NO2ID

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/11 ... committee/

Top spook: ISP black boxes NOT key to UK's web-snoop plan

By Kelly Fiveash, Networks Correspondent

Posted in ID, 11th July 2012 08:55 GMT

Government-funded black boxes that monitor the UK's internet traffic are not "the cornerstone" of the Home Office's web super-snoop plan, a top spook has told MPs and peers.

Ex-MI6 man Charles Farr, who heads up the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, dismissed claims that Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) probes are the "central plank" of the government's Communications Data Bill currently being scrutinised by Parliament.

Instead, he insisted that cooperation with communications service providers (CSPs) such as Google and Facebook was key to the proposed surveillance legislation.

Police, spooks and the taxman - among other authorities - would need to use packet-capturing black boxes when CSPs declined to provide access to communications data where it is suspected that criminal activity has taken place, said Farr.

"We could in theory accept that there is a communication service used by criminals where we cannot access any data. But that is not the view of this government," he said, speaking at a committee meeting of the politicos on Tuesday afternoon.

If CSPs refuse to provide those authorities with access to such data, a black box would be placed on a network where such information could be hoovered up.

...

Farr told the committee that anything between 500 and 1,000 communication data requests could be submitted for an average murder investigation in the UK. He further explained that criminals would use multiple comms devices and, for example, regularly ditch mobile phones to avoid being sniffed out by police or spooks.

...

Bear with me I'm having a bear of little brain day and my figures may be wildly off

OK according to http://www.murderuk.com/misc_crime_stats.html

We are averaging around 767 murders per year over the last 10 years

Lets assume we average 750 communication data requests per murder

That gives us an average of 575250 communication data requests per year

Lets be generous and assume these are for separate individuals

Lets be even more generous and double it to soak up anti terrorist and other related requests so we get 1150500 requests per year

According to the ONS http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pop-estimate/population-estimates-for-uk--england-and-wales--scotland-and-northern-ireland/mid-2010-population-estimates/annual-mid-year-population-estimates--2010.pdf the population of the UK is around 62.3 million, lets be generous again and round that down to 60 million to cater for the very young, the very old and the luddites who communicate by waving flags

Divide one by t'other and you get 0.019 requests per person who communicates via any monitored means in the UK

This somehow justifies the expense and destruction of civil liberties involved with the blanket monitoring the communications of 60 million people ?

Lets be even more generous and say there's going to be a sudden increase in the number of requests for reasons entirely unrelated to wild speculation, fishing expeditions and corrupt officials digging dirt for pay and say there's going to be a nice round 2 million legitimate requests a year

We still only get 0.03 requests per person even with such a massive increase in the number of requests

How exactly is this justified financially ?

Only for unencrypted communications.

Well, it it saves the life of just ONE child BEFORE they are abducted and murder or catches a terrorist BEFORE they get a chance to plant a bomb then we are all for it.

Well that's Facebooks share price halved.

So Terrorists have to reveal their plans on Facebook?

Great plan!! Who's going to tell them?

I assume you lock your front door ?

Because if we just let the authorities wander in to our homes and search where they like as often as they like without needing a warrant then that would probably save the life of a child or catch a terrorist before they do anything.