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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.'"

13 of 384 comments (clear)

  1. They've definitely been laughing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But only because so many people are willing to give them all their personal information for free.

    1. Re:They've definitely been laughing by ewanm89 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, this isn't just that, this is "we want to access all encrypted information". We must have broken encryption because "terrorism". Basically Theresa May has fascist tendencies she wants to enforce. Unfortunately the other political parties are such a mess at the moment that well... yeah, the whole thing is not good.

  2. In other news... by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...Mainstream media are reporting today that the government was given credible warnings about the suspected bomber as many as five times over the past few years, from a variety of sources and via exactly the sorts of channels you're supposed to use if you're worried that someone might do something like this. None of these source appear to have relied on high-tech surveillance and intercepted communications. They were reportedly based on in-person observations, which tragically doesn't seem to have set off the right alarm bells soon enough.

    --
    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    1. Re: In other news... by brantondaveperson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      especially if they look like criminals

      That's cool that you know what criminals look like, we could just pay you to go through photographs, and we'll just arrest or deport the ones with the bad faces.

    2. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You saying they shouldn't? The watch list is there for a reason. It's about time they start using it.

      I for one, cannot figure why anyone would allow foreigners with even the smallest criminal records, especially if they look like criminals, to stay in their countries at all.

      The foreigner who blew himself up at the concert was BORN in the UK. He was as British as Theresa May or Tony Blair.
      Amazing isn't it ? At what point is a foreigner not a foreigner anymore ? Careful with your answer otherwise we could classify all people living in the US (minus the native americans) as foreigners. Do we kick them out and give back the US to the native people we stole the lands from ?

    3. 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..

    4. Re:In other news... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They get ten thousand similar reports a week. They can't possibly follow up on all of them.

      But they can possibly follow up on all filter hits from UK's teeny-tiny Internet traffic, right? ;)

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  3. Ahh... by EmeraldBot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Multiple warnings over several years, and the UK government never acted on them. So now, rather than admit they were incompetent or not funding their human agents enough, they're going to cut off free speech online? Congratulations Britain, you have the dubious honor of being the second country in the world to fall to terrorism.

    --
    "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
  4. 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.

    --
    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  5. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by dbIII · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The other aspect was support from the USA. The US was not interested in UK/Irish issues

    They were interested but on the wrong side. Senator Peter King was very active and vocal in his support for the IRA and lobbied for US law enforcement to deny assistance to the UK. I've got no idea why he wasn't voted out after 9/11 or thrown out of the Republican Party entirely due to his history of supporting terrorists.

  6. Re:The Mosque by ArylAkamov · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because it isn't the 60s anymore?
    b-b-but they did it too is a pretty piss poor argument. It's completely irrelevant at this point, it doesn't matter who is doing it, it needs to stop.

  7. 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.

    --

    I'm not repeating myself
    I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
  8. Clueless politicians strike again. by Going_Digital · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Clearly they learnt nothing from the CIA exploits leak that cased the NHS to go into meltdown when black hats got hold of the code. They just don't have a clue, compelling legitimate companies to provide ways to break into their encryption just means that the terrorists will use other encryption techniques either developed themselves or from a company outside of the UK who doesn't care about UK laws. End result, law abiding citizens loose their privacy, terrorists continue with impunity.