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BBC To Deploy Detection Vans To Snoop On Internet Users (telegraph.co.uk)
product_bucket writes: The BBC has been given permission to use a new technology to detect users of the iPlayer who do not hold a TV license. Researchers at University College London have apparently developed a method to identify specially crafted "packets" of data over an encrypted Wi-Fi link without needing to break the underlying encryption itself. TV Licensing (the fee-collecting arm of the BBC) has said the practice is under regular scrutiny by independent regulators, but declined to elaborate on how the technique works. Dr Miguel Rio, a computer network expert who helped to oversee the doctoral thesis, said: "They actually don't need to decrypt traffic, because they can already see the packets. They have control over the iPlayer, so they can ensure that it sends packets at a specific size, and match them up. They could also use directional antennae to ensure they are viewing the Wi-Fi operating within your property." The BBC has been given such authority through the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.
First off, Ethernet. Now that it's known, it's easily defeated.
Secondly, false positives. Now that hackers know what they're looking for, these will be trivially easy to implement: just send whatever traffic with the packet-size signature, and people will look like they're using iPlayer when they are not.
I think it'll be quite obvious when I notice the cat5 snaking up from a parked van to my wired network. :)
Boo.
If the BBC just proved that they need to be completely destroyed they just handed their anti-BBC crowd the ammunition to do it. Bet it won't take more then a few weeks before people start making honeypots to bait them, and wouldn't that be very fun to see in court.
Om, nomnomnom...
I just came to say what everyone else already has - I use ethernet for streaming so fuck you BBC!
Although I don't watch it anyway - anything good appears on other streaming services eventually anyway and I'm long past caring about seeing things on day zero. I already get letters almost weekly telling me they are now in the last stages of their investigation (for not paying my license fee). They are welcome to visit anytime, but unless they have a warrant my answer to any of their questions will be " "
The same way their detector vans did that detected whether you have TVs equipped for terrestrial reception, and the same way lie detectors work: They don't. They just scare you into thinking they work so you comply.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I think the UK has completely lost it's mind! Here's a novel idea that's so much simpler and how we approach it in Canada. Here we have the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp) which is pretty much the same thing as the BBC - aka publicly funded TV, Radio, and Media. It is funded by the Federal taxes of all Canadian tax payers. Regardless of whether you use the CBC or not, you're paying for it. No special taxes that people must specifically pay, no special enforcement (except for maybe geo-ip), and no white vans running around snooping wifi traffic (which, here would be illegal) thanks to our Charter of Rights and Freedoms (something the UK DESPERATELY NEEDS). The UK people really get the shaft with their government and it's constant big brother mantra and it's excessive need to invade the lives of its people.
Can someone from the UK please explain to me the reason a 'TV' license still exists? It's not the 1950's!
The old TV detector vans were a hoax to scare people into getting a TV licence. Enforcement was actually done by visiting addresses with no record of a licence. This is another con.
Right, Viv - eat the WiFi!
Did this change recently? iPlayer to watch catch up programs never used to require a license.
Besides all this, the answer is fairly simple. If they want to enforce license status, iPlayer should just require a login with an account the BBC can use to very status.
It's going to cost more to field these specially-equipped detector vans and the crews to operate them than they will EVER receive back in license fees.
Assume these costs:
the cost of the van ($30,000)
the cost of gas, oil, tires, and maintenance for the van per year ($3000)
the cost of the monitoring gear ($1000?)
the cost of the crew to operate the van ($20,000 per year per person?)
all associated upstream paperwork ($1000?)
the occasional accident(s) that the van will (statistically) be involved in over time ($$$$???)
So, probably a minimum of $50,000+ per year to operate...and how much will they get back? Nowhere near $50,000.
In other words, it costs more than it brings in, so it's another ridiculous sink hole for money.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
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As iPlayer is a BBC product, why do they need detector vans to determine who is streaming it? It is coming from their servers, so the they know (or could know) the IP addresses to which iPlayer is streaming. In most cases this will be the router address of the ADSL, Cable or Fibre subscriber, from which the address could be determined. Even with a detector van, if someone is streaming via a WiFi hotspot, there will be no way they could tell if the users of the smartphones, tablets and laptops have licences at their home address (and the licence covers use outside the home by equipment powered by internal batteries). Similarly with anyone streaming via 3G/4G.
Why would you waste bandwidth to pad it? You can slice up the packets and reassemble them to the max MTU size without decrypting the data.
....against all of the Orwellian tyranny that has been growing rapidly there for the past couple decades? Or had the gov't locked everybody in full body restraints including rigid mitts (figurtavely, maybe starting literally?) so fighting back is now impossible?