VoIP stumps spooks
By Stuart Turton
Posted on 31 Jan 2008 at 08:25
The intelligence community has admitted that internet protocol communications are making it harder for the nation's spooks to spy on conversations.
The revelations are part of the annual Intelligence and Security oversight report, which analyses the issues facing the UK security services during the previous year.
"One of the greatest challenges for GCHQ is to maintain its intercept capability in the face of rapidly evolving communications technology," the report says. "This relates in particular to the growth in internet-based communications and voice over internet telephony."
The report then goes on to outline some of the specific challenges facing today's wire-tappers: "The internet uses a very different approach to communications, rather than having any sense of fixed lines, there is a big network with a number of nodes, but for any individual communicating, their communications are broken up into shorter packets," comments Sir David Pepper, director of GCHQ
"So whether you are sending an email or any other form of internet communication, anything you send is broken up into packets. These packets are then routed around the network and may go in any one of a number of different routes because the network is designed to be resilient... This [represents] the biggest change in telecoms technology since the invention of the telephone. It is a complete revolution."
The comments will make grim reading for Home Secretary Jacqui Smith who recently pledged to make the internet a "no-go" area for terrorists.
From around the web
advertisement
- Chrome's shine getting lost in translation
- BytePac: the cardboard hard disk enclosure
- How tech loosens our grip on reality
- Hokum watch: Safer Internet Day
- Why I'm deleting Adobe from my PC
- Prepare to be patronised: it's Safer Internet Day
- Dear Sony, Samsung and every other tech company in the world: stop trying to be Apple
- Will Apple's Final Cut Pro X update placate the pros?
- Smartr Contacts for iPhone review
- Switching to Office 365's Outlook Web App
- How to make Google AdWords work for your business
- The curse of sloppily written software
- Paying for your crimes with Bitcoin
- Behind the scenes: tech support for Formula 1
- The security risk of fat fingers
- Why Windows Phone 7 isn't quite ready for business
- When will Microsoft stop fiddling with Windows 8?
- Flash down the pan?
- Metro Style apps vs desktop applications
- Coping with Facebook changes
advertisement
