Report: Not Just For Tabloids; UK Privacy-Invading Hackers Widespread

The phone-hacking scandal that's surrounded Rupert Murdoch's tabloid empire is bad enough, but according to a newly revealed report, it's small potatoes compared to what some other companies have been doing in the UK. Presto Vivace writes with this excerpt from The Independent: "Soca, dubbed 'Britain's FBI,' knew six years ago that blue-chip institutions were hiring private investigators to obtain sensitive data – yet did next to nothing to disrupt the unlawful trade. The report was privately supplied to the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics in 2012 yet the corruption in other identified industries, including the law, insurance and debt collectors, and among high-net worth individuals, was not mentioned during the public sessions or included in the final report." Further: "Illegal practices identified by Soca investigators went well beyond the relatively simple crime of voicemail hacking and included live phone interceptions, police corruption, computer hacking and perverting the course of justice."

Comments

Please do not call them Hackers

[houghi]

This is slashdot. We know the difference of the names like hackers, crackers, phreakers and script kiddies.
These UK privacy-invading people should be called what they really are: the government.

Re:Please do not call them Hackers

[auric_dude]

The GCHQ About Us http://www.gchq.gov.uk/AboutUs/Pages/index.aspx and Accountability and the Law http://www.gchq.gov.uk/AboutUs/Pages/Accountability-and-the-Law.aspx, so yes, lets call them the government for that is who they are.

there is a whole book about this

[Presto Vivace]

Murdoch's Pirates: Before the phone hacking, there was Rupert's pay-TV skullduggery