Parky Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Police Set to Step Up Hacking of Home PCs As per the United Kingdom Sunday Times paper on 4th of jan 2009. 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." Get out while you still can. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pedro111 Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Shocking tbh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChezGiven Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Get out of europe you mean? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LucaAltieri Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Does music/film piracy carry a sentence of more than 3 years? "Terrorism" my arse. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northerngimp Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 ID cards and the power to walz into your home computer when they fancy. Whatever next. FFS, they already miss use the terroism laws. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dokko Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Just means more fun and games to stop them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Parka Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Meh. Got nothing to hide. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dokko Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Meh. Got nothing to hide. On your new computer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 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." Wonder if irritated hobbyist hackers might suddenly take an interest in Police computahs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LucaAltieri Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Does music/film piracy carry a sentence of more than 3 years? "Terrorism" my arse. Just looked it up. Sentences for piracy can be up to 10 years. I wonder what prompted them to make this change in law. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Any geeks on here know how easy it would be for them to hack in? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dokko Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Any geeks on here know how easy it would be for them to hack in? Near enough impossible if you knew what you are doing. It won't be easy for them and i guess if it went ahead they won't be doing too often. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northerngimp Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Any geeks on here know how easy it would be for them to hack in? Near enough impossible if you knew what you are doing. It won't be easy for them and i guess if it went ahead they won't be doing too often. Criminals would be very silly and careless to get caught like this, however, crazy downloaders who dont have much knowledged could get fudged up the bum by them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Any geeks on here know how easy it would be for them to hack in? Near enough impossible if you knew what you are doing. It won't be easy for them and i guess if it went ahead they won't be doing too often. Tbh I think if it started they'd have a field day with it, think of the overtime...Sitting in a warm office tapping away with cocoa on the go. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cp40 Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 hopefully they can catch some nonces. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dokko Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Any geeks on here know how easy it would be for them to hack in? Near enough impossible if you knew what you are doing. It won't be easy for them and i guess if it went ahead they won't be doing too often. Tbh I think if it started they'd have a field day with it, think of the overtime...Sitting in a warm office tapping away with cocoa on the go. It won't be ordinary police doing this though, it will take computer forensic scientists retrained to do this, or ex hackers themselves costing them fortunes in manhours since these people with that kind of ability all work for M$ and other big companies pulling in footballers wages. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LucaAltieri Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Depends on how you're setup and where they're getting their information. Will they be asking ISPs for data? Or will they just be camping outside suspects' houses hoping to catch them logging on? It all depends on what they know before hand. If you're using a router then have you left it on the default password (you'd be surprised the amount of numpties that do)? Have you left open wifi access? Have you left your router to assign IP addresses starting at .2 or have you created your own set range? Have you left any ports open for specific apps? Are you broadcasting your SSID? Are you running software firewalls to monitor incoming and outgoing traffic? What services do you have running? Have you got all your recent security updates? You'd have to imagine that they'd have specialist software to get in where they REALLY want to, but you could make things trickier for them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dokko Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Any geeks on here know how easy it would be for them to hack in? Near enough impossible if you knew what you are doing. It won't be easy for them and i guess if it went ahead they won't be doing too often. Criminals would be very silly and careless to get caught like this, however, crazy downloaders who dont have much knowledged could get fudged up the bum by them. I think so. A few programs off the net and most decent hackers will have a hard time getting in, someone who really knows there's stuff is protected by about 99.99999% of the world. Downloaders need to worry, but its the uploaders they are targeting due to how many people do download. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Depends on how you're setup and where they're getting their information. Will they be asking ISPs for data? Or will they just be camping outside suspects' houses hoping to catch them logging on? It all depends on what they know before hand. If you're using a router then have you left it on the default password (you'd be surprised the amount of numpties that do)? Have you left open wifi access? Have you left your router to assign IP addresses starting at .2 or have you created your own set range? Have you left any ports open for specific apps? Are you broadcasting your SSID? Are you running software firewalls to monitor incoming and outgoing traffic? What services do you have running? You'd have to imagine that they'd have specialist software to get in where they REALLY want to, but you could make things trickier for them. Reading through that I guess I'm classed as an A1 numpty. :colo: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northerngimp Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Depends on how you're setup and where they're getting their information. Will they be asking ISPs for data? Or will they just be camping outside suspects' houses hoping to catch them logging on? It all depends on what they know before hand. If you're using a router then have you left it on the default password (you'd be surprised the amount of numpties that do)? Have you left open wifi access? Have you left your router to assign IP addresses starting at .2 or have you created your own set range? Have you left any ports open for specific apps? Are you broadcasting your SSID? Are you running software firewalls to monitor incoming and outgoing traffic? What services do you have running? You'd have to imagine that they'd have specialist software to get in where they REALLY want to, but you could make things trickier for them. Reading through that I guess I'm classed as an A1 numpty. :colo: Do your shit off line. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dokko Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Depends on how you're setup and where they're getting their information. Will they be asking ISPs for data? Or will they just be camping outside suspects' houses hoping to catch them logging on? It all depends on what they know before hand. If you're using a router then have you left it on the default password (you'd be surprised the amount of numpties that do)? Have you left open wifi access? Have you left your router to assign IP addresses starting at .2 or have you created your own set range? Have you left any ports open for specific apps? Are you broadcasting your SSID? Are you running software firewalls to monitor incoming and outgoing traffic? What services do you have running? Have you got all your recent security updates? You'd have to imagine that they'd have specialist software to get in where they REALLY want to, but you could make things trickier for them. Yeah they must have some cracking software in hand to be even thinking about this, still its only going to work with those who know their shit about everything in this specific area. But if they made it, or someone did, its only time for someone to come up with a solution, as with every computer problem, there is a solution. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Parka Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Meh. Got nothing to hide. On your new computer. Exactly Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pedro111 Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Some of the replies to this thread are hurting my brain. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Meh. Got nothing to hide. On your new computer. Exactly If it's vista it's apparently reporting how many times you have a shit back to MS. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.S.R. Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 So it's possible to sneak onto my computer an have a looksee? So any evidence gathered is therefore worthless as someone could have planted it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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