Closely watched by a delegation of the Armed Forces, Manuel Marrero Cruz created this Wednesday in Havana a National Working Group for Cybersecurity. Although the Cuban prime minister avoided mentioning it, this step facilitates the recent alliance of the state communications monopoly, Etecsa, with the military Defense Information Technology Company, known as xetid.
Xetid, founded in 2013 by a group of military computer scientists, is the technological arm of the Armed Forces. With a discreet profile, he focuses on the search for “solutions” to guarantee the effectiveness of the regime in digital surveillance and the development of software defense, in collaboration with the University of Informatics Sciences (UCI).
Xetid is responsible for the design of the electronic payment application EnZona, which requires its users a large amount of private information before allowing them to access their profile, in addition to monitoring their transactions.
ETECSA’s pact with Xetid allows the Government to unify the databases of both companies and amplify, with the direct supervision of the Armed Forces, its control over users. Among the terms of the alliance is the joint management of EnZona and Transfermovil, created by Etecsa to guarantee the flow of telephone recharges from abroad, among other operations.
Xetid is responsible for the design of the EnZona application, which requires its users a large amount of private information before allowing them to access their profile, in addition to monitoring their transactions
The directors of both corporations affirm that the agreement aims to “make life easier for Cubans from the digital area” and invites users to trust the transactions carried out with both applications.
In addition, it allows Etecsa “to have access to the tools of software of Xetid related to industry 4.0, business management and electronic government, main lines of the organization together with automation and security”, as promised Cubadebate.
During the opening of the first workshop on cybersecurity, organized at the José Antonio Echevarría Technological University of Havana (Cujae), Marrero Cruz applauded this alliance and pointed out that cyberspace surveillance is “a priority” for the government.
The “identification and elimination of security breaches” were one of the concerns of the Prime Minister, who read his speech in the presence of an attentive Minister of the Armed Forces, Álvaro López Miera, and his group of soldiers.
Marrero Cruz avoided deviating from the script provided in his speech, and when he did it was to nervously mentioning the 9/11 protestswhich he attributed to an “offensive” from the US. “Let’s not forget that this government created the Internet Working Group for Cuba in 2018 with the aspiration that social networks become channels of subversion,” he said, but not before victimize official portals “such as the one of the Presidency, Granma, Cubadebate and the Government”, in the crosshairs of the “media bombardment” from abroad.
After the speech, the companies participating in the workshop showed Marrero Cruz, the Minister of the Armed Forces and other soldiers and officials various surveillance equipment such as security cameras, identification mechanisms, alarms and some software defensive use.
Marrero did not specify what the functions of the National Cybersecurity Working Group would be, although he did indicate that it would operate under the direction of the president of the National Defense Council, a position held by President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
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