Cyberespionage: Enemy Spies 'Befriend', Recruit And Steal Intel From Targets Through LinkedIn - British MI5

The British intelligence agency - MI5 warns that ‘hostile intelligence services’ are clandestinely targeting Government employees and valuable contacts through the popular social networking site - LinkedIn.

U.K. Intelligence Watchdog Defends Nation’s Bulk Data Spying As Necessary

LONDON — A British intelligence watchdog defended U.K. security agencies’ bulk online data collection on Thursday but called for a new law to clarify the agencies’ “intrusive powers” to help improve public trust.

The Spy Cables: A Glimpse Into The World of Espionage

A digital leak to Al Jazeera of hundreds of secret intelligence documents from the world's spy agencies has offered an unprecedented insight into operational dealings of the shadowy and highly politicised realm of global espionage.

U.K Spy Court Declares Information Sharing Between NSA And GCHQ Illegal

The UK's Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has ruled that the information sharing between the NSA and GCHQ was unlawful up until December 2014.

British Security Services Capable Of Bypassing Encryption, Draft Code Reveals

Britain’s security services have acknowledged they have the worldwide capability to bypass the growing use of encryption by internet companies by attacking the computers themselves.

UK Government 'Routinely' Spies OnLawyers

Legal policies which allow the UK intelligence agencies MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to access confidential privileged communications between lawyers and clients were disclosed in court today.

Islamist Terror Threat to West Blown Out of Proportion - Former MI6 Chief

The government and media have blown the Islamist terrorism threat out of proportion, giving extremists publicity which is counter-productive, a former head of Britain's intelligence service has said.

Sir Richard Dearlove, chief of MI6 at the time of the Iraq invasion, said there had been a fundamental change in the nature of Islamist extremism since the Arab Spring. It had created a major political problem in the Middle East but the west, including Britain, was only marginally affected, he told an audience in London on Monday.

Richard Dearlove said Britons spreading 'blood-curdling' terrorism messages should be ignored.

Unlike the threat posed by al-Qaida before and after the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001, the west was not the main target of the radical fundamentalism that created the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis), he said.

Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute, a security and defence thinktank, Dearlove made it clear that the way the government and the media were giving the extremists the "oxygen of publicity" was counter-productive.

More details soon …

Courtesy:
The Guardian

ISPs Take Legal Action Against British Spy Agency - GCHQ for 'Attacking International Infrastructure'

A coalition of international internet service providers (ISPs) and European hackers have filed a legal complaint against GCHQ for their “attacking and exploitation of network infrastructure”.

The complaint, lodged with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, claims that the British spy agency’s actions are “not only illegal, but are destructive [and] undermine the goodwill the organisations rely on.”
The complaint has been filed by Riseup (US), GreenNet (UK), Greenhost (Netherlands), Mango (Zimbabwe), Jinbonet (Korea), May First/People Link (US), the Chaos Computer Club (Europe’s largest association of hackers) and Privacy International.

Citing a number of articles from Der Spiegel and the Intercept, the companies accuse GCHQ of a number of damaging activites, including:
Targeting employees of Belgian telecommunications company Belgacom with malware through a highly developed attack named “Quantum Insert”
Using a number of “man on the side” attacks in collaboration with GCHQ to covertly inject data into existing connections to infect users
Creating an automated system named Turbine to control “millions of implants” by groups instead of as individuals Targeting three German internet exchange points with the NSA to spy on “all internet traffic coming through the nodes, and identify ‘important’ customers”
While the claimants were not named as direct targets in the Snowden leaks, they claim that “given the interconnectedness of the internet, the surveillance being carried out by GCHQ and NSA detailed in the articles could be carried out against any internet and communications providers."

Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, said: "These widespread attacks on providers and collectives undermine the trust we all place on the internet and greatly endangers the world's most powerful tool for democracy and free expression."
Privacy International has previously filed two other cases against GCHQ, with the most recent forcing the government to issue a 48-page statement defending its mass surveillance practices.

The Independent

President Obama sends CIA to UK to probe terrorist 'breeding ground' and growing 'lone wolf' terrorism

President Obama has sent  a special unit of CIA officers to the UK to investigate British Muslim extremists amid growing fears in Washington that we are becoming a ‘breeding ground’ for terrorism.

In a pointed snub to MI5, the agents arrived on a ‘lone wolf’ mission to interrogate senior security experts about the radicalisation of UK Muslims.

The mission has been revealed as UK security services have been forced to admit they are struggling to keep track of the estimated 500 Britons who have travelled to the Middle East to fight alongside the Islamic  Isis forces in Syria and Iraq.

It is unusual for the CIA to send a team to the UK: the agency usually relies on information passed to it by  MI5 or MI6 or by its agents stationed at the American Embassy in London.

Sources have told The Mail on Sunday that the agents were keen to establish the ‘stability’ of the relationship between the Sunni and Shia branches of Muslims in the UK. The fighters going out to join Isis have been British-based Sunnis, causing deepening tensions within the community.

Professor Anthony Glees, of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at Buckingham University, said the mission, which took place earlier this year, showed the level of concern in Washington over the issue, which he claimed was rooted in the UK’s ‘lax’ immigration policies.

‘The US is worried about the British situation. They fear there might be a knock-on effect for them,’ Prof Glees said.

‘The throat-cutting between Sunnis and Shias in Iraq and Syria has not yet spread to the UK, but it is a real threat. It is conceivable you could see Shia “hit squads” in Britain targeting Sunnis preparing to go out to the conflict zones to fight.’

He said: ‘The Americans regard the UK as a disaster because of our lax stance on immigration which has allowed this militancy to take hold.

‘Frankly, they would not be doing their jobs properly if it did not do this – forming an objective view of the situation outside of the reports they get from MI5 and their officers at the US Embassy in London.’

Last night a source at the CIA insisted British intelligence had been informed of ‘all outside contacts’ the agents made in  the UK.

However, the sources also admitted that the move revealed a growing lack of trust in Washington over MI5 and MI6’s ability to provide a reliable assessment of the security threat presented by young Muslims under the sway of imams who are radicalised and then recruited to fight in religious wars around the globe.

The Obama administration has become increasingly anxious that young American Muslims could follow the same pattern. There are strong links between British and American radicals and the sources say the CIA feels British efforts to identify and unmask them have been inadequate.

A CIA and a Home Office spokesman declined to comment.

Courtesy:
Daily Mail