From the makers of "THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE BILL" and "THE COMPUTER MISUSE ACT" comes a horror deeper than the abyss of insanity... The Home Office in conjuction with MI5 Presents : THE INTERCEPTION OF COMMUNICATIONS ACT 1985 "We're just protecting Britains Economic Intrests" Directed by : The Multinational Corporations Starring : British Telecommunications PLC Micheal Howard, MP Your Civil Liberties The UK Phreak-core FEEL THE HORROR OF A LOCK IN TRACE... Coming to a DMSU near you SOON! Ahem. I Thank you. Taken from 'New Scientist' Magazine. ---=[ AZTECH ]=--- ITS YOUR LINE TO THE PHONE TAPPERS ================================== People who suspect that their telephone is being tapped can, from this week, do something about it. The new law on telephone tapping and mail opening, will allow people to take their suspicions to a tribunal of five lawyers, appointed by the Crown. The tribunal can investigate the complaint, and order the destruction of any material that has resulted from illegal or improper tapping of telephones. The tribunal is one of the main creations of the Interception of TeleCommunications Act 1985, which comes into force today (Thursday). The act sets out the terms and conditions for the issuing of warrants to permit official taps and letter opening. It also establishes a commissioner to prepare annual reports on tapping for the government, which can vet sensitive details before the details are published. According to the act, a secretary of state can issue a warrant "In the interests of National Security, for the purpose of preventing or detecting serious crime or for the purpose of safeguarding the economic well-being of The United Kingdom". The legislation results from a ruling in 1984 by the European Court of Human Rights. The court had listened to a complaint by an Antiques Dealer, James Malone, who had discovered that the police had monitored the destination of his calls. The court found The British Government guilty of breaching The European Convention on Human Rights, because, it said, Britain must have laws to control the interception of communications. The government believes that the act now fulfills the requirements of the European Convention. The National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is not so sure whether it adequately protects the privacy of individuals who attract the interest of government authorities such as the police, customs and excise and the security service, MI5. The NCCL points out that although the tribunal can investigate complaints, it will not tell an individual whether surveillance is being carried out unless it decides that the procedures for authorising and renewing warrants have been complied with. The Home Office, which prepared the legislation, says that the tribunal can operate effectively, with access to all the facts, only if its proceedings are in private and the information it recieves is not disclosed unless the person who gave it agrees. Any other system, says the Home Office, would "enable those involved in serious crime or espionage to confirm if their activities had come to notice". Under the act, a warrant for a telephone tap can cover not only a tap on one person's telephone, but also the telephones on a "set of premises" that may be used by a person or organisation. The NCCL believes that this phase make it possible for one warrant to cover many taps within an organisation - The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, for example. The official figures for the number of warrants issued for England, Wales and Scotland have declined from just over 500 in the mid 70's to 381 in 1984. The NCCL believes that the number of actual taps has been considerably greater than the number of warrants issued. Carrying out a telephone tap is technicaly simple. A tap can be placed at any point between one phone and another. In practise, official taps are usually placed at a telephone exchange, where calls are routed from one line to another. A team of engineers from British Telecom (BT), under the direction of the Home Office, has the job of placing the taps. Usually, an engineer places a jumper lead on the main distribution frame (MDF) of the exchange, where each individual circuit is wired across the exchange. Only a trained engineer would notice the extra jumper lead among the many hundreds of wires and leads of the exchange. Once a tap is in place, the tapper can connect it to any local or trunk circuit so that the conversation on the tapped line can be heard by a tapping centre many kilometres away. One such centre exists at Chantrey House near London's Victoria Station. About 800 circuits feed from the telephone network into the centre. Calls are recorded here on banks of tape recorders (New Scientists, 28 February 1985, p6). Recording and listening to Telephone Conversation is not the only method of telephonic surveillance. The Malone case proved that the police have ordered the monitoring of who calls whom. This is done by placing a "Meter Check Printer" (Or DNR... -=[AH]=-) on a telephone line. The instrument logs the numbers called from the line and the duration of the call. BT uses the system, from time to time, to check the accuracy of its bills. The police use the Information to find out whom a suspect is associating with. The new generation of Digital Exchanges, such as System X, that BT is now installing, will make tapping and logging far easier. System X can collect call-logging data automatically. The exchange is made up of modules, including a Call Accounting SubSystem (The CASS cpu in all System X Units -=[AH]=-). This derives the charging information for each call and sends it on to the computers that prepare the bills. Another part of System X, called the Man-Machine Interface SubSystem (MMI - -=[AH]=-) permits maintennance staff to monitor the quality of the circuits within the exchange. With the help of the Interface SubSystem this can be done many kilometres from the exchange. In effect, Telephone Conversations percolating through System X can be tapped remotely without the need for a team of engineers to enter the exchange to place the taps. The NCCL is worried that tapping and call-logging will increase because they are easier to set up with digital exchanges such as System X. If it is also becomes possible to transcribe tape recordings of telephone taps by computer, then this will help to eliminate what some see as the most important control on the number of taps that are placed : lack of manpower. The act caters for the wide spread tapping of international telecommunications traffic. This is done to protect the "economic well-being of the country". There is a centre in London that is capable of tapping International Calls at Caroone House in Farringdon Street, which is part of BT. International Tapping is carried out by the network investigation group of BT's International Operations Division. This Division liases closely with the governments eavedroppers at GCHQ in Cheltenham, who are responsible for intercepting and deciphering international telecommunications traffic. --=[ SD ]=-- --=[ SD ]=-- --=[ SD ]=-- --=[ SD ]=-- --=[ SD ]=--