Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) and IT Security Penetration Testing

The primary purpose of RIPA was to give law enforcement and the security services greater powers of surveillance. Here is the summary:

"...Any interception of a communication which is carried out at any place in the United Kingdom by, or with the express or implied consent of, a person having the right to control the operation or the use of a private telecommunication system shall be actionable at the suit or instance of the sender or recipient, or intended recipient, of the communication if it is without lawful authority and is either

1. an interception of that communication in the course of its transmission by means of that private system; or

2. an interception of that communication in the course of its transmission, by means of a public telecommunication system, to or from apparatus comprised in that private telecommunication system..."