110 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
110 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
Unauthorised Access UK 0636-708063 10pm-7am 12oo/24oo
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This extract was taken from Personal Computer World
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and written by Duncan Campbell.
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Comms Surveillance
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Data comms and electronic mail do pose special problems in
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relation to comms interception, since such messages (in contrast
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to telephone calls) are intrinsically 'machine readable'. Although
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British domestic communications (whether data or voice) are only
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suposed to be intercepted if a specific warrant is issued, few
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people comprehend the scale on which Western intelligence agencies
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are already routinely intercepting all civil international
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communications.As long ago as 1960, defectors from the United
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States NSA (National Security Agency also know as No Such Agency)
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revealed at a Moscow press conference that 'both enciphered and
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plain text communications are monitored from almost every nation
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in the world, including the nations on whose soil the intercept
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bases are located'.
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Soon US, British and Allied intelligence agencies will embark
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on a massive, billion-dollar expansion of their global electronic
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surveillance system, which will enable them to monitor and analyse
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civilian and comercial communications into the 21st century.
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According to information recently given secrectly to the US
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Congress, a new surveillance system, currently identified as
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Project P415, is being set up by NSA. Many other countries'
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intelligence agencies will be closely involved with the new
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network, including those from Britain, Austrialia, Germany and
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Japan, and even the People's Republic Of China.
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New satellite stations and monitoring centres are to be built
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around the world, and a chain of new satellites launched, so that
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NSA and GCHQ Cheltenham, its British counterpart, may keep abreast
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of the burgeoning international telecommunications traffic. The
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largest existing station in this network is the US communications
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base at Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, Yorkshire, which has taps
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into Britain's main national and international networks. Although
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high-technology stations such as Menwith Hill are primarily
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intended to monitor international comminications and control
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ultra-secret eavesdropping satellites, their capability can be and
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has been turned inwards on domestic tariff, according to US
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experts. This vast international global eavesdropping network has
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existed since shortly after the Second World War, when the US,
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Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand signed a secret
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agreement on signals intelligence, or 'SIGINT'.
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Although it is impossible for transcribers to listen to all
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but a small fraction of the billions of telephone calls and other
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signals which might contain interesting information, computer data
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signals can easily be processed in any way that NSA or GCHQ
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analysts require. The agencies' computers automatically analyse
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every telex message or data signal, and can als identify calls
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to, say, a target telephone number in London, no matter from which
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country they originate. At present, Operations Building 36M at the
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NSA's Menwith Hill station contains a network of eighteen powerful
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DEC VAX-11 processors supporting this and related tasks. Menwith
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Hill's nest of computers is part of a global system called
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Echelon, which will eventually be superseded by Project P415.
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Both the new and existing surveillance systems are highly
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computerised, and rely on virtually total interception of
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international commercial and satellite communications in order to
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locate data of interest. Early last summer a US newspaper, the
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Cleveland Plain Dealer, revealed that the system had been used to
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target the telephone calls of a US senator. British and American
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domestic communications are also being targeted and intercepted by
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the Echelon network, the US investigators have been told, despite
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legal provisions that should make such intentional interception
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illegal. Special teams from GCHQ have been secretly flown in the
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last few years to a computer centre in Silicon Valley for training
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on the computer systems that preform both domestic and
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international interception.
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Recently published US Department of Defense 1989 budget
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information has confirmed that the Menwith Hill base would be
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the subject of a major, $26million expansion programme.
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Information given to the US Congress in February listed details of
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plans for a four-year expansion of facilities at Menwith Hill.
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Among other important stations being developed in the new P415
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network, US intelligence sources say, are a GCHQ base in Cornwall,
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which intercepts links to and from many western commercial
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satellites. This spy base, at Morwenstow near Bude, has been
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continuously expanded thoughout the 1980s.
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When Britian's new interception of Communications Act was
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passed in 1985, however, it was obviously designed to make special
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provision for operations like Echelon to trawl all international
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communications to and from Britian. A special section of the Act,
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Section 3(2), allows warrants to be issued to intercept any
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general type of international messages to or from Britain, if this
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is 'in the interests of national security' or 'for the purpose of
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safeguarding the economic well-being of the United Kingdom'. Such
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warrants also allow GCHQ to tap all other communications on the
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same cables or satellites that may have to be picked up in order
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to select the messages they want. In practice, everything is
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intercepted.
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There is no doubt that British law, along with British bases,
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has been designed to encourage rather than inhibit this booming
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industry in international data surveillance. This is quite a new
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development. In the 1960s, British government and Treasury
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officials took a lot of convincing (by the Americans) that the
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interception of ordinary commercial data communications was
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worthwhile.
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Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253
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