LONDON — One of Britain’s highest-ranking intelligence officials on Tuesday castigated the giant American companies that dominate the Internet for providing the “command-and-control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals” and challenged the companies to find a better balance between privacy and security.
伦敦——本周二,英国最高级别的情报官员之一严厉批评了主导互联网的美国巨头公司,说他们“为恐怖分子和犯罪分子提供了其首选的指挥和控制网络”,他敦促这些公司在隐私权和公众安全之间更好地把握平衡。
The statements were made by Robert Hannigan, the newly appointed director of GCHQ, Britain’s electronic intelligence agency. They were among the most pointed in a campaign by intelligence services in Britain and the United States against pressure to rein in their digital surveillance following disclosures by the American former contractor Edward J. Snowden.
这名官员是英国电子情报机构政府通讯总部(Government Communications Headquarters,简称GCHQ)的新任总监罗伯特·汉尼根(Robert Hannigan)。他的这些声明代表着英美情报机构抗压活动中最尖锐的声音之一;自从美国前承包商雇员爱德华·J·斯诺登(Edward J. Snowden)泄密之后,遏制情报机构数字监控能力的压力就一直存在。
Mr. Hannigan’s statements were among the most critical of American technology firms by the head of a major intelligence agency; the accusation went beyond what United States officials have said about Apple, Google and others who are now moving toward sophisticated encryption of more and more data on phones and email systems.
汉尼根的声明,是美国科技公司从主要情报机构负责人那里获得的最严厉的批评之一;他的指责,超过了美国官员对苹果、谷歌等公司的说法。这些公司正在对电话和电邮系统的数据采取越来越复杂的加密措施。
But the companies, saying they are responding to demand from their users, show no signs of backing down. Recently the chief executive of Apple, Tim Cook, said governments that want data should deal with the users of the technology, not the providers of the hardware and services. Brad Smith, the general counsel of Microsoft Corporation, told a Harvard Law School symposium on Tuesday that, if anything, companies like his “will move to strengthen encryption,” and require governments to get court orders if they want data.
但这些公司并没有显示出任何让步迹象,他们说自己正在响应用户的需求。苹果首席执行官蒂姆·库克(Tim Cook)最近表示,政府如果想获取数据,就应该去找这些技术的用户,而不是它们的硬件和服务提供者。本周二,微软公司的首席法律顾问布拉德·史密斯(Brad Smith)在哈佛法学院(Harvard Law School)的一个研讨会上表示,像微软这样的公司就算要采取行动,也是“提升加密程度”,并要求各国政府在索取数据之前出示法庭令。
Mr. Hannigan, in an opinion article on Tuesday in The Financial Times, singled out the Islamic State, the radical group also known as ISIS and ISIL, as one “whose members have grown up on the Internet” and are “exploiting the power of the web to create a jihadi threat with near-global reach.”
汉尼根本周二在《金融时报》(The Financial Times)发表评论文章,说激进组织“伊斯兰国”(Islamic State,也称为ISIS和ISIL)的“成员在互联网上成长着”,这些人“利用网络的力量,几乎构成了全球范围内的圣战威胁”。
In a speech two weeks ago, the director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, said that the “post-Snowden pendulum” had “gone too far.” On Monday, Adm. Michael S. Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, took a less confrontational approach, telling students and faculty members at Stanford University that “a fundamentally strong Internet is in the best interest of the U.S.”
在两周前的一次演讲中,美国联邦调查局(FBI)局长詹姆斯·B·科米(James B. Comey)说,“后斯诺登时代的钟摆”已经“向一边摇摆得太远了”。国家安全局(National Security Agency)局长迈克尔·S·罗杰斯上将(Michael S. Rogers)的观点更为柔和,他本周一在斯坦福大学(Stanford University)对学生和教职员工说,“让互联网从根本上变得强大,符合美国的最佳利益。”
Increasingly encrypted products and services are “a challenge,” Admiral Rogers said. “And we’ll deal with it.”
越来越多的加密产品和服务是“一个挑战”,罗杰斯上将说。“我们将应对这个挑战。”
But he also pushed for better sharing of data between the intelligence community and private technology companies. Moves to set up a formal information-sharing system have stalled in Congress in the face of objections from the private sector.
但他也在推动情报界和私人科技公司之间更好地分享数据。由于私营部门的反对,建立一个正式的信息共享系统的提案在国会举步维艰。
“It is unrealistic to expect the private sector to withstand the actions of nation states,” Admiral Rogers said. “I think it is also unrealistic to expect the government to deal with this all by itself. ”
“让私营部门无保留地接受国家的行动,是不现实的,”罗杰斯上将说。“我认为,期待政府自己来应对这一切,这也不现实。”
Technology companies, which harvest customer data for commercial uses, reacted cautiously on Tuesday, generally seeking to avoid any role that would make them agents of government intelligence gathering. “It’s such a slippery slope with these types of requests,” said Stefan Weitz, director of search at Microsoft. “If you say yes to one request, more will inevitably start to come in. At what point do you stop?”
科技公司出于商业用途而收集客户数据,本周二它们的反应很谨慎。这些公司通常会避免扮演任何让它们成为政府的情报收集代理者的角色。“这些类型的请求,开了头就收不住,”微软的搜索主管史蒂芬·维茨(Stefan Weitz)说。“如果你答应一个请求,不可避免地就会收到更多请求,那你什么时候才能停下来?”
The opinion article by Mr. Hannigan referred specifically to messaging and social media sites and apps such as Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp.
汉尼根的评论文章特别提到了通讯类和社交媒体类的站点和应用,比如Twitter、Facebook和WhatsApp。
“There is no need for today’s would-be jihadis to seek out restricted websites with secret passwords: They can follow other young people posting their adventures in Syria as they would anywhere else,” he wrote.
“想成为圣战者的人,如今不需要使用机密密码去访问受限的网站了,因为他们可以关注一些把自己在叙利亚等地的冒险经历贴出来的年轻人,”他写道。