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Bavarian Police Can Legally Place Trojans On PCs
An anonymous reader writes "The Bavarian Parliament passed a law that allows Bavarian police to place 'Remote Forensic Software' (Google translation) on a suspect's computer as well as on the computers of a suspect's contacts. They may break into houses in secret to install the RFS if a remote installation is not possible; and while they are there a (physical) search is permitted too. The RFS may be used to read, delete, and alter data." The translation says that RFSs may be used in cases of an "urgent threat to the existence or the security of the Federation or a country or physical, life or liberty of a person... Even where there is a reasonable assumptions on concrete preparatory acts for such serious offenses."
but does the trojan run on linux?
Funny how the context allows a "does it run on linux" joke get modded up as insightful....
...What about the Soviet Russia jokes? Will they get mod as informative?
What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women.
I thought that the memories of the Geheime Staatspolizei made sure the germans would never approve of such things...
Most people who were alive to see World War II Germany have passed on. I think this allows the forgetfullness we see across the world -- and unfortunately is allowing history to repeat itself in the restriction of rights in many countries...
Yeah it's funny when you put it that way, but that's how it usually is. When a government takes an action under the guise of national security, the nation is actually less secure because a stronger government is a greater threat to liberty.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Oh sure and the US Patriot Act was only for terrorists. It'd never be used improperly or wrongly
When I was in Munich I had a phone and a PC. The PC had voicemodem so it could act as a answering machine / fax machine. I got some cables to plug it into the phone socket. And the wierd thing is I could get the phone to work or the PC but not both. It turns out that German phone sockets will only allow one device to be connected. Someone said that this was to "prevent eavesdropping. In Germany this is regarded as important because of our experience of Nazism".
I said something like "if the Nazis tapped phones they presumably did it at the exchange, not by having some sinister dude in a leather coat, monacle and jackboots sitting in the spare room taking notes". The German guy explaining gave me a very dirty look.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
If the software they install can delete and alter files, how can any evidence they procure be admissible in a court of law?
"Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine No Posessions?'" -- Elvis Costello
Run Linux
Encrypt Boot and home disks.
Encrypt everything.
md5sum *everything*
Boot off a knoppix or install CD periodically.
Keep a spare motherboard around and/or change motherboards frequently.
Always buy a name brand ethernet card that is a different chipset than your motherboard.
Run wireshark on your laptop which you *NEVER* let out of your sight.
Remember, thieves will only steal your stuff. The government will steal your life and liberty if it is politically possible.
China has quietly been spending as much as the US on their military (without the outgoing expense of 2 theatres of war) for 10 years and has 2,000,000 soldiers in uniform. 10 years ago your view would have been stupid but nowadays it is worrying that people have not noticed how the world has changed. China is already stronger than the US and is growing while the US is in decline. Russia is already back in the frame and growing fast. The US could easily be in 3rd place in 10 years time if people do not wake up soon.
People talk about the 1990s as if Russia collapsed but it did not. It had 4 times the military that the US had and it could not cope with the cost. It cut right back at a speed which looked like collapse but they kept all the good stuff (titanium hulled subs etc.) and grew from that. They are back in the game and growing fast.
I was in China 10 years ago (I look forward to going back) and could see no reason why they would want to rise up against anything. The country is so different from the picture painted in our media that it was hard to recognise it. I was in Russia 5 years ago (and hated the place) and saw a people wholeheartedly behind their government.
If we, in the west, do not pull our heads out of our arses we will end up losing a major conflict soon as we will end up having to fight in Taiwan or North Korea and we could easily be on the losing side if we still think that Chinese missiles are 1950 models when they took our designs 10 years ago and improved on them.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.