The “Doughnut”. It is the largest building constructed for secret intelligence operations outside the United States.Coordinates: 51°53′58.21″N 2°7′27.64″W
Now comes disturbing news from Europe, as British Intelligence seek to become as it were “Masters of the internet.”
GCHQ ( Aka: “The Government Communications Headquarters” ) is scanning servers in multiple foreign countries for vulnerable ports, according to German newspaper Heise.
Using a tool called Hacienda, the intelligence agency seeks to ‘master the internet’ for sources of espionage.
(GCHQ) is a British intelligence and security agency responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance to the British government and armed forces.
Based in “The Doughnut“, in the suburbs of Cheltenham, it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) alongside the Security Service (MI5), the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and Defence Intelligence (DI).
Hacienda can port scan all of the servers in a country to provide information on user endpoints and scan for potential vulnerabilities. The ability to port scan is not new, but the scale of its use by government spies, with 27 countries scanned by 2009, has shocked many familiar with the software.
The process of scanning entire countries and looking specifically for vulnerable network infrastructure to exploit is consistent with the meta-goal of “Mastering the Internet”, which is also the name of a GCHQ cable-tapping program.
Targeted protocols include SSH, HTTP and FTP, among others.
Mastering the Internet (MTI) is a mass surveillance project led by the British communications intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), with a budget of over £1 billion. According to reports in The Register and The Sunday Times, as of early May 2009, contracts with a total value of £200m had already been awarded to suppliers.
See related article: Jacqui’s secret plan to ‘Master the Internet’ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/03/gchq_mti/
“The true size and scope of this thing are enormous”, said one insider in Britain, who requested we not use his name in this report. “No one is safe from this bloody thing”, he said. The insider claims to work inside the Doughnut at Cheltenham.
The American techology giant Lockheed Martin is understood to have bagged the £200m deal.