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UK's GCHQ Admits To Using Vulnerabilities To Hack Target Systems

Posted by timothy on from the but-we're-your-friends dept.

Bismillah (993337) writes "Lawyers for the GCHQ have told the Investigatory Powers Tribunal in the UK that the agency carries out the same illegal Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) operations that criminals and hackers do. Except they do it legally. GCHQ is currently being taken to court by Privacy International and five ISPs from UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Zimbabwe and South Korea for CNE operations that the agency will not confirm nor deny as per praxis."

2 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Who says it's "illegal"? Timothy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    " If there is no law or treaty that interdicts the GCHQ from hacking third parties then it cannot be illegal."

    They have already been found to have broken the law in UK jurisdiction.
    https://privacyinternational.org/?q=node/482

    There are plenty of laws. And GCHQ are not protected by Jurisdiction, Belgacom can prosecute for the Belgian telephone hack as can everyone else. The bit we know from Snowden shows its far worse than IPT are admitting, they did bulk collection, and defined British telecoms as foreign simply by defining it as foreign if it passed through any offshore server along the way. So all gmail and hotmail email were defined as foreign and open to surveillance, even Brit to Brit comms was intercepted and handed over the NSA.

  2. Computer Misuse Act 1990 .. by DougPaulson · · Score: 3, Informative

    @phayes: "Something is illegal when there are laws or treaties adopted by the country in question that render the actions illegal. If there is no law or treaty that interdicts the GCHQ from hacking third parties then it cannot be illegal.

    Computer Misuse Act 1990

    'Sections 1-3 of the Act introduced three criminal offences:

    unauthorised access to computer material, punishable by 6 months' imprisonment or a fine "not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale" (currently £5000);

    unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offences, punishable by 6 months/maximum fine on summary conviction or 5 years/fine on indictment;

    unauthorised modification of computer material, subject to the same sentences as section 2 offences.'