U.K. marketMI5 seeks powers to trawl records in new terror hunt

Millions of U.K. commuters could have their private movements around cities secretly monitored under new counterterrorism powers being sought by the security services. Records of journeys made by people using smart cards which allow seventeen million Britons to travel by underground, bus, and train with a single swipe at the ticket barrier are among a welter of private information held by the state to which MI5 and police counterterrorism officers want access in order to help identify patterns of suspicious behavior. The Guardian’s Gaby Hinsliff writes that the request by the security services, described by shadow Home Secretary David Davis as “extraordinary,” forms part of a fierce Whitehall debate over how much access the state should have to people’s private lives in its efforts to combat terrorism. It comes as the Cabinet Office finalizes Gordon Brown’s new national security strategy, expected to identify a string of new threats to Britain — ranging from future “water wars” between countries left drought-ridden by climate change to cyber-attacks using computer hacking technology to disrupt vital elements of national infrastructure.

The fear of cyber-warfare has climbed Whitehall’s agenda since last year’s attack on the Baltic nation of Estonia, in which Russian hackers swamped state servers with millions of electronic messages until they collapsed. The Estonian defense and foreign ministries and major banks were paralyzed, while even its emergency services call system was temporarily knocked out: The attack was seen as a warning that battles once fought by invading armies or aerial bombardment could soon be replaced by virtual, but equally deadly, wars in cyberspace (see this HSDW story about similar worries in the United States).

Hinsliff writes that while such new threats may grab headlines, the critical question for the new security agenda is how far Britain is prepared to go in tackling them. What are the limits of what we want our security services to know? And could they do more to identify suspects before they strike? One solution being debated in Whitehall is an unprecedented unlocking of data held by public bodies, such as the Oyster card records maintained by Transport for London and smart cards soon to be introduced in other cities in the United Kingdom, for use in the war against terror. The Office of the Information Commissioner, the watchdog governing data privacy, confirmed last night that it had discussed the issue with government but declined to give details,