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Are spies reading our e-mails?

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Is your PC watching you?  


By Sarah Sultoon

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- Europeans are being urged to make more use of encryption software for their e-mails to protect themselves against an alleged U.S.-led spy network.

A European Parliament report released Tuesday, prepared after seven months of testimony from communications and security experts, concluded that the worldwide spy network does exist, despite official denials.

But the Parliament's vice president, Gerhard Schmid, conceded that the committee had no solid evidence that Americans were passing on European trade secrets to give U.S. businesses a competitive advantage.

The 108-page report into "Echelon" -- an Anglo-American electronic interception system -- claims the operation has violated the European Convention of Human Rights by eavesdropping on daily e-mails between millions of private individuals.

The report recommends the routine encryption of all electronic mail and the use of open source software -- where the code of programs is open to both private and official inspection.

Caspar Bowden, director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, explained that only if the text of a computer programme is made available for inspection can it be ensured there is no possibility of interception.

Bowden confirmed that this advice was "astonishing and remarkable", adding "this is by far the furthest anyone has gone in terms of pro-active recommendation" regarding the security of electronic communication.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) the Echelon network involves five nations in a system that aims to intercept virtually all forms of electronic communications.

Based at Fort Meade in Maryland, and at Government Communications HQ (GCHQ) at Cheltenham in Britain, the network was set up in 1948 by the U.S., Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

It was active throughout the Cold War as a worldwide electronic surveillance operation. The question is, does it still exist?

"That a global system for intercepting communications exists ... is no longer in doubt," the report concluded.

"They do tap into private, civilian and corporate telecommunications," Schmid said. The report collected testimony from Australia, Canada and New Zealand that verifies the existence of a "very close alliance," he added.

A temporary committee of the European Parliament was set up a year ago to investigate whether the Echelon spy system had been used to gather European industrial secrets and pass them to British or American rivals.

UK involvement in the operation was condemned by the EU as a breach of the legal requirements on all member states.

But both the U.S. and British administrations flatly deny that the operation still exists.

An incomplete report of the inquiry was leaked to the press after a delegation from the committee was refused a meeting with officials from the Security Agency of the U.S. government.

Although the report makes key recommendations regarding the privacy of electronic mail, it fails to answer the crucial question of whether Echelon has been used by the U.S. for commercial advantage.

Bowden said that If the findings were true, had encryption software been routinely available during the 90s when e-mail became commonplace, the severity of the problem could have been averted.







RELATED STORIES:
RELATED SITES:
• Echelon Watch
• Inside Echelon
• Government Centre for Studies of Intelligence

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