“How many of you here have an iPhone, a Blackberry or any other mobile device?'' WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asked surveying a hall full of people at the City University here on Thursday. As hand after hand went up, he told them that everyone of them, irrespective of what kind of mobile device they carried, was a potential target of spying.
This was how stark the threat from a booming multi-billion dollar global mass surveillance industry was, Mr. Assange said as he released a cache of 287 files providing a rare glimpse into how the industry was operating without any checks.
The Spy Files, spanning 25 countries, are first of a series of sensitive data that WikiLeaks plans to publish in coming months.
“Working with Bugged Planet and Privacy International, as well as media organisations from six countries – ARD in Germany, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism in the UK, The Hindu in India, L'Espresso in Italy, OWNI in France and the Washington Post in the U.S. Wikileaks is shining a light on this secret industry that has boomed since September 11, 2001 and is worth billions of dollars per year. WikiLeaks has released 287 documents today [Thursday], but the Spy Files project is ongoing and further information will be released this week and into next year,'' Mr. Assange said at a crowded press conference.
N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, speaking through a video-link, expressed concern over a fast growing and completely unregulated surveillance industry in India. At least two Indian companies were selling surveillance technology without any regulation.
“We are very concerned about our privacy violations,'' he said.
Mr. Ram said that working with WikiLeaks had been a “very valuable experience.” The issue highlighted by WikiLeaks was of “great international significance'' and of “significance to India.”
Mr. Assange said that it might sound like something out of Hollywood but mass interception systems built by Western “intelligence contractors'' were a reality. Over the past decade, the surveillance industry had grown from a covert operation which primarily supplied equipment to government intelligence agencies such as the NSA in America and Britain's GCHQ, into a huge transnational business.
Dramatically illustrating the threat, Mr. Assange said that potentially everyone who carried any mobile device was a sitting duck for anyone wanting to spy on them. The threat to investigative journalism from these new and covert surveillance techniques was particularly dire.
“The only way we are going to win this war is by developing counter-surveillance systems,'' he said.
WikiLeaks, which itself has been a victim of surveillance by intelligence agencies and their proxies and has had its site hacked, is in the process of developing a more secure system to submit information to the site.
Mr. Assange said that international surveillance companies were based in the more technologically sophisticated countries, and sold their technology to every country of the world. Intelligence agencies, military forces and police authorities were able to silently and secretly intercept calls and take over computers without the help or knowledge of the telecommunication providers.
Experts who worked on the files called for new laws to regulate export of surveillance technology.
“Western governments cannot stand idly by while this technology is still being sold,” said Eric King of the Privacy International campaign group.
Jacob Appelbaum, a computer expert at the University of Washington, said the systems revealed in the files were as deadly as murder weapons.
“These systems have been sold by Western companies to places for example like Syria, and Libya and Tunisia and Egypt. These systems are used to hunt people down and to murder,” he said, while Pratap Chatterjee of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism said a French firm offered to sell such systems to the erstwhile Qadhafi regime to spy on dissidents living in Britain.
Mr. Assange warned that with entire populations being subjected to surveillance nobody anywhere in the world was safe anymore.
“In traditional spy stories, intelligence agencies like MI5 bug the phone of one or two people of interest. In the last 10 years systems for indiscriminate, mass surveillance have become the norm. Intelligence companies such as VASTech secretly sell equipment to permanently record the phone calls of entire nations. Others record the location of every mobile phone in a city, down to 50 metres. Systems to infect every Facebook user, or smart-phone owner of an entire population group are on the intelligence market,'' said a statement on official WikiLeaks Spy Files site.
Keywords: The Hindu, WikiLeaks, SpyFiles, espionage technologies, spying on citizens, CCISat, Indian spy satellite
Had these devices been used to trace out the potential farmers and other disadvantaged individuals contemplating suicides because of their miserable living conditions brought out by wrong government policies, that could possibly save the lives of thousands in our country.
If these Spy Technologies are proliferating freely as per the report, thanks to the HINDU, we need to take stock of the situation and People groups need to intervene and take appropriate measures to stop this menace. People are born in this Planet to Live freely and happily, not have a Damocles Sword over your head by a section of anti people Governments and Cheap MNC's which want to profiteer by selling Technology for the wrong purpose. Such technology created by Govts for their Military or Intelligence need to be rightly harnessed for sincere efforts of tracing Criminals, not the general public. Companies that openly profit from sales of such tech for the highest bidder need to be closed down and given the ban order strictly. Man's Freedom on this Planet should never be compromised and No Govt should be allowed to play GOD!
Why is it that nobody is criticising the government which has put a mobile phone in every hand and is apparently doing nothing about its misuse? It is not for the Supreme Court to put an end to the misuse. It is the government which is responsible for national and individual security.
It seems law has to keep pace with the technological advancements in the area of communication and surveillance intelligence in order to protect peoples right to privacy and their personal information in the form of data being collected by the likes of government and funded organizations, public or private ones for various purposes from being abused by unscrupulous powers. Well laid out distinctions between 'directed', 'intrusive' and 'covert' surveillance should be in place so as to ensure that those operations are backed by legal authorizations strengthened by responsible legislations. In order to preserve the welfare of the nation,its interests and integrity and also to safeguard the fundamental rights of its citizens the regulatory and enforcement laws regarding surveillance and communication tech. Should be up to date and on par with the advancements in that field lest they become obsolete and redundant.
this technology is was created to intercept the terrorist cells in a country. I think it would be virtually impossible to intercept such groups unless we have this technology. Wasn't the terrorist group that attacked the parliament in 2001 found out using the mobile phone, or that they could not trace them using because of faulty standards.We are living in a time of desperate times and it calls for desperate measures.I would just hope that the access to such records are strictly limited only to the intelligence agencies in a need to know basis and only for security measures.
Agree with Pramod. This is old news. I really did not need Julian Assange to tell me this.
We regret such advanced technologies were not available at 1961 in Vienna when President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev met after the debalce of "Bay of Pigs" episode. The newspaper articles describe "a dazed young American President coming out of the talks alongwith the Russian Premier a person twice the age of him" and the private comment of Kennedy, "He beat the hell out of me" and also he later told NYT reporter it was the "worst thing in my life. He ravaged me." We also wish to know what was the private expressions of Mr.Obama about Mr.Netanyahu after Israeli P.M. lectured over television to "American President at considerable length and at times condescendingly, on Jewish history, Arab perfidy and the existential challenges facing his country". We know from another newspaper headline "Robert Gates Says Israel Is an Ungrateful Ally." The truth is out. We are eager to know the true character of the human beings. We praise Wikileaks and The Hindu who made us clever.
The Hindu is doing great job by publishing such useful and eye opening articles in association with Wikileaks.
I feel now Supreme Court should intervene in this matter and protect citizens right.
What's the big deal? If somebody of any consequence doesn't know that his/her internet or mobile footprints are accessible to others, he/she is a fool. This stoy is pure ballyhoo! You don't need a Wikipedia to tell you this and a Hindu to report this. Haven't we often heard people getting arrested or rackets getting busted using intercepted information or tip off? The accompanying story by Praveen Swamy is stretching it to unreadable levels - with wikipedia type historical information on spying. Silly.
This is something which this man Assange also does - spying. He can clarify the kind of tools that he uses as well. So what is he trying to prove?
For safety from destructive terrorism, such methods will have to be followed by Governments to gather intelligence. For sure, there will be protocols against misuse but you can never say as long as individuals are morally corrupt.
Well this is something that needs immediate attention,however this process has been going on for quite some time under the radar,now it has come under light,nations need to sit together to draft some effective strategic measures against id,so that it can be put to control....
Technology should be allowed to innovate further and further so that there is a situation where Mr. X tries to trace the activities of Mr.Y and Mr.Y thinks harder and find out more ways to outsmart the snooping done by Mr.X. In the final confusion society members will become more transparent and accountable to others. We,the ordinary people, will be the beneficiaries of the advancement in technlogy because today politicians are talking onething and doing somethingelse considering us as fools. We all had a hearty laugh reading the Wikileaks -cables from Foreign Mission offices-naming the politicians' private talks and their comments. Good luck and Three Cheers to Wikileaks and their collabators in the Press all over the world.
It's high time Govt to curtail this nuisance with appropriate legal
framework
Hacking in all means were known to everyone, its not the government to take action but it should be taken by the people of India. Stop buying blackberries and stuff like that who are in the top positions. Try to use an external hard disk to store sensitive information's and while connecting to internet eject hard disk and browse. Talk in person the confidential things or sent via Indian postal service by writing or else can be sent by giving to someone to hand over the letter. Now we guys are just playing some blaming game by forgetting the responsibility.
But FOR THE HINDU many people would not have had the chance of knowing the other
side--the evil side--of the communication technology.The need of the hour is "protecting
ourselves as humanbeings in general & AuStrian citizen in particular. The matter deserves
attention & action at par with the" nuclear non proliferation"'/AIDSprevention and the
likes..UN should voluntarily comeforward ,and initiate formulation and execution of treaties
to prevent the evil effects.As an interim measure Govt of India should callfor public opinion
and ensure the safety of the nation.Through this column a appeal to the technocrats and
scientists of our country to come forward without any reservation of mind in finding a
solution or prventive measures for this catastrophic effect.
Why can't the authorities use these so-called-technologies for the
common good? Corruption scams and crime rates are mounting at an
alarming rate in India and abroad. Had these systems been this
sophisticated and powerful to detect every movement of an
"individual", numerous plots and frauds could have been uncovered. Or
is it that the culprits are actually aware about these "systems" and
are cunningly avoiding it thereby imposing it on the vulnerable
majority of commoners?
Hindu deserves an applause for joining hands with Wikileaks in
bringing out the truth.
I really appreciate the move taken by the Hindu. In real sence this is violation of Fundamental rights of our liberty. I hope that this would ring a bell to the ears of Human right commission and other NGOs. Use of spying technology for interrogation and National defence purpose is valid for finding the truth but for spying a person for personal or for taking any undue advantage by authorities is highly inappropriate and a strick law should be immediately formed for its purposeful use.
Putting controls will be counterproductive for any modern technology. a case for instance is the so called Gun Control Law in the U.S.A, which works only to prevent legitimate use even by the Police force. Any modern technology is like double edged blade, which can be used for shaving or cutting a throat. ordinary people like you and me may not get affected. but the rich and powerful who will have to contend with the greedy and envious lot will only start worrying!!
The Hindu is doing a highly commendable job in collaboration with WikiLeaks. Now it's upto the Supreme Court to take it up voluntarily as it's the watchdog of our constitution and should also protect our rights.
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