page_title: 2014 Se og Hør media scandal
section_title: The surveillance
hierarchical_section_title: 2014 Se og Hør media scandal / The surveillance
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: Prins Joachim av Danmark på väg in till slottskyrkan på Kungliga slottet i Stockholm inför vigseln mellan prinsessan Madeleine och Christopher O’Neill den 8 juni 2013.English: Joachim, Prince of Denmark on the way to the castle church at the Royal Palace in Stockholm before the wedding between Princess Madeleine and Christopher O'Neill June 8, 2013.Deutsch: Joachim von Dänemark auf dem Weg zum Schloss Kirche auf dem königlichen Palast in Stockholm vor der Hochzeit zwischen Prinzessin Madeleine und Christopher O'Neill 8. Juni 2013.Français&#160;: Joachim de Danemark sur le chemin de l'église du château au palais royal à Stockholm avant le mariage entre la princesse Madeleine et Christopher O'Neill 8 Juin 2013.Español: Joaquín de Dinamarca en el camino a la iglesia del castillo en el Palacio Real de Estocolmo antes de la boda entre la princesa Magdalena y Christopher O'Neill 08 de junio 2013.
context_page_description: The 2014 Se og Hør media scandal, also known as the Nets-scandal or the hush-hush scandal, was a media and IT surveillance scandal in Denmark that broke in 2014. An IT professional employed at IBM leaked sensitive personal data from the Nordic payment services company Nets to the Danish gossip magazine Se og Hør, which allowed the magazine to obtain information on celebrities' and other individuals' use of credit cards.
  The scandal came to public attention late in April 2014 after the publication of the journalist and author Ken B. Rasmussen's roman à clef Livet, det forbanede. A large number of organisations and media groups were ultimately involved, including Nets, IBM, Nordea, Fujitsu, SAS, Naviair, Rigshospsitalet, the Danish armed forces, TV 2, Ekstra Bladet, and Aller Media with their magazines Billed-Bladet and Se og Hør.
context_section_description: In 2007, Nets outsourced the maintenance of their central IT systems to IBM, which included the transfer of 71 workers. Se og Hør's so-called hush-hush source is believed to have been amongst the transferred workers. The surveillance of celebrities by this source is believed to have begun in 2008. According to investigations in the media, the source received a text message whenever a tracked celebrity used their credit card. The message was possibly sent automatically and could be received by the source at home. Soon after, the source would forward the text to journalists at Se og Hør. This may have been repeated several times a day. The source was apparently unable to add names to the list of tracked celebrities freely; only at certain times could the list be expanded with the names of new persons, after which they would also be under surveillance. Journalists at Se og Hør could suggest new names to the source, which was referred to internally as "bidding".
  It was initially uncertain how the surveillance was technically accomplished, but the programmer and IT-blogger Poul-Henning Kamp made the educated guess that it involved an existing "trace" facility in the Nets credit card handling system. Under normal circumstances, this system was only available to police with a court order to track wanted criminals. Kamp suggested that the system involved a real-time SMS service sending text messages directly to the police, which would reduce the paperwork burden for both the police and Nets. It remains unclear whether either of Nets or IBM had a functioning Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system monitoring their credit card infrastructure. However, IT experts concluded that there was evidence for the absence of a competent system and commented that such a system should have detected the irregularities. During proceedings at Østre Landsret in July 2014 and at the Supreme Court in December 2014, the prosecutor presented their understanding of how it was possible for the source to obtain sensitive data. According to state barrister Mohammad Ahsan, the source had access to data about card transactions but not associated names. Ahsan further commented that it would have been possible to match names to transactions by the source resetting colleagues' passwords and then logging in via their accounts.
  According to Ken B. Rasmussen, "anyone with even the slightest reputation" was under surveillance. As well as celebrities, this included murder suspects and accident victims. At least 86 people had personal information about them leaked by the source. High-profile victims included Prince Joachim, the comedian Casper Christensen, and the TV host Line Baun Danielsen. In Prince Joachim's case, the surveillance allowed Se og Hør to locate the Prince and Princess Marie on their otherwise secret honeymoon to Canada following their marriage in May 2008. Baun Danielsen's payment at a private hospital was leaked. The former professional cyclist Bo Hamburger (who had previously attended school with the alleged source) was also a victim. The magazine debated whether credit card transactions detailing the politician Morten Helveg Petersen's travel around Europe by plane, including hotel bookings in Rome, were sufficient grounds for a story. These leaks by the source did lead to Rasmussen writing a story for the magazine in 2008 titled Morten Helveg Petersen: Kærlighedsferie betalt af skatteyderne (English: Morten Helveg Petersen: Love holiday funded by taxpayers), which used the leaks to detail Helveg Petersen's personal relationship with Baun Danielsen during an official NATO meeting. At the time, Helveg Petersen demanded a retraction of the story and bought the case before the Danish Press Council, where he lost in October 2008. Several individuals under the protection of PET were also affected: former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen had his card transactions leaked, while Pia Kjærsgaard and her husband Henrik Thorup additionally had their CPR numbers and secret home address leaked.
  In Spring 2010, PwC carried out an inpection o
caption: Prince Joachim of Denmark was one of the individuals under surveillance.
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