GCHQ warns it is losing terrorists on the internet - All VoIP News

GCHQ, the Government's listening post, have grown increasingly concerned that modern internet research has left them unable to intercept calls which use new innovation instead of traditional phone systems.

They include computer to computer calling systems like Skype, nevertheless also many of the discount phone deals offered to make calls abroad from landlines.

Senior intelligence sources with detail knowledge of the problem said GCHQ had seen their access to telephone intercept information "eroded" by the use of the internet telephone services.

Highly placed source said

A highly placed source said: "We need to take action to maintain the continued availability of communications data to the police and other agencies investigating criminality and it is true that the ability of these agencies to get access is eroding due to changes in communications research and usage."

Plans for the controversial move to make internet and phone companies keep a record of every email, phone call, text message and message on social networks just as Facebook, were first disclosed by The Sunday Telegraph in February.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed to a statement given to the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee by Sir David Pepper, the next head of GCHQ, four years ago, in which he warned of the problems it was facing due to the growth of this innovation, and which was not widely published at that time.

He said: "One of the greatest challenges for GCHQ is to maintain its intercept capability in the face of rapidly evolving communications innovation. This relates in particular to the growth in internet-based communications and voice over internet telephony.

"The internet uses a very different approach to communications. To put it more exactly than having any sense of fixed lines... communications are broken up... whether you are sending an email or any other form of internet communication... packets are at that time routed around the network and may go in any one of a number of different routes... the biggest change in telecoms research since the invention of the telephone. It is a complete revolution..."

The rest of Sir John's testimony on the subject

The rest of Sir John's testimony on the subject was blacked out on national security grounds as were the words of MI5 director general Jonathan Evans, who is believed to have confirmed that the innovation was causing the Security Service real difficulties.

It is understood that in the last few years GCHQ has been working on ways to get around the problems caused by this use of the internet however its success or failure is highly classified.

However it was hoped that the new legislation being mooted by the Coalition Government would have helped the intelligence services by allowing so-called Deep Packet Inspection equipment to be installed on the UK network.

Intelligence picture of terrorists

Until now intercepted telephone conversations have proved crucial in building up an intelligence picture of terrorists and criminals' operations. Calls can only be intercepted with a warrant from the Home Secretary, and special equipment at GCHQ is used.

Land line phone conversations are relatively easy to intercept, using equipment installed at telephone exchanges and satellite ground stations, nevertheless internet calls are virtually impossible to listen in on unless a bug is installed on the computer being used to send or receive it.

Increasingly it is not just Skype and similar calls between computers which are routed over the internet, nevertheless also calls from landlines, often those made through alternative call providers which offer cheap deals for long-distance and international calls.

Once the information contained in a conversation is sent over the internet it is broken up into tiny pieces, or packets, and sent using myriad different routes and is only reassembled at the other end by the computer receiving the "call".

In the United States research has already been adopted which can intercept internet phonecalls. The National Security Agency with cooperation from telecoms giant AT&T, is using "Deep Packet Inspection innovation" for internet traffic surveillance. It is used to find which packets are carrying e-mail or an internet telephone call. A similar system is as well in use by the US Department of Defense.

But this form of internet sifting is highly controversial and is as well used in countries including China and Iran to censor certain internet activity.

Last night Gus Hosein, of Privacy International, said: "We don't want deep packet inspection 'black boxes' to be installed because it opens the door to all kinds of intrusion into private communications.

"The Government are kidding themselves if they think as before long as they have the black boxes they'll be able to check everyone's VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls, in short on, because everything is encrypted.

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