Germany Seeks Expansion of Computer Spying

gooman writes "The LA Times reports on a proposal to secretly scan suspects' hard drives which is causing unease in a nation with a history of official surveillance. Along with several other European countries, Germany is seeking authority to plant secret Trojan viruses into the computers of suspects that could scan files, photos, diagrams and voice recordings, record every keystroke typed and possibly even turn on webcams and microphones in an attempt to gain knowledge of attacks before they happen."

Comments

Mandated use of Windows?

[whoever57]

Next they will be mandating the use of Windows because their trojan does not work on Macs and Linux. I can just imagine getting a letter: "Dear Suspect, in order to secretly monitor your computer use, we require..."

Hackers of the World unite!

[iknownuttin]

FTFA:Berlin-based hacker organization the Chaos Computer Club, which has pledged to find and publicize the first government Trojan.

I hope hacker organizations around the World all do the same, and if possible, do it for folks who live in countries where such activity will get them killed. *ahem*Chine*ahem*

Mmmhm

[rrohbeck]

Imagine a back door, vulnerability or leaked/cracked private key in one of those.

Given governments' competence in such matters that's just a matter of time.

Legal to Protect Against

[moore.dustin]

Is it going to be legal to protect yourself from these? Assuming they are found, dissected, and something is available to block or corrupt their program, would it not be classified as malware and thus, completely legal to protect against.

As for the reliability of the information gathered: Is information gathered in this way admissible? It would seem that there are to many potential snags with this that it would never be able to be relied upon by itself.

Oh, *Germany*!

[autophile]

The LA Times reports on a proposal to secretly scan suspects' hard drives which is causing unease in a nation with a history of official surveillance.

At first I thought they were talking about the US. Then the next sentence says it's Germany. Then I thought they meant the US but wrote Germany by mistake.

--Rob

Re:Europe beating USA in the big brother arms race

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

I don't know who "we" is for you, but here in the UK, it's official in name only: most of the laws being passed today that affect me are either coming from Europe (where the Commission I don't get a say in electing trump the Parliament I do), Gordon Brown and his administration (who were never elected and have no legitimate mandate whatsoever), or my local County Council (who are imposing very unpopular measures on my city — which gets represented by only a few seats on the County Council — in direct conflict with the City Council).

In other words, I haven't even had a chance to vote either for or against any of the three major levels of government that can make "official" rules that affect me today. They may be official on pretty headed paper, but they've no more ethical basis than a third world dictator.

However, for the first time today, senior figures in a credible opposition party started talking openly about mass civil disobedience in protest against one of these heavy-handed laws imposed by a government with little popular support. There is yet hope...