Slashdot Mirror
British Cops Hack Into Government Computers
CmdrGravy writes "The British Police have hacked into Government computers as part of the on-going 'cash for peerages' investigation. They've uncovered evidence which has, so far, led to one arrest and charge of perverting the course of justice for a leading Labour party figure. This charge carries a potential life sentence. The British police have the power to hack into computer systems as part of an investigation. On previous occasions they have said they did not believe the government was providing them with the information they had been asking for and had warned that they would seek other methods to gather evidence. The police won't say what tools they have used. From the article: 'The investigators did not have to notify No 10 if they were "hacking" into its system. One legal expert said: "In some cases, a senior officer can give permission. In other cases, you might need the authorization of an independent commissioner, who is usually a retired judge appointed by the Home Office."'"
Nobody has been charged as a result of this investigation. The official who was arrested was questioned on suspicion of perverting the course of justice and was later released.
It was actually the Polish that did most of the cracking of Enigma. The British just took their work, automated it, and produced ULTRA.
While it's true that Common Law is the basis of our legal system, most of the applicable laws when it comes to computer crime are much newer than Common Law. I.e. wiretapping (either phones or email) is not something for which common law is cited, but rather telephone acts from the early 1900s. As such, in the area of gathering computer records, I think it's a safe assumption that there may be very substantive differences between the laws of the US and the UK, making it not such a stupid question to ask. Of course, IANAL :-)
I know it sounds laughable on the face of things, but the real problem is that the Labour Party got the money, which they then used to (partially) fund their election campaign, and once they won the election, they started handing out these peerages to the people that gave them money.
It's a case of a political party abusing their authority for the benefit of the party and not the government or the people.
A longer and more accurate answer would be:
It was the Poles who cracked the first two rotors of Enigma without computers.
It was the British Navy who captured the rest of the rotors and the code-books.
It was Turing and Flower who built the first electronic programmable computer that enabled a theoretical crack to be actually used in real-time to read German traffic and produce ULTRA.
They're part of the Government, but not Parliament. The Police, Judiciary and the Armed forces ultimately answer to the Queen, not necessarily to Parliament.
With the appropriate authority, the police can do things that your everyday hacker on the street might find very difficult, e.g. gain physical entry to Downing Street, so there's no reason that there would be a gaping hole waiting for black-hats to enter through.
There are several organisations in the UK that regularly do IT security work for the ministry of defence, the police and the security services and have staff who are cleared to high security levels. I worked for Detica about 10 years ago and I think that they would have had the capability to assist in this kind of thing then, don't know if they still do. Qinetiq might be another firm that would have people with relevant expertise.
You're American, aren't you? In england we have wonderfu;l laws meaning the police aren't part of the government, and MPs and the PM can be prosecuted.