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Re: Orwell was right about UK



>>The new spy centre will decode messages that have been encrypted. Under
new powers due to come into force this summer, police will be able to
require individuals and companies to hand over computer "keys", special
codes that unlock scrambled messages.

Regardless of new police powers, individuals inclined to encrypt their email
correspondence are not going to voluntarily hand over their encryption keys.
This raises additional concerns for Britons.  When regulators and police are
unable to acquire encryption keys, what's the next step?  Perhaps the spy
centers will install filtering software to capture and delete all encrypted
email.  Or perhaps the British government will release its own encryption
technology -- for which it holds a set of keys, of course -- and allow
scrambled traffic encrypted with only the "official" technology to pass
though its network.  Either way, government control of ISPs will lead to bad
outcomes.

James





----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Jones <pjones@MetaLab.unc.edu>
To: <inls310-74@ruby.ils.unc.edu>
Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2000 2:14 AM
Subject: Orwell was right about UK


>
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/04/30/stinwenws01034.html
>
>  MI5 builds new centre to read e-mails on the net
>
>                        Nicholas Rufford
>
>
>  MI5 is building a new 25m e-mail surveillance centre that will have the
>  power to monitor all e-mails and internet messages sent and received in
>  Britain. The government is to require internet service providers, such as
>  Freeserve and AOL, to have "hardwire" links to the new computer facility
>  so
>  that messages can be traced across the internet.
>
>  The security service and the police will still need Home Office
>  permission to
>  search for e-mails and internet traffic, but they can apply for general
>  warrants
>  that would enable them to intercept communications for a company or an
>  organisation.
>
>  The new computer centre, codenamed GTAC - government technical
>  assistance centre - which will be up and running by the end of the year
>  inside
>  MI5's London headquarters, has provoked concern among civil liberties
>  groups. "With this facility, the government can track every website that
>  a
>  person visits, without a warrant, giving rise to a culture of suspicion
>  by
>  association," said Caspar Bowden, director of the Foundation for
>  Information
>  Policy Research.
>
>  The government already has powers to tap phone lines linking computers,
>  but
>  the growth of the internet has made it impossible to read all
>  material. By
>  requiring service providers to install cables that will download material
>  to
>  MI5, the government will have the technical capability to read everything
>  that
>  passes over the internet.
>
>  Home Office officials say the centre is needed to tackle the use of the
>  internet
>  and mobile phone networks by terrorists and international crime
>  gangs.Charles Clark, the minister in charge of the spy centre project,
>  said it
>  would allow police to keep pace with technology.
>
>  "Hardly anyone was using the internet or mobile phones 15 years ago," a
>  Home Office source said. "Now criminals can communicate with each other
>  by a huge array of devices and channels and can encrypt their messages,
>  putting them beyond the reach of conventional eavesdropping."
>
>  There has been an explosion in the use of the internet for crime in
>  Britain and
>  across the world, leading to fears in western intelligence agencies that
>  they
>  will soon be left behind as criminals abandon the telephone and resort to
>  encrypted e-mails to run drug rings and illegal prostitution and
>  immigration
>  rackets.
>
>  The new spy centre will decode messages that have been encrypted. Under
>  new powers due to come into force this summer, police will be able to
>  require
>  individuals and companies to hand over computer "keys", special codes
>  that
>  unlock scrambled messages.
>
>  There is controversy over how the costs of intercepting internet traffic
>  should
>  be shared between government and industry. Experts estimate that the cost
>  to
>  Britain's 400 service providers will be 30m in the first year. Internet
>  companies say that this is too expensive, especially as many are making
>  losses.
>
>  About 15m people in Britain have internet access. Legal experts have
>  warned
>  that many are unguarded in the messages they send or the material they
>  download, believing that they are safe from prying eyes.
>
>  "The arrival of this spy centre means that Big Brother is finally
>  here," said
>  Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes. "The balance between the
>  state and individual privacy has swung too far in favour of the state.
>