11 Dec UK Spy Agencies to Increase ‘Large Scale Data Hacking’
UK’s intelligence agency GCHQ is reportedly planning to ramp up the use of its “bulk equipment interference (EI) regime” which it uses to collect bulk data off foreign communications networks.
In a recent letter from the security minister, Ben Wallace, to the head of the intelligence and security committee, Dominic Grieve, the spy agency says that targeted collection is no longer enough and would need to conduct a higher proportion of ongoing overseas focused operational activity.
The move alarmed privacy advocates such as Scarlet Kim, a legal officer at UK civil liberties group Liberty International who said that the bulk EI regime gives nearly unfettered powers to the intelligence services to decide who and when to hack.
Source: Gizmodo
