RIP Bill (interception of communications)

[MAX REVERSE]

Anyone in the UK who may be concerned at the thought of police and security services accessing logs of every website you've visited and every person you've emailed would be well advised to check out this (http://stand.org.uk/) site and find out what's going on.

[Cornish Jack]

Thank you for that, MR. Have used the site to fax my MP - too easy. Don't suppose he'll understand the problem but he just might. I would have thought that anyone posting here needs to hit this one - soonest.

[PA38]

If you don't have a good firewall there is nothing to stop ANYONE having a good look around your system (whilst connected to the net)
So if THEY want to they can have a look anytime they wish!
By the number of hits my firewall stops there are lots of bods already trying to have a good look, perhaps this is why the govenment want mr and mrs bloggs to be on the net? info gathering by stealth!

[MAX REVERSE]

PA38, you're missing the point. The Bill will require any UK ISP, at the Government's request, to install and maintain the necessary hardware to log details of all sites visited and the recipients of all emails.

THEY, as you put it, may well be reading our data anyway. The European Union recently accused the US of using intercepts of electronic communications to help American industry win contracts against rival European companies, and accused the UK of actively assisting them. Interesting that one of the provisions of the Bill is regarding encryption keys (basically if you encrypt any information, DO NOT forget the password or you could be looking at a two-year stretch!)

[pilot999]

PA38 - you obviously have a (good) firewall - where/how do you get one of these?? Hope thats not too stupid a question - thanks.

[Squiddley]

pilot999

It's been said before, and it's well worth saying again : Zonealarm ( http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/partners/zonealarm/download.html ) is well worth the download. It's simple to setup and does a fine job. Moreso since it's free!

Having just finished a format and reinstall of all my junk at home (arghhh) I didn't remember HOW good it was until I found I'd been "probed" 252 times in the space of half an hour.

If you want to test just how protected you are, a quick visit to either or both of the following sites would be an idea.
http://www.secure-me.net/secureme_go http://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

Best wishes.



[This message has been edited by Squiddley (edited 29 June 2000).]

[Blacksheep]

Those with guilty secrets can always save to floppy, put the floppies in a safety deposit box and use one of the scrubber programs to eliminate all traces from the hard drive.

As for the rest of us, what have we got to hide from officialdom? Well, I'm paranoid about hackers getting into my PC because someone set up a locked file 500 Megs big on one of my partitions. Lord only knows what kind of sh*t they kept in it. One of the trojans I found in my system traced back to the FBI. What were THEY doing in my PC? And in case the thought police found the file and asked for the key, well I guess I'd end up in jail eh?

Folder Guard and ZoneAlarm do it for me.

**********************************
Through difficulties to the cinema

[Self Loading Freight]

I use ZoneAlarm at home -- seems great. Caught a few nasties that way.

For those interested in security services and computers, my mob have just done an Echelon special -- you can find it at www.zdnet.co.uk/news. (http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news.) Lots of tasty info, very little of it heartening!

R

[PA38]

There is a big site called RAF Menwith Hill just outside Harogate in the UK.
It belongs to the USA inteligence (I forget which branch) as they won't even own up to it belonging to them.
It monitors phone calls, fax's, and e-mail's, by looking for key words in conversations or text, it then moniters the GOOD ones.
So this new bill is for somthing that has been happening for years and years, so for the benefit of the people who arn't at Menwith Hill here is somthing to set your bells ringing...
IRA, Semtex, Black September, Mossad, The Muppet Show!!!!
It's not paranoia it's FACT

[MAX REVERSE]

PA38.

It's the National Security Agency (NSA). The monitoring that you speak of is called ECHELON. An interesting article about this can be found here (http://www.fire.net.nz/echelon.htm). Here is a page about Menwith Hill (http://www.fas.org/irp/facility/menwith.htm), and I have a photo of the place on my website (http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/pontoon/373/) (Bagby photos).

________

"You ain't see me, right?"

[This message has been edited by MAX REVERSE (edited 30 June 2000).]

[wings level]

Well I went to the site and faxed my MP on Wednesday evening, and got a letter and a copy of the bill back from him in the post this morning. I was flabbergasted at the speed. Now I guess that I'll have to read it all :)

As for the fire wall I use Black Ice. Tried Zone alarm and had problems with other software and also got fed up with allowing this, disallowing that etc.

[Blacksheep]

Seems to me after reading up on this, that they are already monitoring communications and know what is in the target PCs. What the Bill does is make it possible and legal to produce the evidence acquired from monitoring in court. As ever, the argument is that the innocent have nothing to fear. BUT as I said in my post above, somebody broke into my PC and put their own locked file onto one of my partitions. No doubt it was traffic monitoring that attracted the FBI, hence their "trojan" placed in my system. Now that I've deleted it and gone behind a firewall, they are probably even more interested! The more you learn the scarier it gets http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/eek.gif

**********************************
Through difficulties to the cinema

[Cornish Jack]

It would seem that the increased exposure to the public gaze (and concern) is having an effect. Last night's radio programme reported that an amendment to the RIP bill was in train, to change the requirements for 'proof of forgetfulness' in respect of encryption codes from the defence to the prosecution. In other words if the accused forgets his/her encryption codes when asked for them by the police, they,the police, will have to prove deliberate obstruction on the part of the accused rather than the accused having to prove forgetfulness. Not earth shattering but at least somebody out there may be listening ... ooops, what am I saying? :) :)

[Cornish Jack]

I hear on the morning news that the Strasbourg mob are debating taking the Yanks and ourselves to the courts for this ECHELON activity.
I find it ironically amusing that their concern is that our American cousins used the information obtained to screw up a bit of 'slush fund' dealing that was on the boil out east..... not a hint that such activity (the ECHELON thing) poses a threat to personal privacy - must get our priorities, right musn't we? http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/tongue.gif

[MAX REVERSE]

Mmm, all interesting stuff. Once you start searching for ECHELON and Menwith Hill etc. you can get some very entertaining results. Lots of conspiracy theory and loonies. I clicked on one link which took me to the page of some bloke banging on about UFO's in NW England (heard it all before though - rumours of the HALO project at Warton). For those of you in the Manchester area I found a site about the Guardian underground exchange here (http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/guardian/). Yes, I know it's off topic, but I'm bored.