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United Kingdom Businesses Privacy

Report: Not Just For Tabloids; UK Privacy-Invading Hackers Widespread 39

Posted by timothy from the who-do-you-think-you-are-the-us-government? dept.
The phone-hacking scandal that's surrounded Rupert Murdoch's tabloid empire is bad enough, but according to a newly revealed report, it's small potatoes compared to what some other companies have been doing in the UK. Presto Vivace writes with this excerpt from The Independent: "Soca, dubbed 'Britain's FBI,' knew six years ago that blue-chip institutions were hiring private investigators to obtain sensitive data – yet did next to nothing to disrupt the unlawful trade. The report was privately supplied to the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics in 2012 yet the corruption in other identified industries, including the law, insurance and debt collectors, and among high-net worth individuals, was not mentioned during the public sessions or included in the final report." Further: "Illegal practices identified by Soca investigators went well beyond the relatively simple crime of voicemail hacking and included live phone interceptions, police corruption, computer hacking and perverting the course of justice."
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Report: Not Just For Tabloids; UK Privacy-Invading Hackers Widespread More

Report: Not Just For Tabloids; UK Privacy-Invading Hackers Widespread

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  • The British government is just as corrupt and useless as the American government. Justice, real justice, is only for the rich... or those who know their way around the court system and the time to pursue it.

    • Surely it's the poor who get real justice, and the rich buy themselves out of it...?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mendax ( 114116 )

        Well, I stand by what I wrote. The rich can afford lawyers to fight the government. The rich usually don't attract the attention of law enforcement when they do nasty things, especially those who are politically connected. The poor, because they can't afford attorneys or often get substandard representation from attorneys appointed by the court, are the ones who get the justice—whether they're guilty or not. Just how many people has the Innocence Project gotten off death rows of American prisons b

      • The only way for the poor to get real justice is to demand it. The People get the government that they deserve.

        • The People get the government that they deserve.

          Sorry, are you blaming the victims of the conmen, and not the conmen themselves...?

    • Not at all. I will say, I don't live there, and I'm sure someone can say to this. But China says yes we do it, so what go home. There up front? I guess everyone knows now what we all knew.

    • Re: And this is a surprise? (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The British government is just as corrupt and useless as the American government.

      You take that back. Our American government far exceeds the British government's efforts at corruption and uselessness ... and let's not forget citizen surveillance, drone strikes and general apathy. In fact, the rest of the world pales in comparison to our lobbyists, pork barrel projects and overall fiscal irresponsibility.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by mendax ( 114116 )

        Well, I won't take it back. All governments are corrupt and are equally corrupt. They only differ in the ways they are corrupt and what the corruption is called. In this country it's called campaign contributions, travel junkets, and jobs after leaving office. In places like Mexico and Russia it's called bribery. But saying "feces" instead of shit and "copraphage" instead of shit eater doesn't change the fact that it's corruption.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      We just really need a "Worldwide Revolution Day". The governments of the world are corrupt and frankly, no one is happy about living under them. Individually we are frustrated, City, county, state, province, we are hassled through what should be the one precious life we have. No one knows what to do to change anything. Voting doesn't work, asking doesn't work, setting up a Constitution doesn't work.

      Fortunately for us, there are more of us, than them, by a huge factor. Let

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by lxs ( 131946 )

        Have you heard about time zones? I mean here you are International Revolution Day 2013 12:00 GMT. The Australians and Japanese will all be sitting at home after a hard days' lynching and looting, various heads of state now heads on pikes, Europe has barely erected its first gallows and parts of the US are just waking up unsure of which outfit will go best with their handgun of choice.

        It seems a bit unfair that westward leaders will have more time to prepare than their eastern counterparts.

      • Frankly, I trust wild eyed revolutionaries like you less than I trust them. Most revolutionaries promise utopia, none deliver them. It isn't uncommon for what comes after revolution to be far worse than what preceded it. The fact that you advocate mass murder as the start of building your utopia is a warning sign. The fact that you would throw away the US Constitution with its many protections and separations of power for something unspecified but somehow better is another warning sign. You are being c

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday June 22, 2013 @03:38AM (#44077277)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Hacking is only a tool of the more sophisticated businesses, breaking in to steal computers with business data is also quite common.

  • Everyone does it when it suits them apparently (Score:3)

    by jma05 ( 897351 ) on Saturday June 22, 2013 @04:40AM (#44077409)

    Exactly a month ago, New York Times had an article on how mundane a tactic this is in China.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/world/asia/in-china-hacking-has-widespread-acceptance.html [nytimes.com]

    ForeignPolicy.com did a piece on US IP piracy from Britain when it was the emerging power like China
    http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/12/05/we_were_pirates_too [foreignpolicy.com]

    No one is a saint.

  • Report: Not Just For Tablets; UK Privacy-Invading Hackers Widespread.

    Must have been i-somethings...

  • People shouting "Murdoch is evil..." and other companies are doing the same, sometimes worse. Oddly, I wonder how many people know that tabloid is the paper format, not what's printed.

  • ...we get closer to the world of Shadowrun every day, with a little Judge Dread thrown in.

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