Police set to step up hacking of home PCs

riddlermarc

riddlermarc

riddlermarc

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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.

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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.

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Richard Clayton, a researcher at Cambridge University’s computer laboratory, said that remote searches had been possible since 1994, although they were very rare. An amendment to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 made hacking legal if it was authorised and carried out by the state.

He said 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. “It’s just like putting a secret camera in someone’s living room,” he said.

Police might also send an e-mail to a suspect’s computer. The message would include an attachment that contained a virus or “malware”. If the attachment was opened, the remote search facility would be covertly activated. Alternatively, police could park outside a suspect’s home and hack into his or her hard drive using the wireless network.
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Source

Shocking, this country is going to the dogs - okay I have nothing to hide but that is not at all the point. All of these options for snooping should be easy enough to get around - think how quickly people crack DVD/iPhone encryption so I doubt it'd take too long to fashion a workaround.

So they are going to have to have key logging software that will work on Windows, Linux and Macs - also the email attachment will have to be opened which no-one in their right mind is going to do. Word will spread on the filenames etc so a fix will be out there.
Hack into your wireless network - I still think WPA takes ages to break so snooping from a van outside your house isn't valid?

Run an encrypted Linux OS, make sure your wireless router has WPA turned on and don't open strange email attachments..

Big Brother is alive and well, not in a good way :(
 
If you are targeted by this you have far bigger things to worry about and you probably already have MI5 agents shadowing you during the day.

They aren't going to pick on random people.
 
So they do it by parking outside your house and hacking into your wireless network? Or by breaking into the house and installing a keylogger into your computer?

These 2 ways could never be done against people like anyone on this forum as most would be aware of these things, maybe if they break in and install something in the keyboard on the circuit then no one would know I guess but the person would be suspicious before that happened.


Don't know why anyone would want to run an encrypted linux OS just to avoid things like this, besides, I hate the look of linux and don't want to spend hours and hours on end learning linux when my Windows installation is just as fast and does everything I want.
 
Ross1234 said:
err say what? Unless you only use your pc for gaming you could run linux and just start up windows when you want to play games. Thats what I do anyway.
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WEll I generally play games while doing everything else. So constantly having to restart would be mind-numbing.

But as is said if you're being targeted by this I'd be more worried about the guy following me all day with a loaded pistol.
 
They can only get key logger software in if you run executable files. If you're dumb enough to do that, you deserve everything coming to you. However, my biggest concern is Microsoft playing along and sneak some software in on behalf of the police. If that happens, then there is nothing you can do. Not a thing will be detected. I might have to look at Linux soon.
 
7_proxies.jpg
 
regulus said:
They can only get key logger software in if you run executable files. If you're dumb enough to do that, you deserve everything coming to you. However, my biggest concern is Microsoft playing along and sneak some software in on behalf of the police. If that happens, then there is nothing you can do. Not a thing will be detected. I might have to look at Linux soon.
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To be honest everyone jokes about how useless the police etc are but who knows what MI5 have.

Theres technology publicly available which can keylog you without any hardware or software - they could just sit in a car outside and read whats on your monitor and what you are typing. I don't mean over wireless or anything - it works by detecting radiation from devices.

They can probably get into almost anything unless you have it encrypted with a stong enough encryption, in which case they physically can't break it yet with modern computers.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m77/slambo69/7_proxies.jpg
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A lot of proxies are probably completely compromised, Tor is wide open for a start ;)
 
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Strife212 said:
To be honest everyone jokes about how useless the police etc are but who knows what MI5 have.

Theres technology publicly available which can keylog you without any hardware or software - they could just sit in a car outside and read whats on your monitor and what you are typing. I don't mean over wireless or anything - it works by detecting radiation from devices.

They can probably get into almost anything unless you have it encrypted with a stong enough encryption, in which case they physically can't break it yet with modern computers.



A lot of proxies are probably completely compromised, Tor is wide open for a start ;)
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If I seen someone outside sitting in there car I'd simply turn my PC off.
 
regulus said:
They can only get key logger software in if you run executable files. If you're dumb enough to do that, you deserve everything coming to you. However, my biggest concern is Microsoft playing along and sneak some software in on behalf of the police. If that happens, then there is nothing you can do. Not a thing will be detected. I might have to look at Linux soon.
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And that would be the beginning of the end for Windows and Microsoft, cant see it happening.
 
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