"and you try telling young folks today and they won't believe you!

Police set to step up hacking of home PCs
The Times
David Leppard

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.



This is really old news as 'they' have been doing this for a few years now, in fact, they did it to me. Not the UK police, their Hi Tech Squad in Wales are a right useless bunch, but that is another story, but the National Security Agency in the USA.

The thought of such powers being handed to an ever-more unaccountable police has certainly got the folks on Twitter twittering away.

Hello folks! Where have you been?

This is just one manifestation of how the state is gaining further and further control of our individual personal freedoms and has been though various forms of, what might seem like, unrelated legislation.

The move, which follows a decision by the European Union’s council of ministers in Brussels, has angered civil liberties groups and opposition MPs. They described it as a sinister extension of the surveillance state which drives “a coach and horses” through privacy laws. The hacking is known as “remote searching”. 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. Material gathered in this way includes the content of all e-mails, web-browsing habits and instant messaging. 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. The strategy will allow French,German and other EU forces to ask British officers to hack into someone’s UK computer and pass over any material gleaned.

Ah! so our EU masters have allowed this to come to pass! Of course it has.

I remember all the media political hype surrounding the UK joining, what was then described as an Economic not a political union, what a con-job eh?

Then once the UK police have done their masters bidding, they will hand over all that info to foreign interests, just like the government did with our nuclear deterrent then?

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.

Didn't do any of that on a rape case I am familiar with though, not really that serious is it love? Where you a bit drunk? and other assorted cliches.

However, opposition MPs and civil liberties groups say that the broadening of such intrusive surveillance powers should be regulated by a new act of parliament and court warrants. They point out that in contrast to the legal safeguards for searching a suspect’s home, police undertaking a remote search do not need to apply to a magistrates’ court for a warrant. Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, the human rights group, said she would challenge the legal basis of the move. “These are very intrusive powers – intrusive as someone busting down your door and coming into your home,” she said. Any jobs going Shami? I really need to get myself into something essential !!!!

“The public will want this to be controlled by new legislation and judicial authorisation. Without those safeguards it’s a devastating blow to any notion of personal privacy.”
Err? I think the public don't want this at all Shami!!!

She said the move had parallels with the warrantless police search of the House of Commons office of Damian Green, the Tory MP: “It’s like giving police the power to do a Damian Green every day but to do it without anyone even knowing you were doing it.”

Richard Clayton, a researcher at Cambridge University’s computer laboratory, said that remote searches had been possible since 1994, although they were very rare. An amendment to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 made hacking legal if it was authorised and carried out by the state.

Picture this...

The State:

'Listen ugly low-life plebby oik! Do as I say not as I do! You cannot hack but I can! Get over it before something nasty happens to you!'

Citizen: (sorry Subject of the Crown otherwise know as slave)

'But I thought you worked for us, in a kind of democratic way?'

The State:

'Who the fuck have you been listening too? You mean you actually fell for all that democracy tripe we have been feeding you for around 200 years? Telling you that your vote counts and all that? Ha! This is going to be easier than we thought!'

He said the authorities could break into a suspect’s home or office and insert a “key-logging” device into an individual’s computer. This would collect and, if necessary, transmit details of all the suspect’s keystrokes. “It’s just like putting a secret camera in someone’s living room,” he said.

Police might also send an e-mail to a suspect’s computer. The message would include an attachment that contained a virus or “malware”. If the attachment was opened, the remote search facility would be covertly activated. Alternatively, police could park outside a suspect’s home and hack into his or her hard drive using the wireless network.

See here, here and here, to deal with security measures and how to deal with unwanted emails.

Police say that such methods are necessary to investigate suspects who use cyberspace to carry out crimes. These include paedophiles, internet fraudsters, identity thieves and terrorists.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said such intrusive surveillance was closely regulated under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. A spokesman said police were already carrying out a small number of these operations which were among 194 clandestine searches last year of people’s homes, offices and hotel bedrooms.

“To be a valid authorisation, the officer giving it must believe that when it is given it is necessary to prevent or detect serious crime and [the] action is proportionate to what it seeks to achieve,” Acpo said.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, agreed that the development may benefit law enforcement. But he added: “The exercise of such intrusive powers raises serious privacy issues. The government must explain how they would work in practice and what safeguards will be in place to prevent abuse.”

The Home Office said it was working with other EU states to develop details of the proposals.

I tell you, why don't you just work yourselves out of the office, down the road and onto the first ferry over to the EU and remain there with your other Federalist buddies and leave us the heck alone!

The Times article has drawn a lot of comments and only one or two some of the usual stock, shrill-like 'But if you have nothing to hide surly you have nothing to fear?' variety such as ....

'What is there to worry about? If you are not breaking the law you have noting to fear. Let them get on and prevent terrorism and drug dealing I say.'

Steve, Epsom, UK

Huh! I wonder how many times that phrase was uttered in the ghettos of Poland and the cellars of Bosnia?

But some of the commenter's do seem to be able to grasp the magnitude of such powers...

If Mr Plod can read files on a hard drive he can also put info into the files. This government is
completely untrustworthy and would certainly consider loading a hard drive if it helped them stay in power.

perc, london, uk

Remote access to a hard drive is a concern. By implication it is possible to infect a drive with spurious information. The temptation is similar to that involving the misuse of DNA, the ability to create false evidence that appears incontrovertible. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Douglas Miller, Fulham,

This country is as bent as a nine bob note.

Robert, Hull, UK

and this one..

'A senior police technician many years ago told me the police could 'set anyone up' by installing compromising data on their PC or mobile phone- child porn, fake criminal/ terrorist evidence. Now it's confirmed such evidence should not be admissible in court, and past convictions must be reviewed.'

John Bayldon, Harrogate, UK

But I guess it all just boils down to trust. They don't trust us and we don't trust them.

Police set to step up hacking of home PCs - Times Online

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