MI5 seeks powers to trawl records in new terror hunt

citing issues of national security. Currently the security services can demand the Oyster records of specific individuals under investigation to establish where they have been, but cannot trawl the whole database. Supporters of calls for more sharing of data argue, however, that apparently trivial snippets — like the journeys an individual makes around the capital — could become important pieces of the jigsaw when fitted into a pattern of other publicly held information on an individual’s movements, habits, education, and other personal details. That could lead, they argue, to the unmasking of otherwise undetected suspects. Critics, however, fear a shift towards U.S.-style data mining, a controversial technique using powerful computers to sift and scan millions of pieces of data, seeking patterns of behavior which match the known profiles of terrorist suspects. They argue that it is unfair for millions of innocent people to have their privacy invaded on the off-chance of finding a handful of bad apples. “It’s looking for a needle in a haystack, and we all make up the haystack,” said former Labor minister Michael Meacher, who has a close interest in data sharing. “Whether all our details have to be reviewed because there is one needle among us - I don’t think the case is made.” Jago Russell, policy officer at the campaign group Liberty, said technological advances had made “mass computerized fishing expeditions” easier to undertake, but they offered no easy answers. “The problem is what do you do once you identify somebody who has a profile that suggests suspicions,” he said. “Once the security services have identified somebody who fits a pattern, it creates an inevitable pressure to impose restrictions.” Individuals wrongly identified as suspicious might lose high-security jobs, or have their immigration status brought into doubt, he said. Ministers are also understood to share concerns over civil liberties, following public opposition to ID cards, and the debate is so sensitive that it may not even form part of Brown’s published strategy.

If there is no consensus yet on the defense, however, there is an emerging agreement on the mode of attack. The security strategy will argue that in the coming decades Britain faces threats of a new and different order. Its critics argue the government is far from ready. The cyber-assault on Estonia confirmed that the West now faces a relatively cheap, low-risk means of warfare that can be conducted from anywhere in the world,