The new chief of Britain’s electronic spying agency, GCHQ, has accused US technology groups of becoming “the command and control networks of choice” for terrorists in a broadside against Silicon Valley on his first day in office.
Writing in today's Financial Times, Robert Hannigan, the director of GCHQ, accuses US tech companies of being "in denial" about the misuse of their services even as he calls for them to co-operate with intelligence agencies. "However much they may dislike it, they have become the command and control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals, who find their services as transformational as the rest of us."
Most internet users, he adds, “would be comfortable with a better and more sustainable relationship between the [INTELLIGENCE]agencies and the tech companies”.
His remarks underscore growing tensions in the western intelligence community as internet companies have moved to protect their reputation a year after the revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden. His dispersal of a trove of intelligence material last June exposed mass electronic US and UK surveillance activities .
"The challenge to governments and to the intelligence agencies is huge," Mr Hannigan writes, describing the post-Snowden digital tactics used by jihadis such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,or Isis, as a milestone in the development of the internet.
GCHQ and its sister agencies, MI5 and SIS, (the UK’s domestic and international intelligence agencies) “cannot tackle these challenges at scale without greater support . . . including [FROM]the largest US tech companies”.
An eruption of extremist jihadi material online as well as ever-more sophisticated methods to encrypt and disguise important communications between terrorists have left western intelligence agencies scrambling to maintain their surveillance capabilities.
Isis fighters are prolific users of social media platforms: from Twitter and YouTube to the more specialised such as JustPaste.it or Russia's VKontakte.
Many large internet companies have continued to comply with requests for information from US spymasters, particularly the National Security Agency, according to security officials. But GCHQ's intelligence collection abilities have become "much harder" as US tech companies have become less co-operative, British officials have said.
Three UK security officials have said US tech companies such as Google and Facebook have curbed the ability of UK intelligence to tap valuable electronic data in the wake of the Snowden leaks.
Tech industry insiders expressed alarm at the idea of creating “better arrangements” to share user information. One senior executive at a US tech group said an agreement to circumvent the current process, which requires law enforcement groups to seek a court order before a company hands over data, would eliminate “due process, and that could be a dangerous situation”.
“What should we do if the Saudi or Russian government also demanded information be handed over on the spot?” he said.
Another industry insider said it was for the government to legislate on the rules for internet surveillance, rather than for the UK intelligence groups to “cajole” tech companies into handing over sensitive information.
Companies including Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft have consistently denied that they have granted access to their systems to intelligence services. Many have also released transparency reports showing how many times they have received requests for user data from states around the world.
Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft declined to comment.
Financial Times
