Zeblanity and empire? From telegraph tapping to Tempora fibre splitting. Note that 'dodge' is used in the biblical sense.

1. Bournemouth to Bude to
Berlin in
Search of Information
Imperialists
GiKii 16/9/2013

2. From Brighton
• Far pavilions – Sussex@Brighton
– Brighton Pavillion built by Prince George
• (the stupid one in Blackadder III) 1810s
– Which is exactly when our story begins

3. Prism? Nothing to see here?

4. NSA & GCHQ civil war on encryption:
#EdgeHill #Bullrun and #Cheesy Name
NSA $250 million per year buys:
• Tampering with national standards (NIST specifically)
– to promote weak, or otherwise vulnerable cryptography.
• Influencing standards committees to weaken protocols.
• Working with hardware and software vendors
– weaken encryption and random number generators.
• Attacking encryption used by 'next generation of 4G phones'.
• Obtaining cleartext access to 'a major internet peer-to-peer
voice and text communications system' (Skype?)
• Identifying and cracking vulnerable keys (CheesyName).
• Establishing a Human Intelligence division to infiltrate the global
telecommunications industry – essentially bribing employees
• Decrypting HTTPS/SSL connections
– Yahoo, Google, Hotmail/Outlook

5. Telegraph as Victorian Internet
“The shift from sailing ships to
telegraph was far more radical
than that from telephone to
email!” - Noam Chomsky
“The American father is never
seen in London. He passes his
life entirely in Wall Street and
communicates with his family
once a month by means of a
telegram in cipher” – Oscar
Wilde

6. Atlantic cable 1866; epic failure Russia-US 1865-7

7. Greatest Victorian engineering triumph
• Telegraph needed great ships to carry cable
• SS Great Eastern built Isle of Dogs 1858
– 32,000 tonnes: largest ship yet built – until 1901
– Laid 48,000 km of cable 1866-78, including
north/south Atlantic and India

8. Brunel’s genius supplied the answer
As Great Western Railway supplied
• land-based telegraphy protected
rights of way
• most UK phone calls still travel
alongside railways
Greatest competitor to BT:
• British Rail Telephony
Wholesaled to charlatans
WorldCom, Global Crossing
Cable & Wireless

9. ‘Spade-hacker’ cuts off Armenia 6/4/2011
• Fibre cable owned by Georgian railway ‘heavily protected’
– but landslides or heavy rain may have exposed it to scavengers
• "75-year-old woman was digging for copper in the ground
so that she could sell it for scrap" Georgia interior ministry
• Georgia provides 90% of Armenia's internet
– Large parts of Georgia and Azerbaijan were also affected.
• The damage was detected by a system monitoring the
fibre-optic link from western Europe and a security team
was immediately dispatched to the spot, where the woman
was arrested.
• The interior ministry said she had no accomplices.
• http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/06/georgian-woman-
cuts-web-access

10. Geography still matters
South west point of England (Logan’s Rock)
– last sheltered beach, facing south
Owned by tax-dodging Duke of Cornwall
– Who charges enormous ‘cable landing fees’
Visit Porthcurno Telegraph Museum
– Formerly Cable & Wireless Training College
– Formerly Eastern Telegraph Company (ETC)

11. Victorian Internet, Victorian taps
• Railways Act 1844; Telegraph Acts 1863, 1870
• Lionel Bentley
– Overland Telegraph 1872 (Afghan camel drivers)
– Australian fears of Eastern Telegraph monopoly
• owned by and informing London government
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Overland_Telegraph_Line
• Official Secrets Act 1911
• Espionage Act 1917
• Terrorism Act 2000 et seq
• RIPA 2000
– Previously unregulated!

12. Cables could – and can - be tapped

13. TEMPORA: Cables like TAT14

14. Bude – GCHQ signals intelligence base
Cornwall

15. Conspiracy? Singapore ‘five-eyes’ hub
• “Singapore, Australia, USA , UK unlawfully
intercepted the voice and data traffic of SEA-ME-
WE 3 and SEA-ME-WE 4 submarine cables”
• “SingTel will have to deliver a great speech [when] partners
meet to finalize construction of SEA-ME-WE 5 cable”
– Australian Defence intelligence officer told Fairfax
Media access to submarine fibre optic cable traffic
– “gives the 5-eyes [intelligence alliance] and our
partners like Singapore a stranglehold on
communications across the Eastern Hemisphere”
• http://lirneasia.net/2013/08/spies-tampered-sea-me-we-3-
and-sea-me-we-4-submarine-cables-is-sea-me-we-5-next-
victim/

16. 2013: Anti-Surveillance Discontent
• Snowden: Booz Allen’s man in Hawai’i
– fled to UK imperial entrepot Hong Kong
– Five Eyes extra-legal surveillance – each
pretending they’re spying on the other’s citizens
– Congress votes to maintain NSA total information
awareness funding 24 July by 12 votes
– Malcolm Rifkind neocons the neocon answer
• It’s like ‘special rendition’ and torture – official
denials of what we all know

17. Patino Aroca, Foreign Minister of
Ecuador: August 6 Security Council
• “MERCOSUR States 12 July in Montevideo resolved to
– request Argentina to submit the massive espionage case
uncovered by Edward Snowden for consideration by UNSC.
• “Just a few weeks ago the world saw a sequence of events more akin
to a Cold War spy novel than to modern times. On 5 June, leaks
began to appear in publications in major global media outlets.
• “we saw the size and the discretional nature of a massive surveillance
apparatus that suddenly brought all the inhabitants of the planet
closer than ever to an Orwellian nightmare.
– we now know that everyone is considered a usual suspect by USA
– Now we know that our communications are permanently
monitored by them.”

18. Attacks on journalists/whistle blowers
• Assange continues to take refuge in Ecuador Embassy 2012-13
– Met Police will arrest him if diplomats accompany him to Heathrow
– Interesting Q re. Australian Senate election
• Brazilian citizen David Miranda held 8:59hr on 18 August 2013
– Heathrow transit lounge by Met Police under Schedule VII Terrorism
Act 2000: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/schedule/7
• Amended by Terrorism Act 2000 (Designated Ports) Order 2011
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/1938/note/made (for Stranraer)
• Note that this is Northern Ireland inspired – not 9/11
– Prior information provided to NSA, White House, No.10
• Bolivian President’s plane forced down July 2013
– by air traffic control across Europe
– Resulting in United Nations Security Council debate regarding US/EU
actions
• Edward Snowden seeks temporary asylum in Russia
– Cuba having denied him safe passage to Venezuela

19. Whistleblowers can be silenced

20. Assange’s lawyer on ‘watch list’
• Jennifer Robinson 18 April 2013 Twitter at 9.30pm:
– "Just delayed from checking in at LHR (London Heathrow) because I'm
apparently 'inhibited' - requiring approval from Australia House @dfat (the
Department of Foreign Affairs) to travel
– "Security guard: 'you must have done something controversial' because we
have to phone the embassy. 'Certain government agencies' list."
– Australia Department of Foreign Affairs "not aware" of any restrictions
– High Commission in London had no record of contact from British authorities.
• Commonwealth Lawyers Association:
• “Article 13 of the UN Principles on the Role of
Lawyers sets out clearly that
– 'lawyers shall not be identified with their clients or
their clients' causes as a result of discharging their
functions'.”
• http://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/apr/19/julian-assange-lawyer-
flight-heathrow

21. Miranda rights? Terrorism Act 2000,
Schedule VII, s.18
18(1)A person commits an offence if he—
• (a)wilfully fails to comply with a duty imposed under or
by virtue of this Schedule,
• (b)wilfully contravenes a prohibition imposed under or
by virtue of this Schedule, or
• (c)wilfully obstructs, or seeks to frustrate, a search or
examination under or by virtue of this Schedule.
(2)A person guilty of an offence under this paragraph shall
be liable on summary conviction to—
• (a)imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months…

22. Corporate surveillance, civil resistance

23. Answers? Good questions?

24. Surfers don’t encrypt despite tools

25. Analysys Masons (2013) Study into the role of government in the Internet
http://www.analysysmason.com/PageFiles/42848/Analysys%20Mason%20Report%20for%20Ministry%20of%20Economic%20Affa
irs%20230413.pdf

26. There be Pirates!
• We all fantasise the ‘Golden (sic) Age*s+ of Piracy’
– Francis Drake to Daniel Defoe – 1580s and 1720s
• Copyright c/o J.Depp/Mouse productions
• But the nastiest age was post-Napoleonic Wars
• Industrial piracy – especially in Atlantic/Med
• Supressed by the hyper-power:
– British Naval power
• Ostensibly in the service of
– Abolition of Slavery Act 1807
• But mainly to secure trade routes
– India, West Indies, Cape Colony
– Australia and then Hong Kong

27. “*USA+ appears destined by Providence to plague
America with miseries in the name of Freedom”
– Simon de Bolivar (attr.) 1829
• David Bushnell and Lester D. Langley (2008) p. 135
– Simón Bolívar : Essays on the Life and Legacy of the Liberator

28. August 6, 2013 UN Security Council: Antonio de
Aguiar Patriota, Foreign Minister of Brazil
• “*I+nterception of communications and acts of espionage…violate sovereignty,
harm relations between nations and constitute a violation of human rights,
– in particular to privacy and of our citizens to information.
• This is a very serious issue with a profound impact on the international system.
• Brazil welcome the statement made 12 July by UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay:
– ‘surveillance programmes without adequate safeguards to protect the right to privacy
actually risk impacting negatively on the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental
freedoms.’
• Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
– ‘No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or
correspondence’
• Articles 17 and 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
– ‘Everyone has the right to protection of the law against such interference or attacks.’
– Brazil also associates itself with the repeated appeals by Ms. Pillay in various forums
that efforts to combat terrorism must necessarily respect human rights and
humanitarian law. Her position was incorporated into the decision of the Heads of
State of MERCOSUR as well as the Presidential Statement (S/PRST/2013/12) adopted
by the Security Council

29. • Mention should be made of NATO… .a defense alliance that does not seem
to frame its activities clearly under Chapter VIII of the UN Charter
– has made use of concepts and strategies that raise problematic and sensitive
issues in terms of the articulation between regional level and UN system.
• We are concerned that, historically, leaders of NATO and member countries
have considered that NATO does not necessarily require explicit
authorization from the Security Council to resort to coercion.
• We are also concerned that NATO has loosely interpreted mandates for
action aimed at promoting international peace and security authorized by
the Security Council.
• We are concerned, as well that NATO has been searching to establish
partnerships out of its area, far beyond the North Atlantic, including in
regions of peace, democracy and social inclusion, and that rule out the
presence of weapons of mass destruction in their territories.
• It would be extremely grave for the future of the articulation between
regional and global efforts at promoting peace, as prescribed by UN, if
groups of countries started to unilaterally define their sphere of action
beyond the territory of their own members.”
• [Note Syrian debate and imperial over-stretch by NATO]

30. Annex to the note dated 22 July from the
Permanent Mission of the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela to the United Nations
• “Decision rejecting the acts of espionage conducted by the United States
in the countries of the region.”
• “The President of the Argentine Republic, the President of the
Plurinational State of Bolivia, the President of the Federative Republic of
Brazil, the President of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay and the President
of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, having met in Montevideo,
Eastern Republic of Uruguay, on 12 July, 2013, within the framework of the
presidential summit of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR),
• Condemning the acts of espionage carried out by intelligence agencies of
the United States of America , which affect all countries in the region,
• Strongly rejecting the interception of telecommunications and the acts of
espionage carried out in our countries, which constitute a violation of the
human rights, the right to privacy and the right to information of our
citizens, and which also constitute unacceptable behavior that violates our
sovereignty and is detrimental to the normal conduct of relations among
nations,

31. Considering the advisability of promoting a
coordinated approach to this issue at the
regional level, decide to:
• Work together to guarantee the cybersecurity of the States members to MERCOSUR, which is essential to
defending the sovereignty of our countries,
• Demand that those responsible immediately cease these activities and provide an explanation of the
motives for and consequences of such activities,
• Stress that the prevention of crime and the suppression of transnational crimes, including terrorism, must
be carried out in line with the rule of law and in strict observance of international law.
• Promote the adoption by the relevant multilateral institutions of standards for the regulation of the
Internet which place a particular emphasis on cybersecurity issues, with a view to fostering the adoption
of standards that guarantee the adequate protection of communications, in particular to safeguard the
sovereignty of States and the privacy of individuals,
• Express our full solidarity with all countries, within and outside our region that have been victims of such
actions,
• Promote the joint efforts of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs to inform the Secretary-General of the United
Nations of these incidents and request prevention and sanction mechanisms on the issue at the
multilateral level
• Instruct the delegations of the Member States participating in the upcoming session of the United
Nations General Assembly to jointly present a formal proposal to that end,
• Request the Argentine Republic to submit this matter to the Security Council for consideration,
• Agree to establish a working group to coordinate efforts, together with the South American Defence
Council and the South American Infrastructure and Planning Council, aimed at carrying out activities that
will render our telecommunications more secure and reduce our dependence on foreign technology.”

32. Zemblanity and Empire
• Global digital communications: the telegraph

33. Zemblanity?
• Opposite of serendipity:
the unpleasant surprise
• Sounds like Douglas
Adams? Excellent!
• It’s based on Russian
nuclear test Arctic island
of Zembla
• But this is the Sea of
Okhotsk - to which we
return (by submarine)
later

34. Serendip: follow that camel?
• Misconception: Walpole coined serendipity in The 3 Princes
of Serendip 1754 tale about quest for a missing camel.
• 1st English translation of Tramezzino’s work 1964 as
Serendipity and the 3 Princes: From Peregrinaggio of 1557.
• http://www.sundaytimes.lk/090726/Plus/sundaytimesplus_24.html
• 2nd misconception: serendipity synonymous with accident
• Walpole’s metaphorical explanation centres on heroes who
• “were always making discoveries, by accident and sagacity,
of things they were not in quest of”
– gift for discovery while in pursuit of something else
• Sounds like Gikii?

35. Serendipity’s antonym: zemblanity
William Boyd (1998) Armadillo
• Faculty of making unhappy, unlucky and expected
discoveries by design
• Incompatible but essential indispensable part of
serendipity?
• “So what is the opposite of Serendip, a southern land of spice and
warmth, lush greenery and hummingbirds, seawashed, sunbasted? Think
of another world in the far north, barren, icebound, cold, a world of flint
and stone. Call it Zembla.”
– Derivation discussed by Simon Hertnon From Afterwit to Zemblanity: 100
Endangered Words Brought to Life.
• Opposite of paradisiacal Serendib - a barren, icebound, northern land:
Nova Zembla, nuclear testing archipelago
• Latinisation of the Russian novaya zemlya, which means ‘new land’.
• OED: Zembl(i)an: “a. adjective Belonging to Nova Zembla, hence, arctic. b.
noun A native or inhabitant of Nova Zembla.”