United Kingdom

Historical telecommunications security milestones, vulnerabilities, wiretapping incidents, and signaling exploits recorded in United Kingdom.

RECORDS INDEXED5

SPAN1850–2013

AVG SEVERITY8.0 / 10

Intercept Log — United Kingdom

005 RECORDS

1850

Data

5.5

World's First Submarine Communications Cable Laid

John & Jacob Brett laid the first subsea cable across the English Channel between Dover and Calais, connecting the British and French telegraph networks on August 28, 1850.

1903

Signaling

8.0

Nevil Maskelyne's Royal Institution Wireless Interception & Spoofing

Illusionist and wireless pioneer Nevil Maskelyne intercepted and injected sarcastic Morse code insulting Guglielmo Marconi during a live demonstration at the Royal Institution in London, proving that open radio channels lacked origin authentication.

1917

Data

9.5

Room 40 & The Zimmermann Telegram Submarine Cable Interception

British cable ship Telconia severed Germany's direct transatlantic subsea cables at the outbreak of WWI, forcing German diplomatic messages onto neutral cables transiting British landing stations where Room 40 intercepted the Zimmermann Telegram.

1956

Voice

7.5

TAT-1: First Transatlantic Telephone Submarine Cable System Launch

TAT-1 (Transatlantic No. 1) was inaugurated between Oban, Scotland and Clarenville, Newfoundland, providing 36 simultaneous telephone circuits and replacing erratic HF radiotelephone links.

2013

Data

9.4

NSA & GCHQ MUSCULAR / TEMPORA Subsea Cable Landing Optical Taps

Snowden disclosures revealed GCHQ's TEMPORA and NSA's MUSCULAR programs, which installed passive optical beam splitters on transatlantic fiber cables and inter-datacenter backhauls.