Security Bullet In

Sting's wife Trudie Styler and Janis Sharp have presented a petition to Number 10 calling for Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon not to be extradited to the US.

Styler, and Sharp, who is McKinnon's mother, presented the petition to Sarah Brown, the Prime Minister's wife, on Friday. The petition was signed by 4,338 people, and called on the government to provide protection against extradition for people with autism. McKinnon has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum.



"As a mother myself, I am 100 percent behind Janis's tireless fight to protect her son," said Styler in a statement. "Gary's actions were clearly misguided. However extraditing him seven years after the event and subjecting him to lengthy prison sentence thousands of miles away from his family is an unnecessarily cruel and undignified way to treat anyone, let alone someone with his condition."

Styler and Sting have supported McKinnon for approximately six months. In March they contacted Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer, calling for Gary to be tried in this country. They also sent a hamper to McKinnon and his family, with a note, later in March.

McKinnon enjoys support from a wide range of people, including Jane Asher, Terry Waite, Boris Johnson, The Proclaimers, Dave Gilmour, and Julie Christie. Politicians including Conservative shadow minister for justice David Burrowes also support McKinnon's cause.

McKinnon stands accused of the "biggest military hack of all time" by US prosecutors. McKinnon's legal team maintain that should McKinnon be found guilty by a US court, he runs the risk of being imprisoned for up to sixty years. However, the Law Lords rejected that possibility, and found that he would be likely to be improsoned for 8 to 10 years.

The next stage in McKinnon's seven year legal battle is a high court hearing on 14 July. The appeal judges will consider McKinnon's application for a judicial review to decide whether he could be tried in the UK.

The UK is to appoint a cyber security tsar along the lines of the US, according to a story in the Telegraph this morning.

The story is similar to one that appeared in the Guardian ten days ago.

There is a press briefing at the Cabinet Office this afternoon. Perhaps this is a subject that may be discussed there.

Nokia Siemens has denied providing deep packet inspection capabilities to the Iranian authorities, following an article in the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

The WSJ published the article which claimed Nokia Siemens had provided internet monitoring capabilities to the Iranians, "at least in part", and quoting Nokia Siemens head of media relations Ben Roome.

"If you sell networks, you also, intrinsically, sell the capability to intercept any communication that runs over them," Roome told WSJ.

However, Roome told ZDNet UK on Monday that Nokia Siemens had in no way provided deep packet inspection capabilities to the Iranian regime, and that the company had provided what is known as 'lawful intercept' for voice.

"We provided purely voice monitoring -- phone call wiretapping, it used to be called," said Roome.

Roome also published a blog post on Monday, saying that Nokia Siemens provided "lawful intercept" capabilities to Iranian carrier TCI.

"To clarify: Nokia Siemens Networks has provided lawful intercept capability solely for the monitoring of local voice calls in Iran," wrote Roome. "In most countries around the world, including all EU member states and the U.S., telecommunications networks are legally required to have the capability for lawful intercept and this is also the case in Iran."

According to the BBC, the Iranians use a Nokia Siemens product called "Monitoring Centre". A cached version of a Nokia Siemens promotion for Monitoring Centre said that the product:

"is a remarkably versatile combination of interoperating software and hardware modules, and is designed to perform all tasks related to lawful interception in an absolutely secure, auditable, reliable and verifiable manner in accordance with ETSI LI standards. Its unique modular front-end and back-end architecture allows the monitoring and interception of all types of voice and data communication in all networks, i.e. fixed, mobile, Next Generation Network (NGN) and the internet."

However, Roome told ZDNet UK that Nokia Siemens had only provided "limited capability" to TCI, and that the "monitoring centre" technology had since been sold on.

"We provided the limited capability in the second half of 2008, and the technology was sold at the end of March," said Roome.

That part of Nokia Siemens technology was sold to Perusa Partners Fund LLP, a German holding company, on 31 March.

The Digital Britain report, which was expected to recommend universal broadband access for UK citizens, has been presented at a press conference. A journalist colleague, David Meyer, who was there, has let me know the top line of what was presented.

The report does indeed recommend that all users have access to broadband up to 2Mbps.

In terms of how this can be achieved, the government said that the market already covers two-thirds of next-generation broadband needs, but that there will be a 50p monthly levy on each copper line to fund next-gen broadband, to cover the remaining third of needs.

Unlicensed filesharers are to have their bandwidth reduced, plus be subject to protocol blocking. Their IDs may also be released for civil actions.

There will be a major telecoms resiliency test-exercise this year.

There will also be an internet crime and security initiative, combining parliament, government, and business.

There will be a consultation on Ofcom penalties for Communications Act 2003 contraveners.

The government is to provide a £23m fund for basic SME IT support.

There will also be more IT training for citizens.

Update: Ben Bradshaw, secretary of state for the department of culture, media, and sport, has just presented a speech to parliament.

Bradshaw said that the government wants next generation fixed broadband left to the market, but that "true, superfast access" will only be available to two thirds of people. To cater for the remaining third, Bradshaw said that there will be "a small levy on all fixed lines to establish a central fund" to pay for broadband access.

Bradshaw said they also needed to "modernise the wireless network".

The government is going to pass laws to restrict file-sharing, Bradshaw added.

"We will legislate to curb unlawful peer-to-peer filesharing," said Bradshaw. "Ofcom will be given the power to [release] identity to enable action by rights holders against serial offenders."

Over 4,000 people have now signed a petition that people with Asperger's Syndrome should not be extradited, directed at the Prime Minister's Office.

The petition directly refers to Gary McKinnon, the man accused by US prosecutors of "the biggest military hack of all time." McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger's, a condition on the autism spectrum, last summer, and faces extradition to the US to face hacking charges.

McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp, told ZDNet UK last week that McKinnon was "stressed out of his head".

"It's a scary thing when you are dragged away from your own country," said Sharp.

The petition has had a number of deadlines extended -- the latest one is the 22 June.