CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘Interception’ Category

Wacky Jacqui’s £12bn gIMP could be unleashed by 2012: “

But ‘nothing decided’ on comms überdatabase, says Home Office

The government Interception Modernisation Programme (gIMP), a plan by spy chiefs to centrally collect details of every phone call, text, email and web browsing session of every UK resident, could be in place by 2012, according to a Home Office minister.…

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(Via The Register - Public Sector.)

Spy chiefs plot £12bn IT spree for comms überdatabase: “

Black boxes to keep Black’s firm in the black

Billions of pounds of public money will soon be up for grabs for private IT contractors ready to serve the Interception Modernisation Programme - UK spy chiefs’ plan to store details of every call, email, text and web browsing session.…

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(Via The Register - Public Sector.)

There’s no hiding place as spy HQ plans to see all - Times Online

From The Sunday Times, October 5, 2008 (David Leppard)

Every call you make, every e-mail you send, every website you visit - I’ll be watching you.

That is the hope of Sir David Pepper who, as the director of GCHQ, the government’s secret eavesdropping agency in Cheltenham, is plotting the biggest surveillance system ever created in Britain.

From his office in the agency’s famous “doughnut” building, Pepper is masterminding an innocent-sounding project called the Interception Modernisation Programme.

The scope of the project - classified top secret - is said by officials to be so vast that it will dwarf the estimated £5 billion ministers have set aside for the identity cards programme. It is intended to fight terrorism and crime. Civil liberties groups, however, say it poses an unprecedented intrusion into ordinary citizens’ lives.

Aimed at placing a “live tap” on every electronic communication in Britain, it will dwarf other “big brother” surveillance projects such as the number plate recognition system and the spread of CCTV.

Pepper and his opposite number at MI6, Sir John Scarlett, are facing opposition from mandarins in the Treasury and Cabinet Office who fear both its cost and ethical implications.

The spy bosses say a central database is essential to “capture” the array of communications between terrorists planning to attack Britain. Draft e-mails, chatroom discussions and internet browsing on encrypted jihadist websites are the preferred forums for Al-Qaeda cells to plan their attacks, they say. However, other officials and many in the business and academic community are wary.
(more…)

Government will spy on every call and e-mail - Times Online

From The Sunday Times, October 5, 2008 (David Leppard)

Ministers are considering spending up to £12 billion on a database to monitor and store the internet browsing habits, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain.

GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, has already been given up to £1 billion to finance the first stage of the project.

Hundreds of clandestine probes will be installed to monitor customers live on two of the country’s biggest internet and mobile phone providers - thought to be BT and Vodafone. BT has nearly 5m internet customers.

Ministers are braced for a backlash similar to the one caused by their ID cards programme. Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: “Any suggestion of the government using existing powers to intercept communications data without public discussion is going to sound extremely sinister.”

MI5 currently conducts limited e-mail and website intercepts which are approved under specific warrants by the home secretary.

Further details of the new plan will be unveiled next month in the Queen’s speech.

The Home Office stressed no formal decision had been taken but sources said officials had made clear that ministers had agreed “in principle” to the programme.

Officials claim live monitoring is necessary to fight terrorism and crime. However, critics question whether such a vast system can be kept secure. A total of 57 billion text messages were sent in the UK last year - 1,800 every second.

More on Skype surveillance in China…

Skype spies give pause for thought in China: “Most Chinese who use Skype – or at least its Chinese version TOM-Skype – were
thrilled to find a way to make free phone calls. There were also a few who
were delighted to find a way to chat while circumventing the all-seeing eye
of the state security. But today those few were scurrying to find a new way
to communicate after it emerged that Skype’s Chinese partner had been
archiving politically sensitive words and messages – and possibly even the
identities of those whose conversations could be deemed sensitive.”

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

China Skype service snags and stores users’ messages: “

More than a million messages logged

Human rights advocates have uncovered a huge surveillance system in China that monitors and archives text messages sent with the Tom-Skype chat client when they contain politically charged words.…

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(Via The Register - Comms.)

Surveillance of Skype Messages Found in China: “A Canadian human rights group has uncovered a system that tracks politically charged text messages sent by customers of Tom-Skype, a joint venture of which eBay’s Skype is a partner.

(Via NYT > Technology.)

Rights Group Sues NSA and Cheney for Spying: “The Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the government and top Bush officials over its warrantless wiretapping program Thursday. The suit comes just a day before the government tries using a new and powerful tool to dismiss the group’s surprisingly resilient suit against AT&T for helping with the program.

(Via Wired News.)

Post from: TorrentFreak

Pirate Party Official Raided after Uncovering State Trojan: “

The spokesperson of the German Pirate Party saw his house raided after the party published a leaked document which showed that the government uses a homemade ‘trojan’ to wiretap Skype conversations. In addition, a server from another party member was seized.

The Pirate Party is known for it’s battle against the ever increasing government surveillance on the public. So, when an anonymous whistleblower sent them a internal document which showed that the government went as far as installing trojans on computers, they didn’t hesitate to publish it.

German authorities weren’t too happy about the leak, which might be illegal according to a criminal law specialist, and went after the source. Earlier this week police searched the home of the Pirate Party spokesperson where they hoped to find more information. In addition to the home search, a server from another party member was seized. The server, however, was fully encrypted, so chances are low that it will uncover the whistleblower.

In a response, Andreas Popp, Chairman of the Bavarian Pirate Party said: ‘A brave person leaks documents to the Pirate Party, to inform the public about a procedure of the Bavarian Government, which is highly likely to violate the constitution. Now this persons is hunted like a criminal. Private rooms are raided, servers get seized.’

Pirate Parties around the world will continue to speak out against these, and other privacy threats. The trojan in question (German) was able to tap into Skype calls and intercept traffic to encrypted websites.

(Via TorrentFreak.)

GCHQ ‘monitored Omagh bomb calls’: “The UK’s electronic intelligence agency monitored phone calls between the Omagh bombers, the BBC’s Panorama reports.”

(Via BBC News.)