Do you need secure communications? It probably depends on the nature of your business but the following businesses or individuals are in our opinion likely to require secure systems, defense contractors, offshore tax advisors, government pressure groups, political parties, politicians, financial institutions, lawyers, companies tendering for government contracts, private investigators and anyone who is not on speaking terms with their government! only you can decide if you need to increase your security so read the following, it is fairly lengthy but vital reading so read through these worrying developments and decide!

In May this year EU governments declared their intention to give law enforcement agencies access to all communications data, the plan is to draft and amend EU laws on data protection and privacy to comply with the demands of the "various agencies" for access to all telecommunications content and traffic data the basic plan is as follows.

· The Council of the European Union backs retention and archiving of all phone-calls, e-mails, faxes, internet usage and websites for up to seven years

· "ENFOPOL 98" went through EU Justice and Home Affairs Council at the end of May: extending surveillance to mobile phones, internet usage and websites

· Access to documents relating to the new legislation was refused to various Civil Rights organisations because disclosure "could impede the efficiency of ongoing deliberations" !!!! In other words they knew all hell would break loose if they had allowed the proposals to be scrutinised.

It is a scandalous development all the protections for personal freedom and privacy that were put in place through international data protection rules and privacy Directives have been fatally undermined at a stroke.

Without doubt the worst two countries in the EU at the current time for snooping and invasion of privacy are the UK and Holland where vast amounts of DATA are routinely monitored, making things even worse British common law makes no presumption that the individual has the right to privacy and this has generated an extraordinary culture in British officialdom which presumes a right to investigate. As usual, there are no proposals for serious safeguards, such as requiring investigating authorities to apply to a court for the right to gain access to such information. The new Human Rights Act may eventually make a difference, but it will take time to establish a body of case law in defence of individual liberties.

Even disregarding the EU plans, Britain's intelligence services are seeking powers to seize all records of telephone calls, emails and internet connections made by every person living in the country these plans are encompassed within the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000), a document circulated to Home Office officials (a copy was sent to ourselves by an MP) reveals that MI5, MI6 and the police are demanding new legislation to log every phone call made in the UK and store the information for seven years at a vast government-run 'data warehouse', a super computer that will hold the information.

Surprisingly the Labour Party was opposed to these developments in its 1997 manifesto the relevant except is below.

"Attempts to control the use of encryption technology are wrong in principle, unworkable in practice, and damaging to the long-term economic value of the information networks" - Labour party manifesto 1997

The legislation to snoop around citizen's affairs is in place in jurisdictions other than the UK and Holland. In fact many countries require their telecommunications providers to maintain an interception capability, including France, Germany, Sweden, the USA, Canada and Australia. As referred to earlier Holland and the UK are probably the worse two offenders in Europe, the Dutch Telecommunications Act 1998 provided a legal framework for interception by internet service providers, who had until April this year to install an interception capability.

Many clients have advised us they use encrypted phone systems, voice mail, messaging and other facilities, well sorry to worry you but The United States, Belgium, the Netherlands and India intend to require third parties to release encryption keys. Singapore and Malaysia already do. Ireland, Canada, Sweden and Finland are considering doing so. In the UK the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill gives the Home Secretary (Interior Minister) the power to demand you decrypt data on demand. Failing to provide the key will be a criminal offence, with a maximum penalty of two years in jail, and carries with it the presumption of guilt. You must somehow prove you do not have the key. That you may have mislaid or forgotten it will not be a defence.

Does a solution exist? Fortunately yes, we have dealt with a company for several years who specialise in arranging secure communications channels for large corporations and VIP's operating in Libya, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Syria and any other country where government interception is rife. The company is based in Zürich and business security is their business whatever your need from a secure Voicemail to a complete secure network they will be able to help, if you wish to contact them for a consultation email a summary of your requirements to ourselves and we will ask them to contact you direct.

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