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E-squad launched to crack criminal codes on the net
From: mea culpa <jericho () DIMENSIONAL COM>
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 16:59:42 -0600
Forwarded From: Zombie Cow <waste () zor hut fi> Originally From: Caspar Bowden <cb () fipr org> Originally To: "Ukcrypto (E-mail)" <ukcrypto () maillist ox ac uk> http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/observer/uk_news/story/0,3879,79397,00.html E-squad launched to crack criminal codes on the net Government starts £20 million anti-encryption force amid claims that US has Windows super key Richard Reeves, Society Editor Sunday September 5, 1999 A specialist code-cracking unit is being set up to counter the growing use of encrypted e-mail messages by drug-runners and paedophile rings. The unit, with funding of £15-20 million, will draw staff from the Government's communications centres at GCHQ - but will also headhunt top code designers from the private sector. 'You could compare it to cracking the Enigma code during World War Two,' said one senior Government source. 'We need an Alan Turing for the Internet age.' Big salaries will be offered to lure high-flying programmers into the unit, which will be given a deliberately anodyne name - almost certainly the Government Telecommunications Advisory Centre. 'The major criminal organisations, especially the drugs cartels, are incredibly sophisticated. They have the money to have whole departments working on codes. For now the encryption problem is not huge - but it is going to grow and we need to be ready for it,' said the source. Combined with fingerprint access, encrypted e-mail messages are likely to become the communication of choice for serious criminals, according to the intelligence services. Legitimate businesses are also poised to use encryption to protect market-sensitive information, with two-thirds of firms saying that security fears were the biggest barrier to joining the e-commerce revolution, according to a Department of Trade and Industry survey. Since the Government abandoned plans to force all users of encryption to deposit a key with a 'trusted third party' - a move fiercely opposed by business - attention has focused on beefing up the detection of electronic data by law enforcement agencies. 'We are ending up with one of the most liberal regimes in the world,' said a DTI official. 'This makes interception of messages and rapid decoding vital.' Experts at the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), which will also provide staff and support for the unit, said that gathering real-time information was crucial to the police and customs. 'Given enough time and computer power, most codes can be cracked,' an NCIS expert said. 'But cracking a code two weeks after a message has been intercepted is more often than not completely useless, given that details of deals, time and place, are what we need. Real-time information is gold-dust.' [snip...] ISN is sponsored by Security-Focus.COM
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