Hasta La Gadget!

PRISM isn’t just for US agencies — last month it was revealed that the UK’s Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) has been using the program to collect emails, photos and video content from an assortment of internet providers. Now, a German newspaper claims to know what companies collaborated with the security agency. According to The Gaurdian, Süddeutsche identified Verizon, Vodafone, Global Crossing, Level 3, BT, Interoute and Viatel as firms that participated in Tempora, a program that gave the GCHQ widespread access to the undersea fiber optic cables. The operation was all quite hush-hush, with documents referring to participating outfits by obscure code names: “Dacron” for Verizon, for instance, and “Little” for Level 3.

Parliament has already dismissed the agency’s snooping as legal, but documents seen by The Guardian suggest that some telecoms may have illegally given the GCHQ access to other companies’ cables without permission. Naturally, the firms involved were quick to dismiss foul play, with representatives from Verizon, Interoute and Vodaphone each assuring The Guardian that it was merely complying with UK law. True enough, probably, but we can’t help but wonder if the operators weren’t coaxed into cooperation with the promise of cool code-names.

Filed under: Internet

Comments

Via: TechCrunch

Source: The Guardian

Edward Snowden has now leaked documents which reveal that UK’s GCHQ, is allegedly intercepting large quantities of web and telephone call data by tapping fiber optic cables directly which carry internet traffic

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

If you’re antsy at the idea of PRISM reading your Facebook messages, be thankful you’re not a foreign diplomat. The Guardian is reporting that GCHQ, the UK’s communications surveillance unit, hacked delegates’ BlackBerry handsets during 2009’s G20 summit in London. According to leaked documents, spies were able to relay private messages to analysts in “near real-time,” and pass that information along to top politicians as they were negotiating deals. The organization is also said to have set up fake internet cafés around the conference area, which used key-logging software to steal dignitaries’ passwords for long-term surveillance. If you’ll excuse us, we’re just off to, you know, change all of our login details.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Comments

Source: The Guardian

Since Huawei’s president formerly served as a senior engineer in the People’s Liberation Army of China, it’s unsurprising that it’s raised the hackles of the US and other countries. It’s been blocked from a variety of prime, security-sensitive contracts on suspicion of espionage, but the Chinese company seems bent on proving its honorable intentions, and has opened a “Cyber Security Evaluation Center” in Banbury, UK to do exactly that. According to the Economist, the company will work closely with GCHQ, the British signals-intelligence agency located in nearby Cheltenham, to persuade the UK and other governments that its equipment is trustworthy. It even has security-cleared staff, including some from the British agency, to shake down the gear and ensure it can’t be exploited by spooks or crooks. Huawei already has hefty backbone contracts in Canada and New Zealand and is becoming one of the world’s largest suppliers of telecom infrastructure, on top of its high ranking as a handset maker. It might hope this new approach will let it break its US and UK market logjam — but it has a lot of pent-up distrust to overcome.

Filed under: Cellphones, Networking

Huawei working with British spy service to prove its ‘kit’ is clean originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Aug 2012 07:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechEye  |  The Economist  | Email this | Comments