Google Street View - really a threat to national security?

I received the following press release this morning through Technology4Media:

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Google Street View Poses Threat To UK's National Security

Infosecurity Europe Says Google Street View Poses threat To UK's National Security.

The organisers of the Infosecurity Europe, Europe’s No. 1 information security event, say that they are expecting a storm of controversy to erupt over the introduction of the Google Street View facility in the UK.

"The introduction of this service in the UK, which has already attracted vociferous criticism in the US, is regarded by many as a voyeuristic intrusion of privacy. But the invasion of personal privacy is nothing compared to threat this service poses to the national security of the United Kingdom," said Tamar Beck, Group Event Director, Infosecurity Europe.

"I find it deeply disturbing that critical sites such as police stations and army facilities are accessible on the service, thus posing a serious threat to national security, since terrorists now have the electronic equivalent of a dummies' guide to 25 of the UK's major cities," she added.

According to Tamar Beck, whilst Google Maps' satellite view option has previously provided some degree of information to would-be terrorists on the Internet, the viewing angles are sufficiently limited to be of little use to a potential terrorist.

With Google Street View, she says, all the limitations go out of the window, giving terrorists instant - and anonymous - access to major UK cities on a street-by-street basis, where they can pick and choose terror targets from their training camps in Afghanistan, Iran and other volatile areas of the world.

It is to be hoped, she went on to say, that the UK Authorities take action to opt sites such as police stations and army barracks out of the Street View service, so as to make life more difficult for anyone involved with threats to UK national security.

"Not only is Street View a gross invasion of privacy, it's also a major threat to national security. This is something that will be a hot topic at next's months Infosecurity Europe event," she said.

"The world has changed immeasurably due to the Internet and not the changes it engenders are positive. The next few weeks and months could be crucial in the way the Google's UK Street View service evolves,"
she added.

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And in response I posted a comment on Twitter:

Is Google Street View a threat to UK national security? Just received a press release adamant that it is.

I was intrigued to see what other people's views were on this statement and it wasn't long before tweets came in:

@CatStormont More or less, the twitter could be a threat to national security - doesn't it show the movement/daily agenda of PM? :)

@CatStormont more so than leaving data on the train? Or having confidential documents in see through carriers? Pff!

It's true, how can Google compromise national security when the UK government very openly publicises the movements of the PM and other foreign dignitories. Recent tweets from DowningStreet demonstrate:

DowningStreet: No10 admin waits in car for PM and Nicolas Sarkozy to emerge and head to EU Council in Brussels. Stiff breeze, Tricolore flys full above us.

DowningStreet: The PM will deliver a speech on nuclear proliferation in London from around 11:00 GMT. Watch live via http://www.number10.gov.uk

I won't get into the matter of confidential documents being left on trains, or flash drives being "lost", or computers still holding data being removed from facilities, or more confidential documents being openly walked through the streets of the City in clear plastic wallets. But if anything, it appears the security of the UK was perhaps compromised long before Google Street View went live.

NB. Thank you to all who tweeted a reply. In the interest of security I have chosen not to publish your Twitter names.

My child has over 900 "friends" - but does she know them?

I was at a party at the weekend with a group of my parents friends when Facebook came up in the conversation. Now I’m pretty impressed that my parents are on Facebook, though not particularly surprised that they are not active users. But the majority of parents at the party, although novice users of the site themselves, had children who were very active on Facebook.

As the conversation developed it was interesting to hear the difference in “friend” numbers between parents and their children, or more generally adults and those under 18. I was interested to hear that with sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace there are competitions between kids as to how many “friends” they have. The concern on the faces of the parents I was talking to was evident, how many of these 900+ “friends” did their child actually know?

Evidently, children rate their popularity these days by how many online “friends” they can link to on their social networking site, or sites, of choice. This desire to quantify their popularity in such a way encourages kids to accept friendship invitations from anyone who offers, opening up a whole host of issues (something too involved for this post).

Used appropriately, such sites as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace are perfectly safe for both adults and kids. But who is teaching our children how to use these sites appropriately?

As a result I ended up giving out some advice to the worried parents at the party:

1. If you are worried about your child’s use of social networking sites, sit down and talk to them.

2. Go through your child’s “friends” list with them and get them to tell you from where and how they know people. If they can’t give you an answer better than “a friend of a friend of a friend” then talk to your child about what they know about that person, and consider removing them from the list. Do they really have over 900 “real” friends?

3. Discuss with your child what is appropriate information to display and give out over the internet. As adults we generally recognise that we don’t post our address, phone number, passwords, and full itinerary etc over the internet but do our children know this? Has someone sat down and explained it to them?

4. If you are still worried, encourage your child to use the internet in a shared area of the house such as the lounge, study or kitchen. A lot of kids have their own laptops and mobiles these days from a young age (many of my Brownies that I look after do and they are only 7 years old) and hideaway in their bedrooms. Know what sites your child is visiting.

5. Reassure your child that they don’t need to have a huge number of online friends to be popular.

I’d love to hear people’s ideas on this subject as it is a topic I want to cover with my Brownies. Is anyone a parent who has successfully tackled this issue with their children? Do you have any additional advice to give to parents? How young is too young for children to be using social networking sites? Has anyone’s school discussed the use of the internet with children?