The intelligence organization already admitted to spying on Dotcom, a legal resident

Oct 5, 2012 15:11 GMT  ·  By
MegaUpload's Kim Dotcom is being turned into a hero by government incompetence and abuse
   MegaUpload's Kim Dotcom is being turned into a hero by government incompetence and abuse

Not long ago, it was revealed that MegaUpload's Kim Dotcom and another employee of the company were spied upon by New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau, its external security agency.

This wasn't just an overreach, it was illegal as the GCSB doesn't have the right to spy on citizens of permanent residents.

But with so many blunders before it, it was hardly surprising. New Zealand apologized and the entire thing was swept under the rug.

Not for long though, it now seems that the spying went far beyond what was admitted. The GCSB admitted that it started monitoring Dotcom's internet connection in December. But new data indicates that the spying started in November or even earlier.

The way this was discovered is interesting to say the least, Dotcom wanted to have the best possible internet connection available and he had a dedicated line to the ISP.

In that time, he was competing for the title of best Modern Warfare player in the world, a title which he held when he was arrested. To be ranked the best player in the world, you need more than skill, you need a lot of time and there's no room for error.

Latency, commonly called "lag" in games, the time it takes for network packets to reach their destination and therefore the time between when a player makes an action and when it's registered by the server, is crucial, for first-person shooters in particular.

Dotcom was enjoying a very nice 30 ms lag through his dedicated connection, but the figure shot up to 180 ms sometime in November, with no apparent reason. The ISPs investigation discovered that the connection was being diverted to somewhere inside New Zealand.

The GCSB is already under police investigation for admitting to spying on Dotcom from December 16th to January 20th. Having it revealed that the spying started sooner than GCSB admitted is not going to help its case.

The string of errors, abuses and misjudgements in the MegaUpload case stretches back for months. As time passes, more seem to surface, questioning the professionalism and even the competence of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors in both the US and New Zealand. It's enough to turn someone like Kim Dotcom into an unlikely martyr and hero.