Tuesday, January 6, 2009
From The Sunday Times
January 4, 2009
Police set to step up hacking of home PCs
David Leppard
THE Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant.
The move, which follows a decision by the European Union’s council of ministers in Brussels, has angered civil liberties groups and opposition MPs. They described it as a sinister extension of the surveillance state which drives “a coach and horses” through privacy laws.
The hacking is known as “remote searching”. It allows police or MI5 officers who may be hundreds of miles away to examine covertly the hard drive of someone’s PC at his home, office or hotel room.
Material gathered in this way includes the content of all e-mails, web-browsing habits and instant messaging.
Under the Brussels edict, police across the EU have been given the green light to expand the implementation of a rarely used power involving warrantless intrusive surveillance of private property. The strategy will allow French, German and other EU forces to ask British officers to hack into someone’s UK computer and pass over any material gleaned.
A remote search can be granted if a senior officer says he “believes” that it is “proportionate” and necessary to prevent or detect serious crime — defined as any offence attracting a jail sentence of more than three years.
However, opposition MPs and civil liberties groups say that the broadening of such intrusive surveillance powers should be regulated by a new act of parliament and court warrants.
They point out that in contrast to the legal safeguards for searching a suspect’s home, police undertaking a remote search do not need to apply to a magistrates’ court for a warrant.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, the human rights group, said she would challenge the legal basis of the move. “These are very intrusive powers – as intrusive as someone busting down your door and coming into your home,” she said.
“The public will want this to be controlled by new legislation and judicial authorisation. Without those safeguards it’s a devastating blow to any notion of personal privacy.”
She said the move had parallels with the warrantless police search of the House of Commons office of Damian Green, the Tory MP: “It’s like giving police the power to do a Damian Green every day but to do it without anyone even knowing you were doing it.”
Richard Clayton, a researcher at Cambridge University’s computer laboratory, said that remote searches had been possible since 1994, although they were very rare. An amendment to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 made hacking legal if it was authorised and carried out by the state.
He said the authorities could break into a suspect’s home or office and insert a “key-logging” device into an individual’s computer. This would collect and, if necessary, transmit details of all the suspect’s keystrokes. “It’s just like putting a secret camera in someone’s living room,” he said.
Police might also send an e-mail to a suspect’s computer. The message would include an attachment that contained a virus or “malware”. If the attachment was opened, the remote search facility would be covertly activated. Alternatively, police could park outside a suspect’s home and hack into his or her hard drive using the wireless network.
Police say that such methods are necessary to investigate suspects who use cyberspace to carry out crimes. These include paedophiles, internet fraudsters, identity thieves and terrorists.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said such intrusive surveillance was closely regulated under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. A spokesman said police were already carrying out a small number of these operations which were among 194 clandestine searches last year of people’s homes, offices and hotel bedrooms.
“To be a valid authorisation, the officer giving it must believe that when it is given it is necessary to prevent or detect serious crime and [the] action is proportionate to what it seeks to achieve,” Acpo said.
Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, agreed that the development may benefit law enforcement. But he added: “The exercise of such intrusive powers raises serious privacy issues. The government must explain how they would work in practice and what safeguards will be in place to prevent abuse.”
The Home Office said it was working with other EU states to develop details of the proposals.
Monday, January 5, 2009
I have received lots of requests over the festive period as to when the new TV series of Now THAT’S Weird will start, and whilst there are plans for a series 3, other projects are taking priority at this stage so it’s unlikely this will happen much before the Spring of 2009.
The only way that the Now THAT’S Weird TV show will return earlier is if we find a sponsor willing to cover the production costs, as at the moment the show costs me money to make and we get no financial help from the channel.
We are working on splitting Glastonbury Radio into two channels, one pure music and the other talk and discussion, and then of course there is the launch of Glastonbury Television in or around the Spring of this year!
We are also looking to bring a couple of very big names onto Glastonbury Radio as presenters this year, which will increase the audience size and hopefully, attract bigger advertisers.
In late February, we have the planned USA tour culminating in 7 nights in Nevada at this year’s UFO CONGRESS - the largest UFO and strange phenomena conference of it’s kind in the world. You can find out more about the tour, which take sin Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Area 51 and the Little Ale’E'Inn by cutting and posting this link into your browser - http://www.megalithictours.com/UFO%20Congress.html. Tickets are selling fast and £250 deposit will secure yoyur place with us on the tour!
So a busy year ahead - with lots to look forward to.
Ross
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Well that\’s about it for 2008 - and as we enter a brand new year we look at the changes NEEDED around us….
If you read the crap in the mainstream newspapers, you maybe totally unaware of the changes that are happening around us and the changes coming to the world.
As Mother Nature becomes sicker and sicker with the way we treat our world, she is rebelling, and if we don\’t act fast, there may be NO HUMAN RACE inhabiting this planet much sooner than any of you think.
There are forces at play out there beyond the imagination of most of you reading this, forces with the power to change landscapes, coastlines, seas and oceans, and create earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and sever weather changes.
It\’s not just about pollution and \”global warming/cooling\” - it\’s about saving our planet and the future of our young.
Check out this website today - http://www.12canchangetheworld.org.
Only by BEING the change we talk about, can you help stop the catastrophe\’s that may face us in the coming years.
You may think this blog to be the ramblings of a mad-man, but are you willing to take the chance, having seen what Tsunami\’s, floods and earthquakes have done to other parts of the world?
I have seen an alleged FUTURE map of the UK shown to me by two different people who do not know each other as far as I am aware. Both show NOTHING south of Yorkshire by 2020 - if this were to be so - just sit back for a moment and imagine the consequences. The American map shows no California or Arizona, and the pacific coast appearing along the mid-west!
Happy new year everyone! Let\’s hope it IS just that!
Ross
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
I know it’s Christmas and the season of goodwill to all men, but this morning I received a blog comment from Brian Howes, one of the people I have been fighting to protect from extradition.
When he was on my radio show, he CHOSE to tell me that he and his wife would rather commit suicide than face a life in prison in America. In this blog comment (which I deleted) he accused ME of not caring about the extradition of him and Gary McKinnon and that I was just using it to gain listeners for me radio show. Two words spring to mind Mr Howes - UNGRATEFUL BAS**ARD!!!
So I suppose I ran myself up a massive phone bill trying to put on the Rock Against Injustice Concert to promote my radio show too did I? And what about all my private letters to Jacqui Smith MP on behalf of you and Gary?
I am sickened to think that after all the help I gave you - you should turn on me in this way - and perhaps the comments about you on the Mysterial forums were right after all?
Saddened.
Ross
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Some local councils are fining households for not separating their recyclable products from household waste - but what actually happens to those recycled products?
PC monitors are sitting in rows at local recycling centres - but where do they go from there? Landfill? I certainly hope not!!
I was told this week that recycling skips in Glastonbury for card and paper are to be removed as “recycling to China is no longer cost viable” so what will happen to card and paper now?
STILL drinks companies provide everything from mineral water to soft drinks in plastic bottles and containers that are a real pain in the Earth! So why not return to GLASS bottles and give the kids 5p to return bottles like we used to get as children for part of their “pocket-money” whilst getting the glass back for genuine recycling?
What about those horrible “plastic blister packs” that you get on electrical goods? They take six men and a month’s notice to open and are again VERY difficult to recycle! Should shops and supermarkets be forced to dispose of this packaging after we buy the goods from them?
Soon we will ALL be paying for our rubbish collections by the bag weight, which will lead to more illegal dumping and littering (Great idea government - you really thought THAT one through didn’t you? lol)
Recycling - nice idea, shame about the outcome.
Ross