Coder of Swiss Wiretapping Trojan Speaks Out

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @02:41AM from the is-swiss-software-full-of-security-holes dept.

Lars Sobiraj writes "Ruben Unteregger has worked for a long time as a software-engineer for the Swiss company ERA IT Solutions. His job there was to code malware that would invade PCs of private users, and allow the wiretapping of VoIP calls — in particular, calls made through Skype. In the German-speaking areas of the country, the Trojans were called 'Bundestrojaner' because the Swiss government was involved with their development and use. Unfortunately, Unteregger has to remain silent about the customers of the company. Last night, he published the source code of his Skype-Trojan under the GPL."

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Re:GPL ? by chrb · 2009-08-26 04:16 · Score: 4, Interesting

About the details, why I keep the copyright on this, I can't offer a statement.
My guess would be liability. If Skype want to sue the "owner" of the trojan, the company is safe. If a "victim" of the trojan wants to sue the "owner", the company is safe. In any court case, the company can turn around and say "Ah, but we just provide advice and consultancy services. The creator and owner of the trojan code is Ruben Unteregger, and he is a completely different legal entity."