Welcome to the June 2017 issue of the Computing Security Newsletter.

We are now living in an age when data has never been so vulnerable. Every organisation fears the hacker who may soon come stalking them, because everyone is a possible target.

All the more reason to resist the growing appetites of governments to access web browsing data and metadata on an immense scale. Why? Because, apart from our right to privacy and control over what is essentially ours, such levels of authoritarian control only make everyone’s online activity particularly vulnerable, as it can also be exploited by hackers and fraudsters – or even other governments and their agents. Furthermore, accessing and later sharing this exposed information among government agencies and those collecting the data (ie, UK ISPs) might be a major threat in itself, as private data can be mishandled or intercepted.

NordVPN has long been a vocal critic of increased government surveillance. “Modern democracies should avoid such authoritarian surveillance methods as bulk hacking of thousands of computers, keeping Internet records for years and viewing them without a warrant, or legally obliging ISPs to assist in hacking and decryption,” cautions Marty P. Kamden, CMO of NordVPN.

The World Wide Web’s founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee feels that in many ways the WWW has lived up to the vision of being an open platform “that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries.” According to Berners-Lee, people often do not mind when their private data is collected.

But he does add the caveat: “We lose out on the benefits we could realise, if we had direct control over this data, and chose when and with whom to share it.” Also, people are helpless when it comes to “a way of feeding back to companies what data we’d rather not share,” he states. Government surveillance has gone to great lengths, which “creates a chilling effect on free speech”.

Leave something like that unchecked and it becomes the small stone that gathers up ever more private data in its path until it is a giant rock hurtling downhill and totally out of control. Safeguards must be put in place and a line drawn in the sand.

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Brian Wall, Editor
Computing Security

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