Big brother returns with a new name


Neil Watson, Head of Service Operations at wholesale voice and data communications provider Entanet, writes on the company’s blog:

The IMP (Interception Modernisation Programme) was a highly controversial plan from the then Labour government which planned to intercept and store immense amounts of communications data in a bid to fight cybercrime and terrorism. It would have been the world’s largest surveillance system and was expected to cost a whopping £2billion but, with the change of government and in the face of constant criticism, it looked like the IMP had been scrapped. In fact in the new government’s original coalition agreement they pledge “An end to storing Internet and email records without good reason”.

That was until the Home Secretary Theresa May announced its reincarnation, albeit under a new name, earlier this month. The IMP, now known as the Communications Capabilities Development Programme (CCDP), will be included in the Government’s Counter Terrorism Strategy known as CONTEST.