UK warrantless internet spy system
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Shades of Scourge W. Bush, just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse in the DK (Disunited Kingdom) comes the news that the home office has, “quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant”.
Called Remote Searching, it turns War Driving into Police Driving and, “follows a decision by the European Union’s council of ministers in Brussels,” angering civil liberties groups and opposition MPs,” says the Times Online.
“It allows police or MI5 officers who may be hundreds of miles away to examine covertly the hard drive of someone’s PC at his home, office or hotel room.”
Britain already allows police hacking under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, “and police have carried out a small number of operations among the 194 clandestine searches conducted last year,” says The Telegraph, going on »»»
The police can use a number of techniques which include sending a computer virus through an email which infects the computer if opened.
They can also use a surveillance vehicle or neighbouring property to hack into a wireless internet connection.
The most intrusive technique involves breaking into a property to fit a device to a computer which logs key strokes on the keyboard and transmits the results back to a listening station.
The Association of Chief Police Officers said remote surveillance was regulated by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa).”
Under the Brussels edict, “police across the EU have been given the green light to expand the implementation of a rarely used power involving warrantless intrusive surveillance of private property,” says Times Online.
The “strategy” will allow French, German and other EU forces to ask British police and MI5 agents to hack into someone’s UK computer and hand over anything they find.
“A remote search can be granted if a senior officer says he ‘believes’ that it is ‘proportionate’ and necessary to prevent or detect serious crime - defined as any offence attracting a jail sentence of more than three years.”
Expect enthusiastic endorsements from Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s BPI (British Phonographic Industry) and IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry) , as well as Hollywood’s MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and FACT, ‘Farcical Approaches to Copyright Transgressions’ or ‘Federation Against Copyright Theft,’ depending on which side of which fence you’re sitting.
They’ll be demanding access to, and use of, the system, if they haven’t already.
“MI5 and GCHQ monitor the internet through a network of ‘black boxes’ attached to servers but they are looking at ways of expanding the system,” observes The Telegraph.
(Thanks, Luvie)
Times Online - Police set to step up hacking of home PCs, January 4, 2009
The Telegraph - Government plans to extend powers to spy on personal computers, January 4, 2009
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January 6th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I’m in Canada, but that’s not likely to work on me anyway. I run Linux (no native-code or Windows Scripting Host viruses) with GMail e-mail (no bare .exe attachments allowed and a constant reminder that, if I want something secure, I need end-to-end encryption), I’m not dumb enough to execute un-trusted code… or any closed-source code beyond my video drivers (nVidia) and BIOS, for that matter. I use only wired networking, I almost never leave the house, and I doubt the police would be equipped to monitor TEMPEST radiation.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
mac, check
little snitch, check
no wireless, check
encrypted p2p, check
peerguardian, check
internet spy system, FAIL.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
@Reader’s Write: “I doubt the police would be equipped to monitor TEMPEST radiation.”
Did you catch the part about them physically breaking into your house and serruptitiously installing keystroke loggers and God knows what else in your machine? Would it be too much of a stretch then to believe they could also implement some sort of TEMPEST amplifier that would enable them to receive a much stronger reading at remote distances? Sure, that would not be inconspicuous for those who know what to look for, but how many of us have access to bug sweeping equipment or broadband spectrum analyzers on a daily basis?
January 6th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Time to encrypt my hard drive and vote these idiots out at next election (nulabour). Welcome to east Germany, sorry UK.