UK GHCQ Is Allowed To Hack (bbc.co.uk)

An anonymous reader writes: A security tribunal has just decreed that hacking by the UK security agency GCHQ is legal. [The case was launched after revelations by Edward Snowden about the extent of US and UK spying. Campaigners Privacy International claimed GCHQ's hacking operations were too intrusive]. The legal challenge that they were violating European law was rejected.

Comments

Makes a lot of sense

[Dunbal]

Government grants itself authority to break the law.

Re:Makes a lot of sense

[Richard_at_work]

No, this ruling was issued by a panel of senior judges, not the government. In the UK, senior judges are independent of the government.

Re:Makes a lot of sense

[Motherfucking Shit]

Government grants itself authority to break the law.

And governments around the world have entered into agreements to spy on each others' citizens to explicitly skirt the law.

From several recent news stories, Windows 10's biggest telemetry offender IP seems to be 94.245.121.253, which apologists are quick to tell you is "just a Teredo server" to assist with ipv6. No big deal, it's just helping the OS function! Don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain, he's just making sure your internet works...

Funny, though, that IP is in the UK, yet Windows 10 installations in the US insist on connecting to it. That's definitely not a matter of efficiency or responsiveness or good customer experience, as the hop across the pond adds a few hundred milliseconds to every packet. For those who might need reminding, communications originating in the US where the endpoint is in a foreign nation are considered fair game for NSA snooping. And it's been known since the ECHELON revelations in the 90s that the "Five Eyes" group of countries have an arrangement to bypass laws against spying on their own citizens by engaging in reciprocal interception and sharing the data among themselves.

Something to think about, that's all.

Re:Makes a lot of sense

[Motherfucking Shit]

What method did you use to confirm that anycasting wasn't being used and what were the exact results?

I don't run Windows 10 and I'm not responsible for any of the experiments regarding what network traffic it sends where. But advanced wizardry known as "traceroute" shows me that my traffic from the US to 94.245.121.253 crosses the Atlantic.

  . . .
  5 ae-2-52.edge2.NewYork2.Level3.net (4.69.138.227) 19.296 ms 19.289 ms 19.270 ms
  6 ae-2-52.edge2.NewYork2.Level3.net (4.69.138.227) 19.108 ms 19.011 ms 18.997 ms
  7 MICROSOFT-C.edge2.NewYork2.Level3.net (4.71.190.2) 16.850 ms 16.932 ms 16.798 ms
  8 ae0-0.lon04-96cbe-1b.ntwk.msn.net (204.152.141.190) 84.723 ms 84.726 ms 86.469 ms
  9 ae11-0.lon04-96cbe-1a.ntwk.msn.net (207.46.44.154) 84.502 ms
10 ae12-0.lon04-96cbe-1a.ntwk.msn.net (207.46.44.162) 84.467 ms
11 ae11-0.lon04-96cbe-1a.ntwk.msn.net (207.46.44.154) 87.672 ms
  . . .

The destination isn't accepting ICMP traffic, so the trace dies there in a hail of ^H, but the jump from New York to London is rather obvious. You're more than welcome to post a trace showing that your own traffic to that IP stays domestic.

I for one welcome the return of the Star Chamber.

[Anonymous Coward]

One set of rules for us. Another set of rules for them. If they are allowed to break laws to find civillians who are breaking laws then why are civillians not allowed to break laws to find officials who are breaking laws?

I feel ashamed that the law in the UK has come so far away from protecting people / serving justice and so far closer to being a weapon of oppression.

Re:Subjects are for cows

[GabeGhearing]

UK Tribunal
http://www.ipt-uk.com/docs/Pri...

Re:I for one welcome the return of the Star Chambe

[gweihir]

The fascist mind-set expressed in these things assumes as absolute truth that the "authorities" are always right and do not need oversight by the citizens. A brief look in history shows how very much wrong that idea is and how often it leads to incredible evil.

License to $kill -SIGHACK

[davidwr]

:)

Re:Again with the misspelled acronym

[Lunix Nutcase]

The US government has also bemoaned dictators while also having a long history of installing and supporting dictators.

This just in: politicians are hypocritical assholes.

Re:Corrupt through and through

[blue9steel]

Hence the elite's heavy investments in internal security and autonomous weaponry.

Re:Corrupt through and through

[HiThere]

Successful revolutions have always required sponsorship by at least a part of the elite.

Where do I sign up for handcuffs?

[dweller_below]

I spend a good chunk of every workday defending my institution from network attacks by the governments of China and Russia. They are not the only ones. I imagine all of them give themselves permission to attack. I expect all of them eventually make it illegal to resist their attacks. As more and more governments create these crazy laws and international agreements, my defensive actions will become more and more illegal. Thanks Five Eyes!