CHAPTER 10: INTELLIGENCE
(g)
To be subject to oversight that is sufficiently rigorous to maintain public consent
and confidence, without distracting more than is necessary from the
performance of their core functions.
(h)
Individual agencies also make some specific suggestions in respect of
warrantry.
10.15. These priorities are developed in the remainder of this Chapter.
Agency capabilities
10.16. The Agencies depend increasingly on cooperation with each other and with
international partners. Against that background:
(a)
They seek to acquire communications, by cooperation with service providers or
covertly, in order to find information which can lead them to an otherwise
unknown or obscured target.
(b)
They develop software that enables them to analyse very large amounts of
acquired data, to identify linkages and find new targets of intelligence interest
(“target discovery”).
(c)
They attempt to overcome encryption and its impact on traditional methods of
interception by attacking it with powerful computers, by hacking individuals'
electronic devices, by modifying software and by guile, innovation and
creativity.
(d)
They seek to understand the nature and scale of cyber attack in order to protect
Government services online, the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure,
businesses and individuals.
(e)
They seek to operate without being discovered.
(f)
They seek to influence their targets' behaviour, by making themselves seem
omnipotent or - at other times - weak.
In all this, the Agencies are no different to their counterparts in other democratic
countries. But they strive, of course, to be among the best.
Technological change and encryption
10.17. All countries face the same challenges from the development of technology and the
communications market, as set out in Chapter 4. The Director of Europol said recently
that encryption has become:
" .. the biggest problem for the police and the security service authorities in
dealing with the threats from terrorism … It's changed the very nature of
counter-terrorist work from one that has been traditionally reliant on having
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