the message format was expanded so that automatic data transmission was enabled and information did not have to be recorded multiple times. In 2014, SIENA III was rolled out, which improved cooperation between national agencies.

EUROPOL offers other agencies such as the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Eurojust and Frontex the use of SIENA. SIENA is also being introduced nationally. The Federal Office for the Prevention and Fight against Corruption , which is subordinate to the Austrian Ministry of the Interior , announced the introduction of SIENA for the anti-corruption authority by October 2016.

From a EUROPOL report to a standing committee from November 2015, the current status of the software is given as 2.8 (introduced in October 2015). At the same time, it is noted that the number of terrorism-related notifications in the system has increased from 5 to 7% in three quarters. The number of participants will also be increased further.

In development stage 3.0, the security of Siena is to be increased to "EU-Confidential". The development is described as necessary because the current communication tool of the Police Working Group on Terrorism (PWGT) has reached the end of its life cycle.

Also for the "Counter Terrorism Group", a fusion center for at least 30 intelligence services of the EU member states, Norway and Switzerland, which was established by the Dutch secret service Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst (AIVD) on July 1, 2016 , according to the assumption of the German journalist Matthias Monroy about SIENA. The security level of the data transmitted via SIENA would have to be higher than that via the US LEO system, which, according to Monroy, should be possible in 2016. For this purpose, the separation between police and secret service data, which had been valid in Germany up to that point, had to be changed, which was done by part of the "Law on Better Information Exchange in Combating International Terrorism" of July 26, 2016 ( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 1818 ) .

Connected communication partners

In 2015, Europol itself stated the number of connected participants as 5531 in 43 different countries. As of January 2018, 1200 different authorities in 47 countries are specified and the total number of notifications is over a million.

In the answers to a small question (January 2016), the Bundestag administration lists as directly affiliated partners: Albania, Australia, Iceland, Canada, Colombia, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, USA, Eurojust as well as Interpol. The following are indirectly connected: Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Russian Federation, Turkey, Ukraine, Civilian European Security and Defense Policy Missions, EMCDDA, OLAF, the European Central Bank, European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, the European Commission, CEPOL, Frontex, das EU Intelligence Analysis Center , the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the World Customs Organization .

Germany

In a small request from member of the Bundestag, Andrej Hunko , the German participants in the SIENA network are named. According to the information in the request, the communication partners include the Federal Criminal Police Office , the Federal Police , the Customs Investigation Service and public prosecutors. In addition, the letter from the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office , the Euregional Police Information and Cooperation Center (EPICC) Heerlen, the Joint Center (GZ) Basel and the DEU_AUT Police Cooperation Center (PKZ) Passau.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c SIENA on the EUROPOL website; Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  2. ↑ Europol Work Program 2015. Document 5250/15 of the Council of Europe of 16 January 2015, published on Statewatch . Retrieved March 17, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Matthias Monroy (2016) No reason to celebrate: Start of the new European intelligence center on Netzpolitik.org on July 1, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b c d EUROPOL, SIENA, Secure Information Exchange Network Application; Publication in the EU Bookshop . doi : 10.2813 / 16519
  5. ↑ a b Europol boosts its reach, scope and information-gathering on the Statewatch website (www.statewatch.org) from June 1, 2012.
  6. ↑ a b c General Report on Europol's activities in 2015 ; Report from EUROPOL to the Law Enforcement Group on the website of the Austrian Parliament.
  7. ↑ Xymena Kurowska, Patryk Pawlak (2014) The Politics of European security policies; Routledge page 92.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Cristina Blasi Casagran: Global Data Protection in the Field of Law Enforcement: An EU Perspective . Routledge, 2016, ISBN 978-1-317-22327-6 , pp. 128 ff .
  9. ↑ a b c Detlef Borchers (2008) Danzig Talks: Better police communication with SIENA ; heise online from October 9, 2008
  10. ↑ Katalin Ligeti (2012) Toward a Prosecutor for the European Union Volume 1: A Comparative Analysis, Bloomsbury Publishing; Page 1034.
  11. ↑ S4ACA SIENA for Anti-Corruption Authorities on the website of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior; Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  12. ↑ a b c d Enhancing counter terrorism capabilities at EU level: European Counter Terrorism Center (ECTC) at Europol and counter terrorism related information sharing ; EUROPOL report to the Standing Committee on Operational Cooperation in Internal Security; No. 14244/15 of November 23, 2015; at www.Statewatch.org
  13. ^ Europol: Secure Information Exchange Network Application (SIENA). 2015, accessed on March 17, 2018 (English, presentation by EUROPOL).
  14. ↑ Europol press release: More Than One Million Operational Messages Shared Between EUROPOL, Member States And Third Parties in 2017. Retrieved on March 17, 2018 .
  15. ↑ a b c Small question from the MP Andrej Hunko and others and the DIE LINKE parliamentary group. Exchange of classified information among European secret services, police and military ; BT printed matter 18/7034 from January 12, 2016.