Case study A10/3
Hypothetical case study from the Operational Case
Protecting against a terrorist attack
A group of terrorists are at a training camp in a remote location overseas. The security
and intelligence agencies have successfully deployed targeted EI against the devices the
group are using and know that they are planning an attack on Western tourists in a major
town in the same country, but not when the attack is planned for. One day, all of the
existing devices suddenly stop being used. This is probably an indication that the group
has acquired new devices and gone to the town to prepare for the attack. It is not known
what devices the terrorists are now using. The security and intelligence agencies would
use bulk EI techniques to acquire data from devices located in the town in order to try to
identify the new devices that are being used by the group. If it is possible to identify
those devices quickly enough, it may be possible to disrupt the attack. Without bulk EI
powers, it is very unlikely that this would be achievable.
Case study A10/4
Hypothetical case study from the Operational Case
Countering biological weapons proliferation
A hypothetical totalitarian state has an indigenous email system which is mandated for
use by the general population, but also by scientists working on the state’s biological
weapons programme who are involved in the proliferation of weapons technology. This
means it is used by many thousands of people within that country. The security and
intelligence agencies can only obtain limited data from interception which means it is not
possible to identify particular accounts which belong to individuals of intelligence interest
working on the biological weapons programme. Bulk EI techniques would be needed to
access a limited amount of data relating to a very large number of users of the service –
potentially even all its users. This would enable the security and intelligence agencies to
filter out those who were associated with the biological weapons programme in order to
use targeted EI techniques against them to support the UK’s aim of disrupting their
proliferation of biological weapons.
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