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Whistleblower uncovers London police hacking of journalists and protestors

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Re: Whistleblower uncovers London police hacking of journalists and protestors

#121

Post by upofadown »

acd wrote: post #49

Its an issue when you self censor opinions which deviate from the mass. It also an issue of freedom of press. The government know who you talk to through metadata collection even if you use encryption.

>The government know who you talk to through metadata collection even if you use encryption.

Not as much these days. Even SMTP uses opportunistic encryption between email servers. So it takes a number of emails to make a statistical inference based on timing if there is any amount of traffic.

Re: Whistleblower uncovers London police hacking of journalists and protestors

#122

Post by dTal »

>The Bindmans LLP law firm, acting on behalf of Jones, contacted six of those listed to verify their passwords (the others could not be traced). In response, five of the six gave passwords that matched those given in the letter, and the sixth was nearly a match.

Well jeez no wonder they were hacked if they're that easy to socially engineer. "Verify my password? That's funny, you're the third one this month..."

Re: Whistleblower uncovers London police hacking of journalists and protestors

#123

Post by ionised »

andy_ppp wrote: post #17
Kenji wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's futile now, just wait until they grow even stronger. It's now or never.

And do what exactly? Go to a protest? It doesn't work and never has; most people are content just by reading The Daily Hate. They already won.

> Go to a protest? It doesn't work and never has;

The civil rights movements of the last century are proof that it does in fact work when enough people engage.

Re: Whistleblower uncovers London police hacking of journalists and protestors

#124

Post by jimnotgym »

richmarr wrote: post #70
cies wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The UK is hardly an autocracy. Not only autocracies do this kind of evil. Especially now that the (deeps state) ruling class consists mainly of capitalist, you can see that the police targeting dissidents fits a clear motive.

> Especially now that the (deeps state) ruling class consists ... Sorry I don't think you should state conspiracy theories as fact without someone calling you on it. There are reasons for police to spy on activists (even illegally) without needing to assert the existence of a "deep state" EDIT: to clarify, above where I say "reasons" I mean just that, not "reasons that I necessarily agree with"

In Canada Police spied on journalists who were investigating police corruption https://www.cpj.org/blog/2017/02/surveillance-of-journalists...

Re: Whistleblower uncovers London police hacking of journalists and protestors

#125

Post by ionised »

ak4g wrote: post #56
acd wrote: post #49

Its an issue when you self censor opinions which deviate from the mass. It also an issue of freedom of press. The government know who you talk to through metadata collection even if you use encryption.

I find myself self-censoring on topics like this, not because of what I (don't) fear is being done by authorities, but because I can't help but to note that we're not, in fact, living in some Orwellian dystopia, and that seemingly the surveillance that is being done is promulgating a safe and stable society, but not toeing the sky-is-falling line doesn't do much for those numbers by my username. Meanwhile, there are…

> surveillance that is being done is promulgating a safe and stable society

Evidence?

Re: Whistleblower uncovers London police hacking of journalists and protestors

#126

Post by cies »

jimnotgym wrote: post #124
richmarr wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Especially now that the (deeps state) ruling class consists ... Sorry I don't think you should state conspiracy theories as fact without someone calling you on it. There are reasons for police to spy on activists (even illegally) without needing to assert the existence of a "deep state" EDIT: to clarify, above where I say "reasons" I mean just that, not "reasons that I necessarily agree with"

In Canada Police spied on journalists who were investigating police corruption https://www.cpj.org/blog/2017/02/surveillance-of-journalists...

Cases dissident surveillance are all over the internet:

https://www.google.nl/search?q=surveillance+of+activists

https://www.google.nl/search?q=surveillance+of+dissidents

Re: Whistleblower uncovers London police hacking of journalists and protestors

#127

Post by ionised »

DanBC wrote: post #92
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And those reasons would be... what? These are people with political views the government disapproves of. They are not bomb-throwing anarchists or people with a history of violence. They are not organising or threatening acts of public violence. This is entirely a free speech issue.

Environmental groups had plans to shut down nuclear reactors by blocking water cooling pipes in the sea. Animal rights protestors have firebombed[1] several UK department stores (for selling fur), and abattoirs and milk distribution depots; dug up a corpse from a grave and held the body hostage; rescued animals from labs and caused damage to the labs; Far right groups have rallies that attract considerable violence;…

That is not terrorism, it's criminal damage.

Re: Whistleblower uncovers London police hacking of journalists and protestors

#128

Post by RubenSandwich »

dTal wrote: post #122

>The Bindmans LLP law firm, acting on behalf of Jones, contacted six of those listed to verify their passwords (the others could not be traced). In response, five of the six gave passwords that matched those given in the letter, and the sixth was nearly a match. Well jeez no wonder they were hacked if they're that easy to socially engineer. "Verify my password? That's funny, you're the third one this month..."

I think your selling the victims short here. The law firm could of been more discrete. e.g. "Hello X, We are investigating a case involving the government hacking journalists. You are a person of interest in this case. The government records show that your password is Y. Can you confirm or deny that this was your password around the dates Z?"

Re: Whistleblower uncovers London police hacking of journalists and protestors

#129

Post by deadbunny »

dTal wrote: post #122

>The Bindmans LLP law firm, acting on behalf of Jones, contacted six of those listed to verify their passwords (the others could not be traced). In response, five of the six gave passwords that matched those given in the letter, and the sixth was nearly a match. Well jeez no wonder they were hacked if they're that easy to socially engineer. "Verify my password? That's funny, you're the third one this month..."

Blaming the victims? Really?

Re: Whistleblower uncovers London police hacking of journalists and protestors

#130

Post by dTal »

RubenSandwich wrote: post #128
dTal wrote: post #122

>The Bindmans LLP law firm, acting on behalf of Jones, contacted six of those listed to verify their passwords (the others could not be traced). In response, five of the six gave passwords that matched those given in the letter, and the sixth was nearly a match. Well jeez no wonder they were hacked if they're that easy to socially engineer. "Verify my password? That's funny, you're the third one this month..."

I think your selling the victims short here. The law firm could of been more discrete. e.g. "Hello X, We are investigating a case involving the government hacking journalists. You are a person of interest in this case. The government records show that your password is Y. Can you confirm or deny that this was your password around the dates Z?"

Well, at the very least, "the sixth was nearly a match" is pretty damning.

"Nono, you've got it wrong, MY password is hunterTHREE - you see there was this incident..."

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