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New powers for police to hack your PC

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    New powers for police to hack your PC

    Awesome stuff! Not

    New powers for police to hack your PC

    Civil liberties groups raise alarm over extension of surveillance without warrant

    By Nigel Morris, Deputy Political Editor
    Monday, 5 January 2009

    Police have been given the power to hack into personal computers without a court warrant. The Home Office is facing anger and the threat of a legal challenge after granting permission. Ministers are also drawing up plans to allow police across the EU to collect information from computers in Britain.

    The moves will fuel claims that the Government is presiding over a steady extension of the "surveillance society" threatening personal privacy.

    Hacking – known as "remote searching" – has been quietly adopted by police across Britain following the development of technology to access computers' contents at a distance. Police say it is vital for tracking cyber-criminals and paedophiles and is used sparingly but civil liberties groups fear it is about to be vastly expanded.

    Remote searching can be achieved by sending an email containing a virus to a suspect's computer which then transmits information about email contents and web-browsing habits to a distant surveillance team.

    Alternatively, "key-logging" devices can be inserted into a computer that relay details of each key hit by its owner. Detectives can also monitor the contents of a suspect's computer hard-drive via a wireless network.

    Computer hacking has to be approved by a chief constable, who must be satisfied the action is proportionate to the crime being investigated.

    Last month European ministers agreed in principle to allow police to carry out remote searches of suspects' computers across the EU.

    Details of the proposal are still being developed by the Home Office and other EU ministries, but critics last night warned it would usher in a vast expansion of police hacking operations.

    Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights campaign group Liberty, said such a vast expansion of police powers should be regulated by a new Act of Parliament and that police should be forced to apply to a court for a warrant to hack into computers.

    She said: "This is no different from breaking down someone's door, rifling through their paperwork and seizing their computer hard drive."

    Ms Chakrabarti said the organisation believed it had strong grounds to challenge the practice both under British and European law.

    Dominic Grieve, the shadow Home Secretary, said: "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."

    A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said police carried out 194 hacking operations in 2007-08 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, including 133 in private homes, 37 in offices and 24 in hotel rooms.

    The spokesman said such surveillance was regulated under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

    "The police service in the United Kingdom will aggressively pursue serious and organised criminality, including where that takes the modern forms of hi-tech crime," he added.

    The Government faces criticism over the erosion of civil liberties on a series of fronts. It is working on plans for a giant "big brother" database holding information about every phone call, email and internet visit made by everyone in the United Kingdom.

    The first Britons will receive biometric identity cards at the end of the year, paving the way to the world's largest identity register. Genetic details of more than four million people are on the DNA national database, the highest proportion of any Western country. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Britain's policy of retaining samples from people never convicted of a crime – including children – breaches human rights.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...c-1225802.html

    #2
    "New powers for police to hack your PC"

    Would "Get a Mac" be an inappropriate comment at this point?

    More seriously, if this is correct (which it may be despite being a very badly-written report in The Independent) then it is a serious abuse of technologies that it would be illegal for others to use.

    Still, as such penetration of systems as is described in the article is only currently feasible on unsecured Windows systems, and apparently only affects those dumb enough to open unsolicited email attachments, and seems to include lots of fantasy scenarios that technologically-illiterate journalists use to bolster stories that make no sense...

    Maybe it's all pie in the sky, despite the hack's desperate attempt to make it seem like an immediate threat. Note the large number of irrelevant points about databases included towards the end of the story, all of which may be valid issues, but none of which are relevant to the actual story. They serve to create the impression of a solid background to a story that has none. I'm opposed to all the things mentioned, but taking them out of context so as to bolster a crappy story like this is shoddy journalism.

    For those unaware of the way journalism works, a story littered with such phrases as "can be", "in principle" and the giveaway future conditional "would" suggest that a hack (in the traditional sense of "journalist") is simply trying to fill space with something that may become a story in the future by making it seem to be a story now. Still, given that "Nigel Morris, Deputy Political Editor" seems not to have too deep an understanding of technology, perhaps we should forgive him his obvious failings.

    There's nothing on my Mac worth seeing anyway. Still, at least they can't see it at whatever time in the future these Indy ramblings become a story based in reality

    Good luck, MS suckers

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
      "New powers for police to hack your PC"

      Would "Get a Mac" be an inappropriate comment at this point?

      More seriously, if this is correct (which it may be despite being a very badly-written report in The Independent) then it is a serious abuse of technologies that it would be illegal for others to use.

      Still, as such penetration of systems as is described in the article is only currently feasible on unsecured Windows systems, and apparently only affects those dumb enough to open unsolicited email attachments, and seems to include lots of fantasy scenarios that technologically-illiterate journalists use to bolster stories that make no sense...

      Maybe it's all pie in the sky, despite the hack's desperate attempt to make it seem like an immediate threat. Note the large number of irrelevant points about databases included towards the end of the story, all of which may be valid issues, but none of which are relevant to the actual story. They serve to create the impression of a solid background to a story that has none. I'm opposed to all the things mentioned, but taking them out of context so as to bolster a crappy story like this is shoddy journalism.

      For those unaware of the way journalism works, a story littered with such phrases as "can be", "in principle" and the giveaway future conditional "would" suggest that a hack (in the traditional sense of "journalist") is simply trying to fill space with something that may become a story in the future by making it seem to be a story now. Still, given that "Nigel Morris, Deputy Political Editor" seems not to have too deep an understanding of technology, perhaps we should forgive him his obvious failings.

      There's nothing on my Mac worth seeing anyway. Still, at least they can't see it at whatever time in the future these Indy ramblings become a story based in reality

      Good luck, MS suckers
      I agree the Mac is clearly the computer of choice for pedo's who want to avoid police prosecution, your evidence is compelling.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by tay View Post
        I agree the Mac is clearly the computer of choice for pedo's who want to avoid police prosecution, your evidence is compelling.
        "tay isn't on your ignore list because you find his pathetic attempts to antagonise you mildly amusing as a demonstration of his abiding fail."

        Comment


          #5
          "Still, as such penetration of systems as is described in the article is only currently feasible on unsecured Windows systems, and apparently only affects those dumb enough to open unsolicited email attachments, and seems to include lots of fantasy scenarios that technologically-illiterate journalists use to bolster stories that make no sense"

          No so, you can often get in via the home router if file sharing is enabled or to drop a file onto the PC (even if full security is enabled) via a familar website, this will enable full remote access. It's dead easy.
          "A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims, but accomplices," George Orwell

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
            "tay isn't on your ignore list because you find his pathetic attempts to antagonise you mildly amusing as a demonstration of his abiding fail."
            I was agreeing with you!
            Macs are clearly the computer of choice for degenerates and reprobates so they can avoid the police hacking them. The fact it is also the computer of choice for sad lonely old men incapable of interacting in an inimate way with anything without a circuit board is irrelevant to this point.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by tay View Post
              I was agreeing with you!
              Macs are clearly the computer of choice for degenerates and reprobates so they can avoid the police hacking them. The fact it is also the computer of choice for sad lonely old men incapable of interacting in an inimate way with anything without a circuit board is irrelevant to this point.
              You keep accusing everyone of being a child abuser. why is it you keep going on about it?

              Comment


                #8
                How does this affect the chain of evidence? If they put something on your PC cannot you then claim that all evidence they find is tainted? Sounds well dodgy to me.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by BrilloPad View Post
                  You keep accusing everyone of being a child abuser. why is it you keep going on about it?

                  I have accused nobody of being a child abuser in this thread, get your facts right before making your brainless accusations.

                  I will explain it for as you are clearly very slow on the uptake

                  1/ The original article mentions pedophiles.
                  2/ NF says Mac users will be immune to the police tactic
                  3/ Therefore I agreeed with NF and think the mac will become the computer fo choice for child abusers.

                  No go away and actually use your brain.
                  Last edited by tay; 5 January 2009, 09:31.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
                    "New powers for police to hack your PC"

                    More seriously, if this is correct (which it may be despite being a very badly-written report in The Independent) then it is a serious abuse of technologies that it would be illegal for others to use.

                    Good luck, MS suckers
                    Not necessarily true. The police have developers in-house and will inevitably work with the Antivirus and Spyware companies to ensure that their code is not in their database as a virus.
                    If your company is the best place to work in, for a mere £500 p/d, you can advertise here.

                    Comment

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