Tuesday 12 December 2017

Another toothless wonder? Why the UK.gov's data ethics centre needs clout • The Register

Another toothless wonder? Why the UK.gov's data ethics centre needs clout • The Register: "Again, aside from the fact it would be refreshing to see the government choose someone who isn't a white man pushing 50 for this kind of role, it would breathe a bit of life into the body, and increase its reputation among those watching, if the government looked outside the usual pool of suspects.

 "There are a lot of examples of similar, private, bodies in the US, many of which are led by female tech execs," said Veale, such as danah boyd's Data & Society. "It would be good to have that kind of fresh person, rather than a senior civil servant or a one-day-a-month academic."

 Because fundamentally, it doesn't matter how well the centre's piece fits into the data reg jigsaw if no one listens to what it says.

If it ends up as just another fusty academic unit lacking the requisite backbone to speak truth to power, it will have been a wasted effort and a wasted opportunity. " 'via Blog this'

Friday 8 December 2017

Electrospaces.net: INCENSER, or how NSA and GCHQ are tapping internet cables

Electrospaces.net: INCENSER, or how NSA and GCHQ are tapping internet cables: "The secret GCHQ documents about these cable tapping operations only refer to the cooperating telecommunications provider with the cover name GERONTIC. The real name is protected by STRAP 2 dissemination restrictions. But nonetheless, German media already revealed that GERONTIC is Cable & Wireless last year.

In july 2012, Cable & Wireless Worldwide was taken over by Vodafone for 1.04 billion pounds, but according to the GCHQ documents, the covername GERONTIC was continued, and was seen active until at least April 2013.

 According to the press reports, GCHQ had access to 63 undersea internet cables, 29 of which with the help of GERONTIC. This accounted for about 70% of the total amount of internet data that GCHQ had access to in 2009.

Cable & Wireless was involved in these 29 cables, either because it had Direct Cable Ownership (DCO), an Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) or Leased Capacity (LC). Besides that, the GCHQ Cable Master List from 2009 lists GERONTIC also as a landing partner for the following nine cables" 'via Blog this'