Data Misuse: Police

December 22, 2008 — 585

Police Officer Amerdeep Singh Johal has been sentenced to 6 years in jail for blackmail.

Johal, pictured, was using one of the Met Police’s intelligence databaPC Johalse to blackmail sex offenders. Pc Amerdeep Singh Johal was demanding money from the offenders for his “co-operation”.

While the police have investigated and convicted this man, quite rightly, it appears it is another example of data guardians misusing the information.

The police stated that “There are strict guidelines in place regarding the use of intelligence databases and if anyone abuses it that is taken extremely seriously.”.

But the reality is that this occurs more often then we would hope, or others are willing to admit:

In 2008 there were two cases of police officers accessing data for their own purposes. One police officer used information to harass and intimidate an innocent woman; another used his access to criminal records to gain access about his partners’ family.

In 2008 the Liverpool Lib Dem council obtained the phone records of the leader of the council opposition

In 2008  councillors used the RIPA Act to put a family undersurvellience, including being followed, to see which school they should attend.

In 2007 CCTV operators in Cardiff turned the cameras onto people’s homes and hotel rooms when they were supposed to be guarding the Welsh Assembly.

In 2006 council CCTV operators were involved in taking zoomed in photos of people appearing in naked in photo shoots.

In 2005 CCTV council operators in the UK used their cameras to repeatedly spy on a woman in her house and bedroom.

in 2005 NCP CCTV operators were accused of filming a couple having sex and copying the film onto DVD.

In 2004 police, along with a private detective agency, were involved in illegal phone tapes.

In 2002 a BT employee was involved in tapping a celebrity’s phone

In 2002 a WPC used police databases to locate a woman she believed was having an affair with her husband

 

 

 

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Bar: Data Theft

December 21, 2008 — 585

The Bar Council has been the victim of data theft, in this case it is literally a case of theft of a computers containing the data.

The theft occurred on 12th December 2008, in the Holburn Office of the Bar Council.

Despite the usual protestations of the data controllers, who were the victims of the data theft, the data does not appear to have been secured with Encryption

The data contains information about Barristers names and home addresses, which will probably be of some concern for barristers involved in prosecuting criminals, as that data is now in the hands of criminals (though they may not know that, or have the wherewithal to even access the data), but that will not provide much comfort to the Barristers involved!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Data Matching for Financial Transactions

November 25, 2008 — 585

UK law enforcement agencies are stepping up the use of data matching to trap money launderers and terrorist finance operations using information gleaned from the Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) which banks and other financial institutions are required to file.

The development is revealed in the latest report on SARs activity from the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which said that the acquisition of further data matching tools by the UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) will enable the bulk export and import of data and “allow a better, more timely and proactive service to be provided to law enforcement”.

The annual report issued on behalf of the SARs Regime Committee insisted that the activity meets the requirements of the Data Protecction Act.

But it revealed the intention to widen its scope and invite suggestions for data matching exercises “from a wide range of bodies, beyond the traditional law enforcement community. The UKFIU will select the data sets to match on a case by case basis.”

It urged “reporters”, including accountants, financial advisers, money changers and others as well as the banks and financial institutions, to provide “full and correct data [in the datasets used for matching and in the information submitted in SARs] to assist with this and ensure the effectiveness of such exercises”.

The vast majority of reporters now file SARs electronically, and the committee has dropped plans to require this from the remaining handful using paper methods.

The UKFIU has launched a procurement process to increase the use of IT to enhance activity in a “SARs transformation” process due to be rolled out next year

Source

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Lectures: Evidence and Procedure

November 23, 2008 — 585

Lectures on Evidence and Procedure

Lecture 1: Legislation and Procedures: Civil and Criminal Laws

Lecture 2: Evidence, Exhibits, and Chain of Custody

Lecture 3: Legislation and Procedures: Search and Seizure

Lecture 4: Legislation and Procedures: Planing an Investigation and Ethics

Lecture 5: Evidence and Procedure: Court Systems

Lecture 6: Evidence and Procedure Practical

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FTI Buys Attenex (June 2008)

November 22, 2008 — 585

FTI bought Attenex in June 2008 for $88 million. This follows on, and fits in well, with their previous purchase of RingTail. FTI now have both linear analytical/clustering review technologies in house.

As FTI took RingTail off the market to service providers (a decision which was later reversed), it will be interesting to see how those who intend to purchase Attenex will behave.

 

The acquisition, which is expected to close in the third quarter, will add to earnings in 2009, the company said.

The Seattle-based Attenex, which had revenue of about $25 million in 2007, provides software that automates data processing and provides visualization tools for analyzing massive amounts of electronically stored information. Attenex helps corporations and their law firms comply with regulatory requests and internal investigations by assisting them with the electronic-discovery process.

Attenex staffers Kathryn Hardie, J.R. Jesson, Mike Kinnaman and Joe White will join FTI as senior managing directors in FTI’s technology segment, the company said.

The acquisition expands FTI’s software offerings, and enhances its position in the space, the company said.

 

Source

 

 

 

 

 

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Computer Misuse Act Gets an Update

November 16, 2008 — 585

The Computer Misuse Act, which was written in 1990, is better known for its failures than its successes. One of the problem with the CMA is that it is 18 years out of date, and as such has not allowed for some of the latest crimes of Distributed Denial of Service.

A Distributed Denial of Service, DDoS, uses multiple systems (the numbers can be in their thousands) to attack one other system and this type of technology just was not legislated for in 1990.

The changes came into effect on 1st October 2008 (for England and Wales), despite the change in the law being passed in 2006,  by the Police and Justice Act 2006

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Extension to the UK Firewall

November 16, 2008 — 585

The UK Government could be about to provide more infrastructure to prevent the population accessing information. This time the infrastructure is a legal frame work.

The Intelligence and Security Committee has recommended that the government create legislation to stop media outlets producing news that government does not want to.

The headline sales pitch of this is that its in the interests of “national security”, i.e aimed at military operations. But the recommendations are also that reporting on police operations can also be prohibited.

There is already the “D-Notice” in place in the UK, and despite scouring the news papers recently I have not seen any evidence of the battle plans for Afghanistan, the MI5 Org Chart, or the internal plans of GCHQ.  The occasions that the news papers have got hold of “priority” police operations is because is been leaked – that means that the police have called the news papers, to make some money or to further a political agenda, and the papers have printed it. Is it right to create new laws as the police have not got their house in order? Also, at least this way we know what’s being leaked, better this way than directly to the suspects!

The question that needs to be asked is: Do we need more laws to give the government greater secrecy?

In a different time there would have been more trust over the government, and the law in itself is not dangerous, if its well used, but with examples of misuse of data and data collection methods by the government, there is a concern that more there is greater control and monitoring of the population.

Death by a thousand cuts? Or totalitarianism through a 1,000 laws and a million CCTV cameras?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in UK Law, privacy. Tags: , , . No Comments »

EU Trumps UK

November 12, 2008 — 585

There are two key cases that show that the UK law is secondary to EU law.

The first is the case of Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie in 1963. In this case the EU overruled the Dutch Government on import duties, as they contravened the Treaty of Rome. This showed that EU law had supremacy over nation law.

In the second case of R v Secretary of State for Transport in 1990 EU law was found to be senior to national law, even though the  act in question (the Merchant Shipping Act 1988) which was passed to protect British fishing interests, and related to Britain having rights over its own waters and coast line.

This demonstrated that not only does EU law pull rank over national law, but it also pulls rank over national law and national interests.

 

 

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Burma Oil Co V Lord Advocate

November 12, 2008 — 585

During World War 2, the UK forces bombed, deliberately, Burma Oil Companies supplies. This was to prevent the Japanese from gaining access to them. After the war the company, Burma Oil, sued the UK government for the loses. To avoid paying the costs of the Uk created a law called the War Damage Act, 1965, which was to be put into effect retrospectively.

This case, Burma Oil Co V Lord Advocate, upheld this; meaning that Parliament can create laws that can be enacted retrospectively.

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R v Clegg

November 12, 2008 — 585

Clegg a member of the Parachute Regiment was serving in Northern Ireland when he was manning a checkpoint. A car drove through the check point and Clegg shot the driver/passengers.

Clegg claimed self defense, despite the fact that the car was to yards clear of the check point when the shots where fired.

The courts said that it was not possible to enter a case of self defense, as that, in this case, would effectively change the law. The courts then stated that it is the role of Parliament to change the law not the courts.

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