ISPs all over world lodged formal complaints against the British government’s monitoring service, GCHQ, accusing it of using malicious software to hack their networks. The complaints came from 7 companies based in 6 countries: Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, the UK, the US and even Zimbabwe. This move will add to international pressure on the government after Snowden’s leaks concerning mass surveillance of the worldwide web by British and American intelligence agencies.
The complaints were filed with the investigatory powers tribunal – the court in London which assesses complaints about the agencies' activities and misuse of surveillance by government bodies. Normally, its hearings are held in secret. The tribunal is already considering some related complaints. For example, later in July it will investigate claims by human rights groups about the way the GCHQ targeted social media websites.
The UK agency has defended the security services, arguing that online searches are routed overseas and thus can be targeted as “external communications” and monitored without obtaining an individual warrant. The opposers claim that such a legal interpretation virtually sidesteps the need for traditional safeguards.
The latest claim was filed against both GCHQ and the Foreign Office, based on articles published in 2014 in the German magazine, which alleged that the surveillance agency had carried out a hacking attack on the Belgian telecoms group Belgacom by targeting individual employees with malware.
One attack was a “man-in-the-middle” type, which bypasses encryption software and interposes the attacker between 2 machines which believe that they are securely communicating with each other.
The claim alleged that such attacks violated the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and interfered with the privacy rights of the employees under the European convention on human rights. All seven victims were all “responsible and professional ISPs”. Their case follows articles about mass surveillance based on Snowden leaks.
The programs said to have been operating included Turbine – it automates the injection of information and is able to infect millions of computers. The leaks also revealed the existence of Warrior Pride, which enables microphones on smartphones to be remotely activated.
The move of the Internet service providers has been supported by Privacy International, a British charity defending and promoting the right to privacy worldwide.
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