UK government hit with new complaint about hacking abroad

A group of privacy advocates and internet providers has filed a new challenge to the U.K. government’s use of bulk hacking abroad.

U.K.-based Privacy International and five internet and communications providers aim to “bring the government’s hacking under the rule of law,” they said in a case lodged Friday with the European Court of Human Rights.

Their application challenges the U.K. Investigatory Powers Tribunal’s (IPT’s) February refusal to rule on whether hacking efforts outside the U.K. by the GCHQ British intelligence service comply with the European Convention on Human Rights. That decision was part of a case brought by Privacy International against GCHQ back in 2014, and it effectively meant that the U.K. government could lawfully conduct bulk hacking of computers, mobile devices, and networks located anywhere outside of the UK, the group said.

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