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Manchester Attack Could Lead To Internet Crackdown (independent.co.uk)

New submitter boundary writes: The UK government looks to be about to put the most egregious parts of the Investigative Powers Act into force "soon after the election" (which is in a couple of weeks) in the wake of the recent bombing in Manchester. "Technical Capability Orders" require tech companies to break their own security. I wonder who'll comply? The Independent reports: "Government will ask parliament to allow the use of those powers if Theresa May is re-elected, senior ministers told The Sun. 'We will do this as soon as we can after the election, as long as we get back in,' The Sun said it was told by a government minister. 'The level of threat clearly proves there is no more time to waste now. The social media companies have been laughing in our faces for too long.'"

10 of 384 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Guilty by default? by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Informative

    The main problem is people overreact. This isn't a Luftwaffe bombing campaign, there is no existential threat against the British state, so the idea that British authorities should just start torturing people seems like outrageous overreaction.

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  2. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    He and a bunch of others. Are you saying the police should go round up all the other foreigners on their watch list?

  3. Re:The Mosque by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to the front page story in today's Telegraph, a mosque banned him and reported him to the authorities because of his extremist views.

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    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  4. Re:The Mosque by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Informative

    Um, do you even know the history of Britain. Look up "the Troubles". The IRA were way more sophisticated than any would-be Jihadi. They even managed to blow up Prince Charles' uncle. All ISIS's band of maniacs seem able to do is blow up concert goers and little girls.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  5. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The simple truth is that 24/7/365 surveillance of a target is expen$ive. It was mentioned in BBC interviews that full coverage of an individual requires something like 70 people with air and ground assets, analysts, investigators, etc. The UK and also the US are wealthy countries, but we don't have the resources to cover everyone on the suspicious list with that level of monitoring. The UK could probably monitor a few dozen suspects at that level for a limited amount of time. They have thousands of people on the suspicious persons list. There's no way they can keep track of all their movements and everyone they move and sit with at that level. There just isn't enough manpower to do that. They have to pick and chose their battles and this guy obviously wasn't at the top of their list before this attack.

  6. Re:In other news... by golodh · · Score: 5, Informative
    Yes, here's the link:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...

    It appears the authorities were warned on five (!) separate occasions about this boy being mentally unstable and embracing terrorism by people who knew him personally. They ignored it.

    To be honest, they might have thought the suspect was just a buffoon. You can't go round arresting every loony you find. But what you can do is pay such people a visit (you can even use social workers for that if the police has a capacity problem) and/or interview them at the police station, have a mental assessment done, and see who they're connected with.

    Well, now is the time to improve procedures instead of outlawing encryption and introducing Internet censorship..

  7. Re:In other news... by madenglishbloke · · Score: 4, Informative

    The apparent lack of security is a red herring - the attack took place in a publicly-accessible area, BEFORE any security checks to get in to the arena. Indeed, most of the security is aimed at finding drinks and snacks (protecting the venues revenue), cameras (protecting the artists IP), and knives/handguns, in that order, and they use profiling techniques for all these. The thing is, even the most high-tech security checks are prone to failure - just look at the number of times investigators in the US have smuggled illicit objects through TSA scanners and onto aircraft.

  8. Some idiots don't believe that "low-tech" works by knorthern+knight · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Cracking down on the internet" will do nothing but inconvenience innocent ordinary citizens.

    The US had a very hard time finding Osama bin Laden after 9/11. He dropped off the net, and no cellphones either. He communicated via trusted couriers.

    Another example is "Millenium Challenge 2002" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... This was a simulated war game with "Blue" force (USA) versus "Red" force (middle eastern, probably Iran).

    > Red, commanded by retired Marine Corps Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper, adopted
    > an asymmetric strategy, in particular, using old methods to evade Blue's sophisticated electronic
    > surveillance network. Van Riper used motorcycle messengers to transmit orders to front-line
    > troops and World-War-II-style light signals to launch airplanes without radio communications.

      The initial result was an absolute disaster for "Blue" at the beginning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    >At this point, the exercise was suspended, Blue's ships were "re-floated", and the rules of engagement were changed;

    [...deletia...]

    > After the war game was restarted, its participants were forced to follow a script
    > drafted to ensure a Blue Force victory. Among other rules imposed by this script,
    > Red Force was ordered to turn on their anti-aircraft radar in order for them to be
    > destroyed, and was not allowed to shoot down any of the aircraft bringing Blue
    > Force troops ashore. Van Riper also claimed that exercise officials denied him
    > the opportunity to use his own tactics and ideas against Blue Force, and that they
    > also ordered Red Force not to use certain weapons systems against Blue Force
    > and even ordered the location of Red Force units to be revealed.

    The USA lost to "low tech" in Viet Nam. Afghanistan and Iraq weren't exactly "glorious victories" either. The UK seems to be falling into the same trap. They'll only succeed in shutting down internet connectivity for innocent citizens. Terrorists will continue to use "sneakernet", trusted couriers, etc.

    --

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  9. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Believe? The fact the terrorist was British is not an article of faith. It's a fact.

  10. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Bullshit! He was the son of a know terrorist, and was a cousin of a convicted rapist. This murderer was radicalised from birth by Islam extremist, and like them, they are not more British the the old colonies. Muslims are invading the civilised world with one thing on their mind. The utter destruction of the West, its beliefs and way of living. They will never stop until we are hearing the call to pray across the nations.