Mastering the Internet

Hacker Claims Fake Web Certificates Issued

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Data Protection, International, Mastering the Internet, Online privacy, Privacy, Technology | Leave a comment

The Beglian security firm GlobalSign has temporarily stopped issuing web authentication certificates due to claims that a hacker has gained access to company servers, allowing it to issue bogus certificates. This makes GlobalSign the second major Certificate Authority to be hacked in as many months.

This kind of certificate is normally issued to ensure that websites that claim to be secure are authentic. Issuing fake certificates potentially allows the activity on the computer accessing the hacked website to be monitored. Read more

Cloud Security

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Data Protection, Mastering the Internet, Online privacy, Privacy, Technology, United States | Leave a comment

The Register has an interview with Jim Reavis, executive director of the Cloud Security Alliance, posted on their website today.

The interview discusses how to ensure that data and information shared on a Cloud is secure as well as some of the technological and policy issues related to doing so. Reavis makes a number of interesting points about the safety of users and information on privately established Clouds as well as concerns with the government, the PATRIOT Act and other similar policy concerns in other countries. He also discusses various kinds of security controls that would protect users and businesses that establish these Clouds for their companies or for public use.

Internet security and privacy are important issues, and as technology advances, policy sometimes falls behind in protecting privacy. Sadly, sometimes it overcompensates and becomes invasive. These concerns and issues are worth paying attention to and Reavis discusses a number of them.

You can listen to the interview in full here.

Alex Deane on the Twitter shutdown debate

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Mastering the Internet | 2 Comments

Over at ConservativeHome, former Big Brother Watch Director Alex Deane has offered his observations on the recent debate on whether or not Twitter should be shut down during times of significant social unrest.

In particular, he has responded to the arguments of pro-shutdown Conservative MP Nadine Dorries and the civil liberties champion and leading economist Dr Andrew Lilico:

“It was interesting yesterday to listen to two old friends of mine arguing on the Today Programme. Andrew Lilico, who should be on the Monetary Policy Committee, and Nadine Dorries, who should be in a senior Government position, battled it out over recently mooted plans to shut down social media during civil unrest.

“Building on his earlier post on this site, Andrew pointed out that we had vehemently objected when this was done recently by Egypt. Nadine (who has since also posted here about the discussion) sought to distinguish our situation from that precedent, suggesting that it was acceptable for the British government to do it, because it would be for good reasons and by a good government, whilst it was unacceptable for the Egyptian government to do it, because it was for bad reasons, by a bad government.

“I think that the point about precedents is important, too. Once this crisis is thought suitable to silence free speech, for a little while, what about the nextone, for a little longer? And the one after that, for longer still? Nadine did not like the past, Egyptian precedent Andrew deployed (which I thought rather strong, given that we should practice what we preach, but hi ho): she might, then, reflect on the precedent that the current government might be setting for the powers used by future governments, which might not be so good as the one in which she serves.

“Nadine ends her Platform post with a plea to think of the children: she thinks that of course enlightened Government should have these powers, to stop bad people doing bad things in bad times. Necessity is the plea of, well, anyone who wants to wield more power – she should be careful about using such lazy logic, since its use by others has very unhappy ends. As I say, ultimately, it justifies anything, being done by anyone.”

You can view his extended post – which makes liberal reference to John Stuart Mill’s ‘On Liberty – by clicking here.

London Riots and Social Media

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Home, Mastering the Internet, Online privacy, Social Networking, Technology | 2 Comments

The role of social networking outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and Blackberry Messenger (BBM) in contributing to the riots over the last few days has been hotly discussed. Many have voiced concern they should be shut down or limited. This kind of knee-jerk reaction to the role of social media would be unnecessary and exceedingly inappropriate. Rather than shutting these sites down, perhaps there is information to be garnered from working in conjunction with them.

BBM has been acknowledged as the network of choice for the rioters to communicate with each other due to its level of privacy from police surveillance. With nearly 40% of London’s teens choosing Blackberry as their smartphone of choice, this creates a potentially huge audience for encouraging further violence. In response, many have called for Blackberry to shut down the service temporarily to curb the violence. Patrick Spence from Blackberry said “We feel for those impacted by this weekend’s riots in London. We have engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can” and pledged to work with law enforcement and comply with the law in the UK.

Limiting social networking in the public sphere will not limit violence or deter potential criminals. In fact, they may even be feeding the public response to resolve the ongoing problems on the streets of London. Anyone following the #londonriots hashtag on Twitter will see one of the most rapid streams of disapproval of the scenes taking place in London. People are exchanging photos and videos to identify perpetrators, introducing hash tags and putting pressure on politicians and policeman to respond quickly and more resolutely and arranging community efforts to support the victims in these neighbourhoods. Additionally, many social network-savvy teens will implicate themselves on these forums, and these statements would be useful to law enforcement in apprehending offenders.

Twitter and Facebook and other public web outlets have been attributed to a number of social movements in the last several months, from Egypt to Libya and so forth. Police should be taking advantage of the masses of information people are putting on public forums rather than shutting them down due to the deplorable actions of a small minority. The vast majority of onlookers in the UK and around the globe are appalled by the riots, and I think most of them would happily see communities work with law enforcement through social networking outlets to stop the violence and bring the criminals to justice.

BT Ordered to Block

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Mastering the Internet, Technology | 3 Comments

A High Court judge ruled earlier today that BT must block the file-sharing website Newsbin – the first time such a judgement has been handed down in the history of UK law. Using the blocking technology CleanFeed, Newzbin2 will be inaccessible for BT customers as a result of a copyright infringement case brought by the Motion Picture Industry of America.

Commenting on the judgement, Dominique Lazanski, Big Brother Watch’s technology expert said:

“We are deeply disappointed by the High Court’s ruling ordering BT to block access to the Newzbin website.

“This ruling may force Internet Service Providers, for fear of being prosecuted, to impose strict controls on the type of web services their users may or may not access.

“While illegal copyright infringement is a serious problem which must be tackled, expanding regulations and control over the internet is a hugely regressive step”

The Internet Service Providers’ Association has also been sceptical of web blocking. Blocking technology is, according to the group, inappropriate, as it is not designed for such high volume targets as file sharing sites.

The widespread use of web blocking technology such as this would set a dangerous precedent and would do little to solve the problem of copyright infringement.

It’s market reforms that need to happen, not over-regulation or overbearing policy restrictions.

Staring at Computers

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Legal Action, Mastering the Internet, Online privacy, United States | 4 Comments

A few weeks ago, a New York, Kyle McDonald artist installed software on the computers at a number of New York Apple stores, taking thousands of webcam photos of people standing in front of them. He then created a photo exhibition calling it ‘People Staring at Computers,’ put it on his internet blog and the photos popped up on available computers in the stores where they were taken.

After posting the video, the US Secret Service raided McDonald’s apartment and shut down the website armed with a warrant on the grounds that he’d violated 18 USC section 1030, a law pertaining to computer crimes. No arrests have yet been made, but this case brings up a number of interesting ideas.

Mr McDonald is now being represented by a civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation, which focuses entirely on freedoms in the internet and digital sphere. Their arguments include that McDonald did not knowingly violate any laws; he sought the permission of security guards and asked the consent of a number of the individuals featured in his project. Additionally, he captured the images of people in a public place, willingly standing in front of countless cameras, albeit without their knowledge in most cases.

This particular section of law is primarily intended to protect against someone accessing computers used primarily by the US government and might impact US national security or international communication or relations. I’m quite sure that computers in an Apple Store qualify as neither. McDonald was entirely under the impression that it was within his rights to take pictures in a public place and publish them on the internet given he’d been granted the right permissions for the computers in the Apple stores in question.

However, there is also the issue of technology pushing past the limits of personal privacy in a way they never have before. Image technology has progressed so far past most legislation, that the line between technologically advanced and perverse and unnecessary intrusion into peoples’ privacy. The prevalence of mobile phone cameras, small digital cameras, CCTV cameras and other similar technology have desensitised most people to having their photo taken. This has also, in turn, made people less sensitive to their rights to their own image and to the use of such images on a public sphere without their knowledge or permission.

The number of times we step in front of a camera every day is excessive, and the expectation is surely that, at some point, our picture will get taken. But who owns the rights to that photo or determines when it can be used? Who is in the right? Should the use of these photos be controlled? Or should the images of the private individuals be protected from those who would use it without their permission? This case brings up an interesting debate about who civil liberties are protecting, I open this one up to the floor.

One Year On: The Coalition and Civil Liberties

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCTV, Control Orders, Databases, DNA database, Europe, ID cards, Legal Action, Mastering the Internet, Online privacy, Privacy | 4 Comments

Big Brother Watch has today (11th May) released a research paper outlining the progress the Coalition Government has made on civil liberties issues during its first year in office.

The paper concludes that, while real progress has been made, many of the Coalition's promises to roll back the power of the state remain unfulfilled.

Click here to download the report

Commenting on the report, Big Brother Watch Director Daniel Hamilton said:

"The Coalition has some real achievements to speak off.

"Ministers should be congratulated for taking steps to scrap ID cards and remove the profiles of the one million innocent people held on the national DNA database. They should also be praised for doing away with the ContactPoint database of children’s details and reforming the criminal record check regime.

"They do, however, have more work to do.

"Police stop and search powers remain in place, Control Orders remain virtually unreformed and there has been no opt-out from the European Arrest Warrant. When it comes to E-Borders, the Summary Care Record and Intercept Modernisation Programme, they have continued to implement the previous government’s policies – warts and all."

Summary of the Summit on Net Neutrality and the Open Internet

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Mastering the Internet, Online privacy | 2 Comments

“Net Neutrality means so many things that it doesn’t mean anything at all,” said Robert Pepper, Cisco’s Vice-President for Global Advanced Technology Policy yesterday at the EU’s Summit on the Open Internet and Net Neutrality in Europe. Mr. Pepper’s statement sums up the summit accurately – the summit wasn’t about Net Neutrality per se, it was about growth, innovation, new business models, and the digital economy.

The purpose of the summit was to bring together industry leaders, policy makers, and interested parties in order to discuss the recent public consultation on Net Neutrality and the Open Internet which closed on September 30th. The initial findings of that consultation had been made public and the European Commission brought together people in order to discuss, explain, and back up the outcome of those findings.

European Parliament and industry experts discuss Net Neutrality on Thursday in Brussels

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Mastering the Internet | 1 Comment

While the US election has quashed any further discussions on Net Neutrality for now, we here in the UK await some sort of indication this week on how the European Commission will stand when it announces it official position on net neutrality at the end of the year. The New York Time reports that the European Commissioner for Telecommunications, Ms. Neelie Kroes, is likely to discuss this issue briefly during a daylong meeting on the topic this Thursday at the European Parliament.

On September 30 of this year the European Commission closed a consultation on Net Neutrality and the Open Internet. Findings of this consultation are expected by the end of the 2010 and an agreement on ‘reasonable’ traffic management practices are to be agreed upon by May 1, 2011 among all of the 27 EU member state national regulators. Ms. Kroes has indicated in the past that she is not likely to push for regulation on broadband and wireless traffic management in spite of statements earlier this year where she warned operators not to bar competing services.

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