A short history of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS)
The SIS history divides into three eras: Cold War (1956-1990), post-Cold War (1990-2001) and War on Terror (2001 to the present).
Category: Privacy
Wikileaks: Leaked US cables spill the beans on NZ ties
NEW ZEALAND’S collaboration with United States intelligence agencies was “fully restored” in August 2009 but both governments decided to keep the decision secret.
Israel’s omniscient ears
Israel’s Urim base in the Negev desert is among the most important and powerful intelligence gathering sites in the world. Yet, until now, its eavesdropping has gone entirely unmentioned
Spies target animal rights campaigners
An Auckland private investigation firm has been caught out after it attached a sophisticated tracking device to a political campaigner’s car – but left the device visible from outside the vehicle. It is the third time in three years the Sunday Star-Times has caught Thompson & Clark Investigations doing covert surveillance on political groups for corporate clients.
Google case highlights risks in NZ law change
The US Internet company Google threatened to close its Chinese operations last week after discovering Chinese hackers had broken into its Gmail email system, apparently gaining access via specialised interception equipment installed by Google to assist US law enforcement agencies.
FBI role in Big Brother’s sharper eyes, ears
GO TO the heart of one of Telecom or Vodafone’s mobile phone exchanges and you’ll find the whole system – covering a quarter of the country – is run by a single computer, no bigger than a small freezer.
Cables lead off to all the company’s cellphone towers and other parts of the network. A main cable, connecting all those phone users to the world, comes out the top of the computer and passes directly into a unit in the rack above. One cable goes into the unit but two come out: one continuing out to the world, the other coiling off to secret equipment marked “LI” on the system diagrams. “LI” stands for “lawful interception”.
NZ’s cyber spies win new powers
New cyber-monitoring measures have been quietly introduced giving police and Security Intelligence Service officers the power to monitor all aspects of someone’s online life. The measures are the largest expansion of police and SIS surveillance capabilities for decades, and mean that all mobile calls and texts, email, internet surfing and online shopping, chatting and social networking can be monitored anywhere in New Zealand.
Postal blunder – are your tax records safe?
TREASURY HAS lost a computer disk containing millions of New Zealanders’ confidential tax records, after ignoring procedures and sending the CD through the mail.
Activist considers court action against police informer
PROTESTER SIMON OOSTERMAN might bring charges against police informer Rob Gilchrist for harming his case at a trial over the police use of pepper spray. A follow up article on anti-terrorist police.
Crossing the line: the activist who turned police informer
The police have used an informer to spy on New Zealand protest groups for nearly 10 years – providing them with intimate details about planned protests and even the private lives of group members….