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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.

6 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 ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Funny
      I just don't see how this is possible at all. How do you get those foil wrappers in an email? Just won't work.

      And besides, what happens if the guy is celibate? Or a Unix?

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:Fan-diddly-astic by hazem · · Score: 5, Insightful

      yes. there was a story net a few says ago where a court ordered that the guy couldn't use anything other than windows because their monitering software only worked on it,

      There is a huge difference. In the case you're referring to, the man was already convicted of a crime. A result of conviction is often a loss of certain liberties and rights. As a condition of his parole (which can be quite arbitrary on the part of the state) he can continue to use a computer provided it is with the monitoring software running - this is only possible with Windows. It's difficult to make a case that will stand up that the conditions are particularly onerous or truly cruel and unusual.

      On the other hand, this article is about a case where a government wants to send spy software to suspected criminals in the homes they can get useful information for a prosecution. I'm not familiar with German law, but if this were the US, it's probably okay for the government to do this. There are similar tactics that have not been thrown out, such as mailing a "you won a prize" envelope to a suspected murderer/rapist - which he then licked, leaving his DNA, and returned - thus giving the probable cause for an arrest and prosecution).

      The government can't yet compel someone to give up their DNA and I suspect that a similar logic would be applied to a person's choice of computer software - the government can't compel you to use a certain kind of software just to make it convenient to gather data to be used against you. We are all presumed innocent and they have to have probable cause merely to investigate. To actually compel you to give up rights (requiring you to run specific software) you need to have a conviction... or a law that applies to all of us.

  2. Via e-mail? by peipas · · Score: 5, Funny

    The leader of your terrorist cell has sent you an e-card! Double-click the attachment to view it!

    [Attached: ecard.exe]

  3. Re:Thanks for the heads up... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Terrorists read Digg, not Slashdot.

  4. Re:How is this different? by Rudolf · · Score: 5, Informative

    How is this different from being allowed to tap someone's phone or plant a bug? As long as warrants are involved [...]

    With a warrant you have court approval. This is being done because the court did not grant approval.

    From the summary:
    The action comes in response to a court denying prosecutors' requests to break into suspects' computers over the Internet.