6 ms·

Man, what's going on with the UK? This is straight out of 1984. See also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=388300 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=388300

Man, what's going on with the UK? This is straight out of 1984. See also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=388300 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=388300 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=334321 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=334321

m0nty 18y ago
Unfortunately, people have forgotten what the thin end of a wedge looks like. Example: the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 provided that security personnel at the level of "Chief Inspector of Police" or above could provide authorisation to monitor communications for the prevention of "serious crime or terrorism." Actual legislation, as it now stands: officials in town halls up and down the country use the same powers with little oversight, to monitor people for offences as trivial as lying on their school application form, fly-tipping and (soon) minor traffic misdemeanours such as parking on a yellow line. Unfortunately, we're not alone: this is an EU measure, and other countries such as India, Australia and the US are, let's face it, just as culpable and opposed to genuine online freedom. BTW, I'd like to see them use these techniques (virus-laden emails, key-loggers, wireless hacking) to get into any sufficiently tech-savvy user's computer.
- dfranke 18y ago
  Key loggers can be tough to beat. While getting a software key-logger past me would be laborious (set BIOS password-reset jumper on motherboard, enable CD boot in BIOS, boot from rescue CD, figure out my RAID settings so you can mount my root partition, install key-logger and kernel rootkit to hide the process, restore what my desktop looked like so that I don't notice), it's pretty likely that I wouldn't notice a physical one before it was too late.
  - m0nty 18y ago
    I use a laptop all the time, so I was wondering if they had any other ways to physically bug a keyboard?
    - dfranke 18y ago
      There are probably key-loggers designed to be placed inside laptops, but, not being a black-hat, I've never seen or looked for one. In any case, it'd be a lot more difficult. The cop would have to be trained in how to perform the installation in a reasonable period of time.
    - elai 18y ago
      There are lots of laptop keyboard loggers. The real convert ones embed them in the keyboard by putting it between some connector or another. Laptop and desktop. You just need 10 minutes if your good.
axod 18y ago
Once Labour get kicked out things will return to sanity. Do bear in mind how the media does like to massively overblow and exaggerate everything though.
- abstractbill 18y ago
  Once Labour get kicked out things will return to sanity. Unfortunately I doubt it. That's exactly what we all said when we kicked the Tories out.
  - daniel-cussen 18y ago
    Kick the ruling party out every four years and things may get better.
    - buro9 18y ago
      Unfortunately I doubt it, the government is always in power.
    - jamii 18y ago
      We've only got two of them...
  - axod 18y ago
    I disagree on that. I would have much preferred the Tories to stay in, but with a strong leader. John Major wasn't that person. He was a lame ineffective duck, just as Brown is now. At least taxes are very likely to come down under Tories, less smaller government, less needless waste etc. Maybe they'll get rid of some of the things Labour have put in place like the regional assemblies, minimum wage, endless tax credits etc

m0nty 18y ago

Unfortunately, people have forgotten what the thin end of a wedge looks like. Example: the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 provided that security personnel at the level of "Chief Inspector of Police" or above could provide authorisation to monitor communications for the prevention of "serious crime or terrorism." Actual legislation, as it now stands: officials in town halls up and down the country use the same powers with little oversight, to monitor people for offences as trivial as lying on their school application form, fly-tipping and (soon) minor traffic misdemeanours such as parking on a yellow line. Unfortunately, we're not alone: this is an EU measure, and other countries such as India, Australia and the US are, let's face it, just as culpable and opposed to genuine online freedom. BTW, I'd like to see them use these techniques (virus-laden emails, key-loggers, wireless hacking) to get into any sufficiently tech-savvy user's computer.

dfranke 18y ago
Key loggers can be tough to beat. While getting a software key-logger past me would be laborious (set BIOS password-reset jumper on motherboard, enable CD boot in BIOS, boot from rescue CD, figure out my RAID settings so you can mount my root partition, install key-logger and kernel rootkit to hide the process, restore what my desktop looked like so that I don't notice), it's pretty likely that I wouldn't notice a physical one before it was too late.
- m0nty 18y ago
  I use a laptop all the time, so I was wondering if they had any other ways to physically bug a keyboard?
  - dfranke 18y ago
    There are probably key-loggers designed to be placed inside laptops, but, not being a black-hat, I've never seen or looked for one. In any case, it'd be a lot more difficult. The cop would have to be trained in how to perform the installation in a reasonable period of time.
  - elai 18y ago
    There are lots of laptop keyboard loggers. The real convert ones embed them in the keyboard by putting it between some connector or another. Laptop and desktop. You just need 10 minutes if your good.

axod 18y ago

Once Labour get kicked out things will return to sanity. Do bear in mind how the media does like to massively overblow and exaggerate everything though.

abstractbill 18y ago
Once Labour get kicked out things will return to sanity. Unfortunately I doubt it. That's exactly what we all said when we kicked the Tories out.
- daniel-cussen 18y ago
  Kick the ruling party out every four years and things may get better.
  - buro9 18y ago
    Unfortunately I doubt it, the government is always in power.
  - jamii 18y ago
    We've only got two of them...
- axod 18y ago
  I disagree on that. I would have much preferred the Tories to stay in, but with a strong leader. John Major wasn't that person. He was a lame ineffective duck, just as Brown is now. At least taxes are very likely to come down under Tories, less smaller government, less needless waste etc. Maybe they'll get rid of some of the things Labour have put in place like the regional assemblies, minimum wage, endless tax credits etc