Documents leaked by Edward Snowden and reported by The Guardian showed that Britain’s GCHQ had secretly gained access to fibre-optic cables carrying international phone and internet traffic, under a programme codenamed Tempora. The data was shared with the US National Security Agency.
What happened
- GCHQ was reported to be tapping around 200 internet links, each carrying up to 10 gigabits per second.
- Content was reportedly held for up to three days and metadata for up to 30 days so that analysts could search it.
- Around 300 GCHQ and 250 NSA analysts were reported to be working on the data.
- GCHQ said it operated within the law, relying on the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
Why it mattered
Tempora put the UK at the centre of the surveillance debate and fed into legal challenges and the later overhaul of UK surveillance law in the Investigatory Powers Act 2016.
Lessons for organisations
Organisations should assume that unencrypted traffic crossing networks may be intercepted and should use strong encryption in transit. Transparency with customers about lawful access requests also helps maintain trust.
Source: The Register
Part of our Top stories archive of headline-making events in information security, privacy, and AI. If you would like help applying the lessons to your organisation, contact us.
