'Black boxes' to monitor all internet and phone data

xxMATTGxx · 30-06-2012, 10:15 PM

Internet and phone firms are preparing to install "black boxes" to monitor UK internet and phone traffic, and decode encrypted messages - including Facebook and GMail messages.

As part of the Home Office's communications data bill, internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile phone companies will be obliged to collect communications records and keep them for a year.

The government has insisted that the actual content of messages won't be stored, but until now it has not been clear how communications companies will be able to separate content from "header data", such as the sender and recipient of a message, and the date it was sent.

It has now emerged that the Home Office has held meetings with the UK's largest ISPs and mobile network operators, and has given them information about the hardware which companies will have to use to monitor traffic flowing through their systems.

When an individual uses a webmail service such as Gmail, for example, the entire webpage is encrypted before it is sent. This makes it impossible for ISPs to distinguish the content of the message. Under the Home Office proposals, once the Gmail is sent, the ISPs would have to route the data via a government-approved "black box" which will decrypt the message, separate the content from the "header data", and pass the latter back to the ISP for storage.

Dominic Raab, a Conservative MP who has criticised the bill, said: "The use of data mining and black boxes to monitor everyone's phone, email and web-based communications is a sobering thought that would give Britain the most intrusive surveillance regime in the west. But, many technical experts are raising equally serious doubts about its feasibility and vulnerability to hacking and other abuse."

A representative of the ISPs Association said: "We understand that government wants to move with the times, and we want to work with them on that. But this is a massive project. We'd rather they told us what they want to achieve, then sit down with us to work out how."

"Our other main concern with this is speed. If you're having to route all traffic through one box, it's going to cut down on connection speeds. The hardware can only look at a certain amount of traffic per second - if lots of streams from the BBC iPlayer are going through it, for example, how is it going to handle the traffic?"

A Home Office spokesman said -

"We have not issued any hardware or software specifications.

"The communications data bill is designed to allow the police to maintain their capability to catch criminals and protect the public as technology changes and people use more modern communications. Under this programme the emphasis is to work with industry to determine the best way to achieve this.

"The legislation is currently being scrutinised by parliament. Once it has been passed will we work with companies on how to best collect and store communications data, but not the content."

http://www.channel4.com/news/black-b...and-phone-data

Sounds a bit like China....

Suspective · 01-07-2012, 07:17 AM

Its totally unnecessary and going to put the price of internet up. If ISPs are going to have to buy and develop the hardware and software required to do this.

Not sure how long it will take to be implemented (if it is). Plus its far to Big Brother. I really don't see why our government need to see us on CCTV, and now see who we're phoning and browsing.

**Recursion** · 01-07-2012, 08:40 AM

Originally Posted by Suspective

Its totally unnecessary and going to put the price of internet up. If ISPs are going to have to buy and develop the hardware and software required to do this.

Not sure how long it will take to be implemented (if it is). Plus its far to Big Brother. I really don't see why our government need to see us on CCTV, and now see who we're phoning and browsing.

ISPs don't have to pay, the problem is no matter what hardware you put there to do the inspection, it's going to be a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge bottleneck for any user of that ISP.

**Richie** · 01-07-2012, 09:26 AM

This is crazy. I thought Ireland was going to be bad after we signed the ACTA treaty but nothing has changed just yet. Why hasn't been an uproar about this yet? from what I've seen from online, people just seem to be accepting it.

If the internet is going to be monitored across the UK surely torrents and other downloads will become restricted?

**Recursion** · 01-07-2012, 05:31 PM

Originally Posted by Richie

This is crazy. I thought Ireland was going to be bad after we signed the ACTA treaty but nothing has changed just yet. Why hasn't been an uproar about this yet? from what I've seen from online, people just seem to be accepting it.

If the internet is going to be monitored across the UK surely torrents and other downloads will become restricted?

The volume of traffic in the UK will be far too much for our government to handle, they'll see the problem when they decide to implement it.

peteyt · 01-07-2012, 05:41 PM

It's a bad idea - Internet is too slow for me right now and would be even slower if all my data was being grabbed.

And as mentioned there's always the chance of a security leak, hackers stealing important data

Fifty-Six · 01-07-2012, 07:14 PM

Hopefully this doesn't spread to Canada... seems like a huge invasion of privacy.

Samantha · 01-07-2012, 07:37 PM

Don't agree with this at all or see a point in it, there's a thing called privacy and I'd like to feel safe on the internet and on my phone but I wouldn't if/when this is introduced. Like said before what happens if someone hacks them will it still decrypt or will it still be unknown what it says etc.?