[CTRL] The spy in your server
from: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,352394,00.html Click Here: A HREF="http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,352394,00.html"G uardian Unlimited | The spy in your server/A - The spy in your server There is no hiding place on the net as governments around the world chase your data, reports Duncan Campbell Special report: privacy on the net Thursday August 10, 2000 Governments all over the world have suddenly become embroiled in controversy about electronic surveillance of the internet. In the United States, a political storm has arisen over a new FBI internet tapping system codenamed Carnivore. In Britain, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act has just extended telephone-tapping powers to cover internet service providers (ISPs), and allows the government to arrange indiscriminate tapping or email interception for foreign police forces and security agencies. In the Netherlands, the Dutch security service BVD admitted two weeks ago that it has been collecting emails sent abroad by companies. In the Hague, laws are being prepared to allow the Justice Ministry to tap into email and subscriber records, scan messages and mobile phone calls, and track users' movements. The Australian government has passed laws allowing security agents to attack and modify computers secretly to obtain information. Many other governments have similar schemes in the pipeline. These developments are no coincidence but the direct result of secret planning over seven years by an international co-ordinating group set up by the FBI, after Congress twice refused to extend its telephone tapping powers for digital networks. Under the innocuous title of the International Law Enforcement Telecommunications Seminar (ILETS), the group has met annually to plan for and lobby to make telecommunications systems "interception-friendly". ILETS excluded lawyers and industry specialists who might have advised on the arrangements to protect privacy and human rights, or on the feasi bility and cost of the intelligence officers' wish list of interception requirements. As a result, the laws based on their recommendations have repeatedly caused controversy. The work of ILETS first came to light in late 1997, when a British researcher, Tony Bunyan, revealed collaboration between EU staff and the FBI for many years. Details of plans to compel ISPs all over the world to install secret internet interception "black boxes" in their premises appeared in Onlin e last year. A month ago, the European Parliament appointed 36 MEPs to lead a year-long investigation into Echelon - the codename for a mainly US system for monitoring traffic on commercial communications satellites. Echelon has become common parlance for the worldwide electronic eavesdropping or signals intelligence (Sigint) network run by the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) together with the US National Security Agency (NSA). The inquiry will ask if the rights of European citizens are adequately protected and ascertain whether European industry is put at risk by the global interception of communications. French politicians and lawyers have taken the lead in accusing the US and Britain of using their electronic intelligence networks to win business away from foreign rivals. US politicians have riposted that France runs a worldwide electronic intelligence system of its own - "Frenchelon", based at Domme, near Sarlat in the Dordogne, and includes an eavesdropping station in New Caledonia in the Pacific (see www.zdnet.co.uk/news/ 2000/25/ns-16207.html) . Electronic eavesdropping has become a battleground between the US and Russia. The Russian-American Trust and Cooperation Act of 2000, passed on July 19, stops President Clinton rescheduling or writing off billions of dollars of Russian debts unless a Russian spy base in Cuba is "permanently closed". This base at Lourdes, located on leased land near Havana, was the former Soviet Union's most important intelligence facility. It uses Echelon-type systems to collect data from telephone calls and satellite links covering the US. Lourdes allegedly provides "between 60% and 70% of all Russian intelligence data about the US". A defector has said that spying from Lourdes has grown dramatically following an order by Boris Yeltsin to step up economic and technological espionage against the west. The White House wants to stop the campaign to close Lourdes because other countries might then ask the US to close down its identical bases. Documents suggest the US would particularly fear the Lourdes effect spreading to Britain, Germany and Australia, where the NSA operates large sites. Its station at Menwith Hill, Yorkshire, is the largest electronic intelligence base in the world. The US is not alone in this spying. By the end of the year, the Government Technical Assistance Centre (GTAC) will have begun operations from inside MI5's headquarters at Thames House, Millbank. Its primary
[CTRL] The spy in your server
http://www.mediachannel.org/ The spy in your server Thursday August 10, 2000 Governments all over the world have suddenly become embroiled in controversy about electronic surveillance of the internet. In the United States, a political storm has arisen over a new FBI internet tapping system codenamed Carnivore. In Britain, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act has just extended telephone-tapping powers to cover internet service providers (ISPs), and allows the government to arrange indiscriminate tapping or email interception for foreign police forces and security agencies. In the Netherlands, the Dutch security service BVD admitted two weeks ago that it has been collecting emails sent abroad by companies. In the Hague, laws are being prepared to allow the Justice Ministry to tap into email and subscriber records, scan messages and mobile phone calls, and track users' movements. The Australian government has passed laws allowing security agents to attack and modify computers secretly to obtain information. Many other governments have similar schemes in the pipeline. These developments are no coincidence but the direct result of secret planning over seven years by an international co-ordinating group set up by the FBI, after Congress twice refused to extend its telephone tapping powers for digital networks. Under the innocuous title of the International Law Enforcement Telecommunications Seminar (ILETS), the group has met annually to plan for and lobby to make telecommunications systems "interception-friendly". ILETS excluded lawyers and industry specialists who might have advised on the arrangements to protect privacy and human rights, or on the feasi bility and cost of the intelligence officers' wish list of interception requirements. As a result, the laws based on their recommendations have repeatedly caused controversy. The work of ILETS first came to light in late 1997, when a British researcher, Tony Bunyan, revealed collaboration between EU staff and the FBI for many years. Details of plans to compel ISPs all over the world to install secret internet interception "black boxes" in their premises appeared in Online last year. A month ago, the European Parliament appointed 36 MEPs to lead a year-long investigation into Echelon - the codename for a mainly US system for monitoring traffic on commercial communications satellites. Echelon has become common parlance for the worldwide electronic eavesdropping or signals intelligence (Sigint) network run by the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) together with the US National Security Agency (NSA). The inquiry will ask if the rights of European citizens are adequately protected and ascertain whether European industry is put at risk by the global interception of communications. French politicians and lawyers have taken the lead in accusing the US and Britain of using their electronic intelligence networks to win business away from foreign rivals. US politicians have riposted that France runs a worldwide electronic intelligence system of its own - "Frenchelon", based at Domme, near Sarlat in the Dordogne, and includes an eavesdropping station in New Caledonia in the Pacific (see www.zdnet.co.uk/news/ 2000/25/ns-16207.html). Electronic eavesdropping has become a battleground between the US and Russia. The Russian-American Trust and Cooperation Act of 2000, passed on July 19, stops President Clinton rescheduling or writing off billions of dollars of Russian debts unless a Russian spy base in Cuba is "permanently closed". This base at Lourdes, located on leased land near Havana, was the former Soviet Union's most important intelligence facility. It uses Echelon-type systems to collect data from telephone calls and satellite links covering the US. Lourdes allegedly provides "between 60% and 70% of all Russian intelligence data about the US". A defector has said that spying from Lourdes has grown dramatically following an order by Boris Yeltsin to step up economic and technological espionage against the west. The White House wants to stop the campaign to close Lourdes because other countries might then ask the US to close down its identical bases. Documents suggest the US would particularly fear the Lourdes effect spreading to Britain, Germany and Australia, where the NSA operates large sites. Its station at Menwith Hill, Yorkshire, is the largest electronic intelligence base in the world. The US is not alone in this spying. By the end of the year, the Government Technical Assistance Centre (GTAC) will have begun operations from inside MI5's headquarters at Thames House, Millbank. Its primary purpose will be to break codes used for private email or to protect files on personal computers. It will also receive and hold private keys to codes which British computer users may be compelled to give to the government, under the RIP Act. Development of GTAC has been pioneered by the Home
