The shift from military to commercial espionage by Bernie Lopez
The Echelon network of thousands of computers organized by five nations collects billions of electronic signals in the entire planet everyday, from emails to text to voice messages, and stores them in town-size computer arrays linked by satellite to hundreds of other arrays across the globe. So far, no one has succeeded to stop this powerful force violating our personal and commercial privacy. There is a new Cold War today, no longer military in nature but commercial. They can spy on potential copyrights. They can discover our deepest secrets.
Echelon is a clandestine global electronic signal intelligence (SIGINT) system of five governments: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, and the US, otherwise known as AUSCANNZUKUS or “Five Eyes”.
The roots of Echelon dates back to the Cold War in the 1960s, reportedly created to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. It has evolved since then, due to rapid advances in communications technology, into a monster of vast capabilities. After 9/11, the US NSA intensified SIGINT under the umbrella of the War on Terrorism.
The system’s software has ‘keyword filters’ to identify and isolate critical words or phrases from an ocean of data. It is believed that Echelon supported the location of Osama Bin Laden, the bomb raid on Khadaffi’s residence, and the assassination of Saddam Hussein’s children. Echelon is noted to possess the only software system which “controls the download and dissemination of the intercept of commercial satellite trunk communications”. (Source – http://reason.com/blog/2012/12/10/echelon-spy-network-secrets-to-be-reveal, by J.D. Tucille).
Elements of Echelon reportedly started shifting into commercial espionage of late, which sent shivers up the spine of global corporate communities. This was the subject of investigation of the EU Parliament. If one is to access its report, a virus warning appears to scare off would-be readers. Echelon focuses on the world’s two fastest growing economies, China and India. What was disturbing was the Echelon protocol of sharing information among the five nations.
Three disturbing situations have evolved. First, political spying over the Internet is now widespread, says Andrew Storms of nCircle, a software security firm, and every country worldwide is vulnerable. Second, the beginning of a global cyberwar looms, as China starts to retaliate. The Information Warfare Monitor And Shadowserver Foundation monitored attacks originating from Chengdu in China, capital of Sichuan province. China has been reported in the past of hacking into US firms’ data bases.
Third, Echelon can undermine the copyright system through the theft of commercial data before copyrights are even achieved. These three situations are being fuelled by the fact that Internet-based espionage is inexpensive and accessible to anyone, as opposed to the former expensive and exclusive satellite-based system. Today, there is money in electronic terrorists, and they are growing rapidly. They work as e-mercenaries for spy networks like Echelon.
The High Court of Auckland in New Zealand recently ordered the police and the spy agency Government Communications Security Bureau (GSCB) to submit illegally obtained interceptions of data from Megaupload, upon behest of the US. The hand of Echelon is seen as the partner of GCSB in looking into the activities of its eccentric ex-CEO Kim DotCom, who sued GSCB and the police over an intellectual property issue. The court case promises to open a can of worms, the whole story available in the New Zealand Herald. The defendants argued that revealing data would compromise New Zealand’s national security, a standard reply among spy agencies under investigation. DotCom has been branded by the US as an Internet pirate and is reportedly wanted by the FBI.
There is only one way to stop Echelon, and this is a big feat. It involves exposing in the global media its shenanigans, until governments make new laws to outlaw them, as what the EU tried to do in vain. We are virtually helpless to contain the power of the Five Eyes. It will play a big factor in future energy wars. Echelon is a future tool of Armageddon.