GCHQ's spy malware operation faces legal challenge | UK news | theguardian.com
GCHQ's spy malware operation faces legal challenge | UK news | theguardian.com:
GCHQ, the government's monitoring agency, acted illegally by developing spy programs that remotely hijack computers' cameras and microphones without the user's consent, according to privacy campaigners.
A legal challenge lodged on Tuesday at the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) calls for the hacking techniques – alleged to be far more intrusive than interception of communications – to be outlawed. Mobile phones were also targeted, leaked documents reveal.
The claim has been submitted by Privacy International following revelations by the whistleblower Edward Snowden about the mass surveillance operations conducted by GCHQ and its US counterpart, the National Security Agency (NSA).
The 21-page submission details a host of "malware" – software devised to take over or damage another person's computer – with such esoteric names as Warrior Pride, Gumfish, Dreamy Smurf, Foggybottom and Captivatedaudience.
Details of the programs have been published by the Guardian and the online magazine The Intercept run by the journalist Glenn Greenwald. They are said to allow GCHQ to gain access to "the profile information supplied by a user in registering a device [such as] … his location, age, gender, marital status, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education, and family".
A webcam. Privacy
International says GCHQ's spy programs enable surveillance of stored
content and logging of keystrokes. Photograph: Daniel
Bockwoldt/DPA/Corbis
