UK to adopt Euro police hacking scheme

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jan 6, 2009

Remote search and cyber patrol plans approved.

The UK Home Office has signed up to a European initiative, proposed in November, to grant police forces greater powers to hack into computers and monitor internet traffic in search of incriminating evidence.

The UK police already admits to engaging in cyber-espionage on occasion, in some cases with no requirement for a warrant under existing legislation, but the new powers will give them significantly more opportunities to hone their hacking skills, worrying some human rights watchdogs.

The scheme is designed to combat serious and organised criminals using computers and the web as a data-storage and communication medium, but should also improve police powers to bring cybercriminals, whose crimes take place entirely in the online world, to justice. However, the likelihood that law enforcement organisations will create and implement their own keyloggers, screengrabbers and other spyware utilities presents difficulties for security firms, many of whom have openly stated that they will not be whitelisting or otherwise ignoring any suspect samples originating from police forces.

The European proposals also encourage data sharing between police forces, which some privacy advocates suspect may grant foreign police rights to hack into system based in the UK and vice versa, while far greater monitoring of the internet as a whole will also become possible.

Reports of the announcement can be found at ZDNet here, VNUnet here or the BBC here, with typically strident comment from Sophos' Graham Cluley here.

Posted on 06 January 2009 by Virus Bulletin

twitter.png
fb.png
linkedin.png
hackernews.png
reddit.png

 

Latest posts:

VBSpam tests to be executed under the AMTSO framework

VB is excited to announce that, starting from the Q3 test, all VBSpam tests of email security products will be executed under the AMTSO framework.

In memoriam: Prof. Ross Anderson

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of Professor Ross Anderson a few days ago.

In memoriam: Dr Alan Solomon

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of industry pioneer Dr Alan Solomon earlier this week.

New paper: Nexus Android banking botnet – compromising C&C panels and dissecting mobile AppInjects

In a new paper, researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Bansal provide details of a security vulnerability in the Nexus Android botnet C&C panel that was exploited in order to gather threat intelligence, and present a model of mobile AppInjects.

New paper: Collector-stealer: a Russian origin credential and information extractor

In a new paper, F5 researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Chaturvedi present a 360 analysis of Collector-stealer, a Russian-origin credential and information extractor.

We have placed cookies on your device in order to improve the functionality of this site, as outlined in our cookies policy. However, you may delete and block all cookies from this site and your use of the site will be unaffected. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to Virus Bulletin's use of data as outlined in our privacy policy.