Farangland News

The adult content blocking system championed by David Cameron is controlled by the controversial Chinese company Huawei, the BBC has learned.

UK-based employees at the firm are able to decide which sites TalkTalk's service blocks.

Politicians in both the UK and US have raised concerns about alleged close ties between Huawei and the Chinese government.

Even customers who do not want filtering still have their traffic routed through the system, but matches to Huawei's database are dismissed rather than acted upon.

One expert insisted that private companies should not hold power over blacklists, and that the responsibility should lie with an independent group.  Dr Martyn Thomas, chair of the IT policy panel at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, told the BBC:

It needs to be run by an organisation accountable to a minister so it can be challenged in Parliament,

There's certainly a concern about the process of how a web address gets added to a blacklist - who knows about it, and who has an opportunity to appeal against it.

You could easily imagine a commercial organisation finding itself on that blacklist wrongly, and where they actually lost a lot of web traffic completely silently and suffered commercial damage. The issue is who gets to choose who's on that blocking list, and what accountability do they have? 'Policing themselves'

Huawei's position was recently the subject of an Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) report. It criticised the lack of ministerial oversight over the firm's rapid expansion in the UK. The committee said:

The alleged links between Huawei and the Chinese State are concerning, as they generate suspicion as to whether Huawei's intentions are strictly commercial or are more political.

In the US, intelligence committees have gone further, branding Huawei a threat to national security.

Initially, TalkTalk told the BBC that it was US security firm Symantec that was responsible for maintaining its blacklist, and that Huawei only provided the hardware, as previously reported. However, Symantec said that while it had been in a joint venture with Huawei to run Homesafe in its early stages, it had not been involved for over a year.

TalkTalk later confirmed it is Huawei that monitors activity, checking requests against its blacklist of over 65 million web addresses, and denying access if there is a match.

The contents of this list are largely determined by an automated process, but both Huawei and TalkTalk employees are able to add or remove sites independently.

UK Border Agency staff use counter-terrorism laws to remove a mobile phone from any passenger they wish coming through UK air, sea and international rail ports and then scour their data.

The blanket power is so broad they do not even have to show reasonable suspicion for seizing the device and can retain the information for as long as is necessary .

Data can include call history, contact books, photos and who the person is texting or emailing, although supposedly not the contents of messages.

David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism laws, is expected to raise concerns over the power in his annual report this week. He will call for proper checks and balances to stop this power being abused. He said:

Information downloaded from mobile phones seized at ports has been very useful in disrupting terrorists and bringing them to justice. But ordinary travellers need to know that their private information will not be taken without good reason, or retained by the police for any longer than is necessary.

It echoes concerns surrounding an almost identical power police can use on the streets of the UK, which is being reviewed by the Information Commissioner. However, in those circumstances police must have grounds for suspicion and the phone can only be seized if the individual is arrested.

Around 60,000 people a year are stopped and examined as they enter or return to the UK under powers contained in the Terrorism Act 2000. It is not known how many of those have their phone data taken.

So did you enjoy your solo trip to see the 'temples' of Thailand?

US Government workers with a lust for money and sex could be potential insider threats to the government, according to the Obama administration.

The Obama administration has quietly implemented the Insider Threat Program to force federal employees to report their co-workers if they identify signs that they might harm the government's interests from within.

The Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive warns on its website:

Insiders who seek to harm U.S. security interests normally are either long-term plants or they are people who have been lured to betray their nation for ideological reasons, a lust for money or sex, or through blackmail.

The administration's Insider Threat Program requires federal employees to report indicators of insider threat behavior among their own colleagues, in order to defend against potential spies and security leaks.

Obama created the program by executive order in October 2011. The program triggers investigations into federal employee conduct both in the office and online, where computer network monitoring systems patrol for suspicious user behavior.

The program requires federal workers to pay close attention to their colleagues' lifestyle patterns --- with odd working hours or unexplained travel indicators of suspicious activity.