UK government: GCHQ is permitted to break into computers anywhere in the world by Dave Neal.
Add one (1) to your present count of known cyber-adversaries.
GCHQ, like many similar agencies, have been given carte blanche to snoop around the world.
Dave reports that GCHQ has responded to this disclosure not with denial but protesting that it would never ever snoop without following all of the rules, except for those against snooping of course.
What fails in almost every government scandal isn’t the safeguards against wrong doing, but rather the safeguards against anyone discovering the wrong doing. Yes? So it isn’t that the government doesn’t lie, cheat, abuse, etc., but that they are seldom caught. Safeguards against government violating its own restrictions seem particularly weak.
The UK and other governments fail to realize every retreat from the rule of law damages the legitimacy of that government. If they think governing is difficult now, imagine the issues when the average citizen obeys the law only with due regard to the proximity of a police officer. People joke about that now but watch people obey even mindless traffic rules. To say nothing of more serious rules.
The further and further governments retreat into convenience of the moment decision making, the less and less call they will have on the average citizen to “do the right thing.” Why should they? Their leadership has set the example that whether it is lying to get elected (Benjamin Netanyahu) or lying to start a war (George W. Bush) or lying to get funding (Michael Rogers, its ok.
Since GCHQ has decided it isn’t subject to the law, would you report a plot against GCHQ or the UK government? (Assume you just overheard it and weren’t involved.)