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Germany Plans To Email Trojans

Posted by kdawson on from the we-can-do-it-but-you-can't dept.

speardane sends us word of a proposal in the German legislature to make it legal for that government to email spyware to terror suspects. The action comes in response to a court denying prosecutors' requests to break into suspects' computers over the Internet. The German chancellor supports the measure despite considerable outcry from political opponents and rights groups.

7 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Fan-diddly-astic by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It sounds like the honour virus to be honest, "We need to monitor you, if you would wear this covert recording hat whilst doing your illegal stuff it would be fan-diddly-astic".

    Will it be illegal to thwart the attack?

    Will it become illegal to use an alternative operating system or antivirus software or even just common sense to deflect these payloads?

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
    1. Re:Fan-diddly-astic by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Here's a more interesting thing: Would it be illegal to forward the same trojan to, say, the NSA with the intent to infect and making it look like it's from the German Feds?

      Think of the diplomatic fun we'll all have!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. Honeypot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Now wont the terrorists set up their own honeypots for these?

    I think it would be pretty cool to get a trojen written by the government, that sends data back to the government and is read by computers in the most secret government areas... imagine what terrorists could do if they find a bug in it?

  3. Next headlines: by Arancaytar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Entire IP range used by governmental mail servers now blacklisted by most email filters.

    And I was half hoping it would finally grow out of fashion to be ashamed of this country now that the US was setting the world standard in pulling all this crap. Premature hope, apparently.

  4. Anti-hacking law? by dmclap · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Didn't Germany recently pass a law banning most "hacking" tools, and by extension, most tools that can be used to detect and defeat hacking? And if so, could these be related? I sincerely hope not, since if so, someone (or multiple persons) in the German government is outclassing the Bush administration in asshole terrorism laws. Suspected of terrorism? Get a trojan. Try to detect/remove the trojan? Break the law and get sent to jail anyway!

    Yes, I know that it can be a stretch to say that no hacking tools means you can't still defeat this trojan, but maybe they could either create a trojan that could only be defeated that way, or just expand the law in later years to make it illegal to use anti-virus software "in a way that interferes with a government investigation" or something. Either way, it could lead to some scary stuff if properly abused. Even if you don't start the cycle of getting sent to prison, a trojan can dig up some nice information about enemies of yours.

  5. "terror suspects" by nurb432 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ya, that label will never be abused.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  6. Re:Too many holes to fly for long... by nospam007 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Will the German government call upon anti-virus makers to allow the Trojans to be inserted onto machines without a red flag being raised?

    Will the anti-virus companies go along with such a request?

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    They already said they'd refuse.