British police allowed to hack into private PCs
The power of anti piracy organizations is constantly growing and latest news from Great Britain sounds somehow scary: 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. 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. The Home Office said it was working with other EU states to develop details of the proposals.
Source: The Times
Comments(145)
they should die of cancer
lol i love america
Is this possible even if you had a custom firewall and block foreign ip addresses?
This is really true?
Personal PC ??? WOW thats freaking crazy. i mean what if there was dirty cop huh and he hacked someones pc and that guy was on a banking site yea so.. i mean he can get the everything he wants
hey chad dont get to happy. america and britain are blood brothers. and soon enough we here in america will get the same treatment. both countries along with others will become police states.
Wow, I never thought my government would BE THIS GREAT, imagine that they could spy on or even edit your personal information and stuff you post on the internet this is a step IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
Americans don't need permission to do this is all, they can already do it to anything else :/
I have to agree, do they honestly have a hack that can bypass multiple firewall's that block foreign IP's? I mean, as long as you've got one of the better anti-virus programs with a good firewall I don't see how they could hack in. At least, not without an exploit, but it would seem the exploit would be fixed asap.
If you read it closely, it actually says that they mainly monitor the outgoing data; email, web browsing, IM. The actual hard drive access is not mentioned in the text at all.
Anyway, the three year jail sentence is the minimum requirement for these extreme measures. If you are worried about this may happen to you, you may very well deserve it anyway.
@9 PATRIOT ACT.
EFF YOU BUSH, EFF YOU RIGHT IN YOUR A$$.
This somewhat reminds me of this now :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d82Lq2rVB_4
IT IS POSSILBLE TO BE UNSEEN TO THEM..??
^what if those cops or the government ordered the firewall software companies to offer them a "free pass" that grants them to access certain computers?
so if i look porn they will also look porn lol :p
@8
lol have you lost your mind?
this isnt that good, infact bad
they wont catch anyone but us downloading
nah its still bad tho
i would like to know how a government can be given any legitimate rights to the world's internet. The internet is good for its un-governable flow of information, to be given rights to search threw people's (not even of your own country) information is truly unmoral and in my opinion could be worse then what the US did with phone taps.
Invasion of privacy , now is time for every1 to get PeerGuardian 2 , get a warezed version of a firewall.
"Anyway, the three year jail sentence is the minimum requirement for these extreme measures. If you are worried about this may happen to you, you may very well deserve it anyway."
perhaps for now, and besides that, google a little and you will see that britain is one of the worst countries in terms of government data protection. its like someone of the government loses at least one USB stick or notebook with thousands if not millions of personal or secret data each week.
"^what if those cops or the government ordered the firewall software companies to offer them a "free pass" that grants them to access certain computers?"
Good point… but if such a system would be inserted it would get lots of complaints. It would only be a matter of days or weeks before not-so-nice hackers learn how to use it for their own less innocent business. So there's no way they would do this.
F@CK the EU and the US they are turning europe into a policestate.
This is an absolute joke what rights do the flammin pigs have hacking my pc if they want to check it they should come knock the door and pick the thing up cheeky barstewards as for this goverment there all toffey nose twits anyway there must be some law against this human rights and all that
If i cant hack someone what right do pigs have hacking me
I just wonder why don't they look for drug and guns dealers more… Is piracy killing more teenagers nowadays than drugs/guns?
SOOOO….
Does this mean that I can hack in to anyones computer, if I "suspect" them of wrong doing??
Welcome to Nazism!
Stupid question maybe but how would this be possible. There are hackers out there that cannot get past internet security and stuff so how could it be done without you knowing.
Good luck with that.
If they can get past my 30+ character password for ssh and vnc which are on non-standard ports while at the same time somehow getting past my hardware and software firewalls then they deserve a cookie.
Whats next i wonder walk round with a fcukin webcam on our heads monitored 24/7 fcukin sick of uk country is a joke in a mess gordon brown is a muppet country full of illegals really what is left here for a british man ?
@ #17:
"i would like to know how a government can be given any legitimate rights to the world's internet."
They don't have to "be given" anything. If they want something, including your freedom, they will take it. They are, after all, the GOVERNMENT! Witness the USA Patriot Act and you'll understand.
lol i love america <<
where do you think they got the idea…. hmmm
I'm taking out shares in Personal Firewall Software….
Sunbelt, Norton, Zone Alarm, here I come…
Yeah, The funny thing is its only allowed that British officers to do so,
So can't we just ban all British ip's :p
And since when is breaking(firewall) and entering (pc) allowed, i always taught that getting evidence on a illegal way broke the power of the evidence.
But anyway piracy is much more targeted then lets say murder,rape,…
Its a wierd world
so as long as u got pg2 and a firewall like AVG's we "should" be ok? or not cuz i would be boned if they looked at web browsing habits or HDD.
@ 24
Only if you work for the police.
If not, you could still blackmail someone by uploading lotz'n lotz of child porn/bomb building manuals on someones computer..
dont confuse britain with the EU – cus its not!
They already have this power, not such a big deal really. If they wanted to arrest you, they would, i mean its not exactally difficult to hack into someones machine and they have some of the smartest ppl in the world working for them.
However i agree i can't see a way of bypassing peoples firewalls etc. Unless they already have a built in gap in the firewell we don't know about…. oooo makes u think
Three things 1@#10: YaRi
Yes, the article DOES specifically state hard drive access:
"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."
2@everyone asking about firewalls ability to protect personal data
The article says that firewalls don't matter because:
"The authorities could break into a suspect’s home or office and insert a “key-logging” device into an individual’s computer."
3@#17: nick
This isn't giving the government any more or less rights to the world's internet then it already had previously, however, these laws WILL be giving the government something it didn't have previously: The ability to use the information gained to prosecute people, legally. They already have the ability to do these things, what they needed, and got apparently, was the ability to use information acquired illegally and in violation of peoples rights to privacy, to put them in jail. This wouldn't normally be that much of a problem, and truely isn't to most pirates, since piracy in most civilized countries is usually a civil matter, unless the pirates are making lots of money or distributing crazy amounts of material. The problem, of course, comes when law enforcement officials use this power to plant evidence or use their "legal" ability to take advantage of people and the justice system, which SOMEONE will undoubtedly do, because someone always does. And because of these laws, they will probably get away with it.
Linux
Wow, this is absolutely crazy. I can't believe any government of any country would want to give anyone the authority to do something like this. Instead of policing the streets and keeping society safe from bad people, now they are gonna have the right to hack into peoples personal computers? Why not issue them keys to your front door as well. This is not right.
Bad cop, no donut.
Home Office denies remote snooping plan
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/05/police_remote_snoop/
This kind of thing has been going on for a long while in both the UK and in the US and only now is it being mentioned as if it's a new thing. It's all being done for our own good…at least that's what the controllers would have you believe. All of these "special measures" are not to catch any criminals but are there to control us and keep us constantly monitored like the "useless eaters" they think we are.
Welcome to the New World Order…
"Anyway, the three year jail sentence is the minimum requirement for these extreme measures. If you are worried about this may happen to you, you may very well deserve it anyway."
Copyright theft carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in the UK.
good news…
aye were nothing but cattle in there eyes, just imagine what its gonna be like in another 10 years
@40
Finally someone who is awake and open minded.
ITS NOT FOR PEOPLE WHO DOWNLOAD, YOU THINK THEY WOULD GIVE U A 3 YEAR SENTENCE FOR DOWNLOADING, ITS TO LOOK UP ON REAL CRIMINALS.
LOOK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7812353.stm
What is happening to my country??? I've got to get out of here.
Looks like I'll be using SSL and encryption a lot more when possible.
They could easily implement government agency rules for firewall software to allow for a government override. They have already done this with software like file shredders. For example, tuneup utilities 2009's file shredder will only shred files in accordance with department of defense standards. Even though they list other methods within the utility, all options will be retrievable by government agencies.
This is already happening in the U.S. anyway. A friend in San Diego had his net routed to a page with instructions to remove specific files that he had downloaded. Once those files were removed then he had to click a link and allow for an activeX module to be loaded into his system which then confirmed the deletion of those files. He was then warned not to do it again or face blacklisting. For those interested, the isp was COX cable.
He was using pg2, norton 360 (sux), and multiple blocklists from iblocklist.org were loaded into pg2. In addition he had encryption forced on utorrent and was downloading from a reliable source (gizmolio off mininova).
dht, peer exchange, and upnp (for firewall) were all disabled within utorrent.
lol at 2. Chad.
In America these things happen all the time but the government doesn't inform you about it
lol
"Anyway, the three year jail sentence is the minimum requirement for these extreme measures. If you are worried about this may happen to you, you may very well deserve it anyway."
you should take a glance at some criminal laws over the world … in my country for example you can get up to 3 years of prison for sharing copyright stuff in total value of about 4k € (cumulative) – so to put it plainly: if you download via torrent let's say adobe ultimate cs4 or whatever the whole collection is called and maybe some new office, windows and maya, you already have enough to be put away for 3 years …
Shows you how F***ed up gordon brownpants really is !!!!
We have this for snooping on UK citizens at the same time he is allowing 60 or so terrorists to come live in this country because bush\obama want to close their nice holiday resort in cuba.
Personally the way this country is going i wouldnt mind taking the beachfront property in cuba off bush's hands lol
@all look up infowars for more insight into the new world order,
"ITS NOT FOR PEOPLE WHO DOWNLOAD, YOU THINK THEY WOULD GIVE U A 3 YEAR SENTENCE FOR DOWNLOADING, ITS TO LOOK UP ON REAL CRIMINALS.
LOOK"
wanna see how you can twist that?
if you dont buy stuff, but download it, you hurt the economy, the state loses money and jobs, you get social unrest that threatens social peace, also money will be missing for investment into anti terrorist measures and the military, so, you are basically supporting terrorists. they define "real criminals" not you.
your browsing habit, emails and everything else, that you dont encrypt strong and securely is being saved and monitored already, by everyone (what do you think google does with its information? you dont know? thats the problem, nobody knows).
and you can throw your personal firewall away, who knows how many backdoors there are, and how many exploits that you dont know about… even hardware routers are vulnerable (see cisco).
only way to keep your personal stuff for yourself, one machine for internet, one machine offline.
Well… there goes my plan to move to the UK.
Seriously, your justice system over there is really borked.
But can they play Crisis with you? lol =P
this is beyond sick, just when I thought there was nothing more my government could do to shock me further!
@50 – Guantanamo sure sounds like a better option from now on eh?!
Screw Brown & this sodding country, this is the last straw
@ 53 You would be crazy to move here seriously the country is in a right mess i wouldnt give it a second thought if i was you
It would be the biggest mistake of your life
@53 I have to agree with 53. Not only is the country already a sardine can (ie. there is no room to breath) the police will all be looking at those naked pictures of you wife that you have on your PC.
1984 is here.
Not even personal e-mails etc are to be spared.. bunch of pencil-pushers.
Next they'll be observing married couples when they have sex!
This is actually true! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7812353.stm
1 england is biggest Nazism! country in the world. they pretend and act like they are so nice and good to the world but they are not. this country has the most racism in the world. there kids kill innocent black kids all the time. the government covers it up.
V for Vendetta anyone
??
"any offence attracting a jail sentence of more than three years", in couple of years they'll change it to less and less. I tell You what Nazi germany could not achieve with force the EU will accomplish it in times of peace with us agreeing with this!!
@61 You say kids kill innocent black kids all the time… which is true. However, statically speaking most of the time it is other black kids killing the black kids… so where does the racism come into it?
source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5439604.ece
It's time for all those clever hackers out there to really pull together and keep the internet free/privacy-safe and the best way to freely spread information.. come on hackers get to it and make a tool that locks these guys out full stop – I can't believe it can't be done!
This is madness. Even if it is not tracking us 'downloaders' or Pirates (I prefer that name =D) it is still unfair. The name Personal Computer does not even exist now. Keyword PERSONAL. I wouldn't mind if it was called a 'Everyone Can See What Your Doing… Computer or ECSWYDP. I do hate England sometimes… I think a protest is in order… I don't know how that would work but… Yea
What a "state" we are in. so much for "free speach" and liberal views. "Big Bro" is encroaching towards british society and all we can do is ????????????????
submit??????? no!!!!!!!!
join????????? no!!!!!!!!
negotiate???? no!!!!!!!!
retaliate???? no!!!!!!!!
my opinion is to……………….
refuse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why don't the Brit's just have the Chinese military forward the information that they're after right to them? (China snoops everyplace, even into U.S. military systems…)
If you think that they can't get through your little consumer operating system / firewall / antivirus – think again!
This just shows the true power of the "intellectual property" owners; we still have to cut a check to Time-Warner when "Happy Birthday To You" gets sung in a public place, even a restaurant. Just think what they expect to be paid for a copy of "The Dark Knight" posted on the internet. I wish I got royalties or residuals for even 1% of the creative work that I've pumped out for over 40 years.
With something like 500,000 CCTV cameras all over London, I don't think that you should be too concerned with "W" listening-in to some overseas call to Ahmed in Peshawar. (After-all, while he was doing that he pretty much left us alone.)
ok let just ask one question ! what software will these guys be using ?? Once we know what software is being used then we can possibly protect ourselves.. Many years ago it was found that certain particular software was used in the states! If we can find that out.. then we can do something about it (possibly)
regards all
The thing is the US gets made a big stink out of this because everyone expects more but the same countries that decry the abuses by the US do when neccassary move quickly and quietly to skirt laws sometimes far worse then the US Govt and this isnt just what we would think of as third or second world countries but countries in the "first' world.
Its good or a sign that the US is held to a higher standard… hopefully were not on a continuous down slide of our standards (not to be confused with our economy but they can be intertwined) and that we can restore our standing in the world in various ways.
Were not going to win by being more efficient or even having the best military as that level of spending when done in a cold war fashion with China will only result in our downfall a few years or decades from now. We will only win by being the clear "good guy" hopefully keeping to our standards and not being purely opportunists but actually helpful good people. We'll see i guess.
this is a very bad thing, and i can assure all of you
goverment bodys, average joes. this 'choice' will undoubtly
cause such a rebel that every hacker, cracker, patcher,
and so forth will set on a vengance of destruction.
you think we worrie about our files? our computers are
disposable, it is your files that you should worrie about,
it is your systems that you need to consider when you try to
effect ours. for every door you open on our computer, your
computer opens one for us. we shall destroy you in bid of
freedom of speach. we controll the internet.
your efforts are meaningless. your efforts shall fail.
give up now for we shall provail…
I think the pirates wil be safe for now because in the bbc article it said plans have been suggested or something along those lines and who knows it will take for he law to actually be enforced
It is a strange subject. If it can catch paedo's or terrorists etc then I don't really care but this is really open to abuse. Saying that everything we go on the internet is already monitored and has been for a while so its not really that much of a step further.
They don’t need to bypass your firewall because they are not using the Internet.
Antivirus suites won’t protect your PC.
Passwords for security are a joke so don’t think that a 30 character password will save you.
Banning British IPs won’t help at all.
It won’t affect anyone outside of the UK.
They are using the power grid in a unique way to decode pulse modulation generated by your PC, effectively taking snapshots of hard drives. It won’t matter if you use Linux instead of Windows and it won’t matter if you don’t connect to the Internet at all. It is not new. Only the public disclosure is. They are not after downloaders or peer to peer file sharers. Rather more serious groups.
Relax they have been doing it for a while now. There’s nothing you can do about it.
@74 I hope you were wearing your tin foil hat when you typed that lol.
I say good luck to them, if they were to just monitor the visitors to here then it would be a mammoth task…
It'll be for trying to catch terrorists etc
Chill….
No,74 sounds like an official. But I wont deny that everything he said makes super-sense.
yeah right, I wonder how many prisons would they have to create to pack us up all there eh?
fkin bullsithe.
how many of people that really CAN hack they'd have to employ?
ridiciolous.
governments have created fake term 'war on terror' to make ppl fear of unknown even more and to create laws allowing them to infiltrate and take control over our lives.
english's not my first language so please watch this 34min video to understand what I am trying to explain.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2461177575671329682
"know your enemy!"
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2461177575671329682
@75
I LOL'd
though I can relate to what @74 means
"British law already allows police to remotely access computers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, which allows surveillance to "prevent or detect serious crime". "
from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7812353.stm
see? 'serious crime' I highly doubt dl'ers are serious criminals. well, not from filthy economical point of view
Don't worry about this, a friend of mine works for the police and told me they have only a hadfull of guys that will actually monitor the computers of over 60 million people that live in the UK, they do not have the time money or resources to have any real impact and they will mostly monitor the computers used by Muslims, well they do like to blow things up, so as for the rest of us its really nothing to worry about.
that one's my last, honestly
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9nNDVjbbdMY
this isnt a "hack" atall if you read it they need physical access to your computer first
still very emotive and ridiculously invasive
It's never a good thing when governments or people are allowed by the law to just barge in on your computer like this. In the beginning, it might look like it won't affect you and me, but it opens up the door for other uses and other laws to come in the near future. It's all going the wrong way if you ask me.
I bet this site is the most against this law. I wonder why? Anyway, i really wouldnt worry. I expect this is mostly to stop peadophile rings.
Wow, two wrongs don't make a right!
This seems to be aimed at serious crime not p2p, here is a link to the BBC news story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7812353.stm
@84 Frankie if the police can inject malware into a persons pc then they can inject evidence and accuse anyone they want. The cameras on every street are a good idea but it's not a good idea to monitor personal computers. BUT then again how would a porn/0-day/wares/p2p/release revolution start without something like this happening.
@ 80
you said…
"they do not have the time money or resources to have any real impact and they will mostly monitor the computers used by Muslims, well they do like to blow things up, so as for the rest of us its really nothing to worry about."
Silly rabbit. I think your computer should be monitored for neo-nazi material.
Seriously, there is a way to keep anyone from snooping into your network. It is costly though.
calm down people *tut* it's just a proposal .
they come up with crazy proposals like this every week in the UK , they always get shot down and never heard of again
Guys guys guys… you're forgetting the main point. Yes a firewall on your pc would be good but…
What about installing a f*cking sweet house alarm and getting a couple of pitbulls "installed" in your home so they can't break in??
LOL
"They are using the power grid in a unique way to decode pulse modulation generated by your PC."
I hope that was a joke, all i can say is bullsh!t.
As far as passwords are concerned… they are the only way anyone will ever access my system and my encrypted drives. Short of dissecting my brain none of these passwords will ever leave my body outside of a starred textbox. And hell will freeze over the day a key-logger ever makes its way onto my system.
all i need to tell you is:
In the UK a CUSTOMS official can enter ANY premises or 'area' where THEY believe ANY act of 'Crime' is breaking the law of UK HMS customs or excise. etc,
i am sure you understand what i am saying therefore. You could buy 100 cases of Wine from france and sell it in the UK (minus) import duty from a pub etc, the UK customs can raid that/(the sellers) premises WITHOUT A WARRANT if they so wish to…
THESE CUSTOMS OFFICIALS ARE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE POLICE OR GOVERNMENT THEY ARE A SEPARATE COMPANY AND HAVE BEEN FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS, THESE ARE THE SAME PEOPLE THAT CHASE YOU FOR YOU TAX RETURNS, // THEREFORE HAVE THE SAME POWER.
ANY computer that is INSIDE the UK i EXPECT it to be checked, just as most luggage bags on aeroplanes are, and Mail sent via the post office. these things happen,
just DEAL WITH IT, and get on with your lives. TESCO buy your buying habits off you for £2.50 and sell them for over £1,000 to advertising companies….i cant see you complaining about that, just GROW UP and DEAL with it. if you cant…
Stop BUYING anything on credit, online or face to face….
IDIOTS
if you are really worried, then just make it a habit to always leave your mouse in a specific spot on your mousepad, they'd never know to put it back exactly the same.
if you find it moved, scan your computer.
they'd have to allow the keylogger in your existing firewall, so either have a look at it's rules, or just install a different one.
and Ctrl+Alt+Del will always tell you exactly what is running on your computer.
Why not take it a bit further and implant an officer in every household… but hey living under the microscope can be fun.
I'm sick and tired of EU forcing their BS laws and regulations, if I catch any goddamn brit-twit snooping my comp there'll hell to pay!
#92, if we deal with it then all is lost. Have You read Orwell's "Year 1984" ? If not then read it and if You got something more than a peanut in Your head then you'll understand we need to oppose this peaceful fight for our minds. Have you seen "V for Vendetta" ?? This will happen, it's not just publicity movie, it's a wake up call for all of us (for those who can and think).
Next time they propose/elect something like that, then let the civilians have full access in CIA, FBI, NORAD, etc….
#93, have You ever used Remote Desktop Connections?? They don't need to run Your mouse in order to do things in Your computer. You won't even notice until You get an official letter
there new law to hack there peoples computer is a sham. as they know they cant hack a hackes computer.
its more like they want to know how much money the people are spending on the side over the web. so they can impose more tax. INTERNET TAX.
In Australia, the law was amended last year. If a police officer suspected your PC had been involved in illegal activity they could confiscate it and analyse it. Illegal activity included the definition "had received spam"
Regards
Peter
RLSLOG invades my computer on a daily basis..CONGRADULATIONS, YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED….blah blah blah
All I can say is the police cannot hack if they have to break in to your home to install a trojan/keylogger.
Tthis is not hacking this is just plain installing a server and them using a client to connect to it ot the server sends info to a server and put in a database.
If they were to truely hack you computer they would be there for weeks on end trying to get in.
I have 2 routers and then a software firewall they would spend weeks breaking in to the first router then weeks months breaking in to the second router.
But they do it the easy way and come round your house and just install it now I never knew that was hacking myself.
And for those linux guys a shell script could be put on the harddrive and take over your server beleave it or not but linux can get a virus and it can have trojans and keyloggers they are not a special super computer that does not need antivirus.
The guy with the tin hat comment just had to laugh hard because I was thinking the same thing.
Echelon's been running for years and doesn't that monitor all digital throughput?
Has anyone actually tried a bruteforce hack? Even on highend servers it takes FOREVER!
Lesson to be learned hear is to always keep a supermagnet nearby or an ion cannon (think they were doing research at a UK Uni on it to completely fry your computer).
Happy Browsing peeps
Glad I'm not running Windows ^.^
"Glad I'm not running Windows ^.^"
This has less to do with the OS your running…
Here in germany they have the right to hack anybodies pc since more than a year now…
This is news from Europe.
I'm from America so I don't care.
Big whoop.
This is crap. Why would they do this when there are other methods of obtaining this information! They can already get this from your ISP or even sit outside and crack into your WiFi network. Sounds like a lot of rubbish to me.
am on a mac. all sensitive data is encrypted they cant hack me.
if i want to download sensitive stuffs i use a payas you go sim card. with a second hand mobile phone. connect to a mac book/ when done reset web browser. them write 000 to the empty bit of hardrive
Its like giving them permission to search peoples houses without any warrant or permission.
As long as we don't use Norton we're good i think
Chase piracy and let those rapist, murderer, robbers and terrorist walk in the park
That's smart
Way to go Britain!
The fact OTHER COUNTRIES can AND WILL ask for this kind of "help" from UK is the thing that worries me the most. I mean, this kind of legislation overrules ALL the laws about privacy if an EU country has them, as there is no more need for police to ask permission to do electronic surveillance AND as the thing is extented over the EU area.
This is wrong.
Don't forget, all these relatively small changes are 'salami tactics':
If you can't create total surveillance in a day, take small
steps and scare people enough to make them want it (terrorists, sex offenders, .. : noticed how they are blown out of proportion in the media?).
Thanks to the European Union, if anyone were to corrupt the
politicians sitting in Brussels, they could overrule national
law! No matter how sophisticated the law in your (european) home country is! Bulgaria recently skipped this though.
Don't take this too lightly. What seems impossible today
!
might become reality tomorrow. Since the media don't cover
this enough (ever heard about this on TV / newspaper?),
most people won't notice what's going on or even WHY it is wrong! Try asking your parents, teachers what they think of it and why they think it won't be 1984 soon (the book
I can never get hacked since I am using windows 2000. It doesn't even need a firewall or antivirus program. I have been using it like this for like 7 years. I sometimes get a lot of pop ups and computer slow sometimes but i know it is because my internet connection is kinda slow. i even still use Internet Explorer 4.1. I do not even need windows updates for my computer it is so secure. guys learn do what i do and you will never get hacked.
scary news !!
geeez soon we'll even be scared to even plug in webcams on our PCs as the "POLICE" might secretly use it to watch us -_-'
Lol we have Chairman Rudd in Australia censoring the internet, we are joining great countries like China, North Korea, Myanamar and other great civil libetarian nations! Geez thanks you pinko commy!
#95, RE #92.
I only read Factual information, nothing from Media or an 'interpretation' from a no-body. Rules can be found of many GOV websites, read understand before commenting on my undersized penut brain!
@80
Hope ur home gets blown up filthy racist
@116 Very intelligent comment. You should be very proud of that one.
This coming from a site that has so many malicious scripts embedded in its pages that try and infect your computer, redirect you, talk to you in the most annoying way. How the hell can you stand there and condemn an article when you guys do the same thing day to day. In other words makes you a hipocrite
ok lets see….
Brother Muhammad,
Praise be to Allah! The ammonium nitrate arrived safely for the farm.
Pleased to receive your notes about the power of the nuclear plant.
Death to Israel.
PS. The elephant walks at dawn (on the 13th).
there we go, that should do it, Echelon should pick that up nicely
Spam the government spys
this was the clever idea of a guy called Alberto, his site was shut down pretty quick but here´s the cached version:
http://209.85.129.132/search?q=cache:lW1Vb1c8L4cJ:www.damnthe.com/news/echelon_espionage_terrorism/+The+Terrorist+Chatter+Engine&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1
It's always been rumored that the NSA had M$ put a backdoor into XP and vista. At one point someone had identified part or some files in XP related to that though I forget the details. I wouldn't be surprised if Linux distributions had the same requirement.
Isnt it funny that some know nothing morons tried to blast the US for this when even here in the US we DONT charge people for driving tino the big cities like they do in London and other area. WE DONT place camera's on every fricking street corner and spy on you 24/7. Nor do we spy on you every day of your life since Pre WW2 like they did in Socialistic Countries like Italy and Germany and still do to this day. It's a major hoot when you whiners in Europe want to attack America at every chance and now you find your countries are much worse then the place you were attacking.. Let someone prove it works and just how fricking long do you think it will be before the European Unon demands ALL memers do this? Free Countries? BS!! You are just a few steps away from having a government like Cuba or China. Welcome to reality that by your 'cradle to grave Government protected lifestyle' that you all crow about being so great, have allowed to come into existance in your country…maybe you should have just taken the blue pill and then you would not be bothered by such facts as the reality you created with your "gimee gimee, cause I deserve it" life.
NWO is no conspiracy …… every little step to take away people's privacy around the world is a way to eventually control you.
All of this "security" is really just another reason to get into the minds of people who oppose the NWO. Since the UK have spent hundereds of millions on surviellance, crimes have been on the up and not only that, they do little nothing to prevent serious crimes in the first place. It's just another spy program – wake up and look around!
I'm leaving this country because of it. What's next, surveillance drones that are allowed to fly into your house? TVs with spy-cameras hidden inside them? They've for many years been tapping everyones phone lines and now they're allowed to watch our network traffic – something the internet community has always stood firmly against. and NOW they're allowed to hack people's PCs?
How grotesque that people stand for it.
common sense – your posts have none =p
get your historical and actual facts right … oh and since english is your 1st language, you should at least be able to use "than" and "then" correctly
I doubt these powers are to be used for catching little Timmy downloading the latest stargate atlantis episode, but will be used for the benifit of anti-terrorism bods and the serious crime squad. Don't know about you guys but I sleep a lot better knowing these guys are on the case looking out for me. It's sad, but indictive of the world we now found ourselves in. If you're not one of the bad guys, then sleep soundly. If you are one of the bad guys then unlucky – they're coming to get you.
Puts me in the mood for a bit of leeching (along with the other several million users out there)!
almost as stupid as the UK governments proposal last week to work with america to give a movie style ratings system to every page on the internet
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7800846.stm
@45 the BBC is just a propaganda tool for our glorious leaders that are NuLabour, so don't believe anything from the BBC!
This is just another example of how our civil liberties and our freedom is being raped by a bunch of unelected europrats…
the FBI is looking to hire a lot of computer experts… the US might be following http://biz.yahoo.com/cnnm/090106/010509_fbi_hiring.html?.v=2
1) Ken White of the NSA (National Security Agency) an U.S. government agency best known for eavesdropping on telephone calls had a hand in the development of the Windows Vista operating system. In the past, the NSA's demonstrated a historical interest in gaining "back-door" access to encrypted data produced by products from U.S. computer companies such as Microsoft. In 1999, U.S. Congressman Curt Weldon said that "high-level deal-making on access to encrypted data had taken place between the NSA and IBM and Microsoft.
2) "A good society depends on the free availability of facts and opinions, and on the growth of vision and consciousness – the description of what individuals have actually seen and known and felt. Any restriction of the freedom of individual contribution is actually a restriction of the resources of society."
Solution, get organized and stand up for your rights people! Otherwise, just like 1.3 billion living in mainland China, a corrupt regime (wealthy Communist Party Officials) will be determining your fate, your standards of living and very life.
Don't allow your choice to be silenced, to be advocated away…
AHHH… PANIC!!! HELP… PEER GUARDIAN 2… !!!
Anyone who remotely thinks that this has in ANYWAY ANYTHING to do with people downloading movies is R3TARDED!!!!!!!
This is a step to investigate SERIOUS crime, not grabbing High School Musical 3 from Rapidshare, get over yourselfs kids.
Sure, this is not good… but is does NOT affect YOU!!
And the next idiot that mentions PeerGuardian as a means of protection from ANYONE or ANYTHING on the internet needs to go back to n00b school 101…
Hoohim, it's people like you, who believe in badly fabricated fairy-tales which are ment to justify limiting of human rights and increasing overal surveilance, that take a large chunk of blame for all authoritarian and police states. Why? Because you don't care if your privacy and human rights are viloated … after all it's just national security and that means it's to keep you safe, right?
(mind you – it's a rethorical question)
Why are you guys so concerned?
Some people take comfort in the authorities doing surveillence.
If you ever were the victim of a crime the first thing you ask yourself was were were the police when it was happening.
If breaking into PCs is an effective means of protecting the public at large then the good of the many outweigh the good of the few.
I would gladly give up a little privacy to ensure my safety.
Lets face it..don't you make decisions to walk down the well lit street with security cameras instead of the dark alley?
Lighten up peoples. Its not a big deal.
Is no one else looking for the good in this? New job openings for people like us! YAY!
But on a more serious note, I have to say this is quite ridiculous, what kind of criminals do they really intend to catch here? and it said they've got the permission to do this if he "Believes" there's incriminating evidence on the PC, well who's to say they won't just start searching EVERY PC and once they find something say "I really believed we'd find something on this 87 year old ladies PC"
IMO, just as everyone's ….horse sh!t
"Copyright theft carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in the UK"
Actually, that's criminal copyright infringement, which requires redistribution. The act of downloading stuff is not a criminal act but one that at worst would bring about a civil suit which the police shouldn't have anything to do with, ever – and if they do the police are wasting taxpayers money because it'll never go anywhere in a criminal court, and worse, will bring suits directed at them.
And also, you're not the only ones to do this but why is the story always "British police this/that" when it's a European regulation?
Regardless anyway, none of this will be admissible in a British court so you'll never see the police here doing this over British crimes because the risk is – or should I say, the fact is – that this sort of stuff will taint an entire evidence chain.
streaky:
"Actually, that's criminal copyright infringement, which requires redistribution. The act of downloading stuff is not a criminal act"
that's true, but only if you're really ONLY downloading (ie. those rapidshare links that spam every news) – but if you're using TORRENTS – well, this changes the whole thing! then you actually are *redistributing* copyrighted material (by uploading/sharing to other ppl) and are therefore commiting a crime as the law states
it's important to do something against dictatorship
Maybe the answer is to store all your illegal movies and music on an external hard drive, and access them when you're not on the internet. This is a gross violation of privacy laws.
But laws are made, and the internet boffins find a way (or a few ways) to break them. The internet and file-sharing will never die. Hollywood and everyone else should just embrace it.
I have also say that piracy has it's upside – instead of waiting for a few months for a film to be released, Hollywood has stepped up it's act in releasing films on a simultaneous day to combat pirated versions. Well done, internet!
@134
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-Benjamin Franklin
Well said SmokingMan.
However, it was Thomas Jefferson, a contemporary of Benjamin Franklin who said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
If you lived in a war zone of terrorists, and other such miscreants, wouldn't you do all in your power to ensure your people, even if it meant something somewhat invasive?
Some of you are missing the point, this could only happen to you if are commiting a serious crime, that does not include downloading Pineapple Express from pirate bay!! Also it doesn't matter what computer OS you use, neither does it make a difference what anti virus software!. If the police/sis need to know what is on your computer they will break into your house and copy your hard drive!. Though you must be right nasty bastard if they need to do that. You reap what you sow.
well what can i say, ? APPART FROM F**KIN SIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATING F**KERS, !!!!
plus i dont think firewalls etc wont make a difference, if they want to hack your pc they will no probs, jst good luck on breakin in my house !!! my dogs a sycopath lol
dumb noob thomas jefferson was talking about watching the government, not the government watching you, read the rest of the quote.
America… F#ck YEH!
