company:privacy international

Le gouvernement britannique épinglé pour son manque de régulation dans l’exportation de technologies de surveillance vers des régimes autocratiques. RT

Privacy International, the human rights group, is suing the British government, filing an application for judicial review of Her Majesty’s Revenue and customs (HMRC) on account of its role in allowing the export of advanced surveillance technology that has been used by repressive regimes worldwide, including that of Bahrain, to spy on dissidents.

Privacy International’s lawsuit is over the government’s refusal to say whether it was investigating UK-based Gamma International (GI). GI’s FinFisher software has allegedly been used by some two dozen countries worldwide

http://rt.com/news/human-rights-uk-bahrain-927

UK “exporting surveillance technology to repressive nations”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/07/surveillance-technology-repressive-regimes

Much of the technology, which allows regimes to monitor internet traffic, mobile phone calls and text messages, is similar to that which the government has controversially signalled it wants to use in the UK.

The campaign group, Privacy International, which monitors the use of surveillance technology, claims equipment being exported includes devices known as “IMSI catchers” that masquerade as normal mobile phone masts and identify phone users and malware – software that can allow its operator to control a target’s computer, while allowing the interception to remain undetected.

Trojan horse software that allows hackers to remotely activate the microphone and camera on another person’s phone, and “optical cyber solutions” that can tap submarine cable landing stations, allowing for the mass surveillance of entire populations, are also being exported, according to the group.

#surveillance #UK

#Surveillance debunked: A guide to the #jargon in the #spyfiles http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/12/01/surveillance-debunked-a-guide-to-the-jargon
#informatique

#Skype security weaknesses could endanger ’vulnerable users’ | #Technology | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/16/skype-security-weaknesses-vulnerable

Among areas that Privacy International has identified as weaknesses are:

• the use in the Skype interface of names rather than unique IDs, meaning that people can be impersonated in the user list;

• Skype downloads are not made through a secure connection (to, say, https://skype.com), which means that other sites can masquerade as the main site and offer compromised versions of the software - something that has happened in the past in China;

• the audio compression system used in Skype allows phrases to be identified with an accuracy of between 50% and 90%, even with encryption applied.