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More Details On the German Government's Use of Malware
Reader HnT writes with an update on the German government's malware, recently dissected by the CCC: "The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reports details on cases where the government malware was used so far — all of them actually unlawful and in violation of its initial intention to only be used against serious crime and threats of terrorism."
So tempting to take the lid off, play around with it, see what else it can do.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
- meringuoid, Nov 24, 2005.
it was always assumed that it was West Germany assimilated East. Instead, it appears that the Stasi lives on, in spirit if not name.
It's not exactly your vater's Blinkenlights, is it?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
That's right. Jaywalkers, or "street-crossing terrorists" as we now call them, need to be stopped. Shoplifters, also known as "retail terrorists", are also on the rise. And we have all this budget for guns and officers, so why not?
Hmm. Maybe I can get federal health care out of this. Instead of the flu, someone gave me a case of the "stomach terrorists", so the Patriot act should pay to cure me so they don't spread, right? I suppose by the same token the "cure" for stomach terrorists involves a UAV, which I'd rather not experience.
John
Nope, that doesn't work that way.
The citizens are strictly forbidden to perform any "suspicious activity" - violent games, underage cartoon porn, depiction of svastikas no matter what context and so on. German laws are exceptionally hard there.
The government uses an and all means to control the citizens and stop them from doing any of that. The police is deadly efficient, ruthless and merciless fighting all the thoughtcrime so that no new Hitler would ever arise from the nation to overthrow the government and control the minds of the people...
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Ve haf vays of making your computer talk!
No. Just no. You are rather misinformed.
There is no such thing. Good, honest police won't stay that way if you become complacent. Far less power than what they have is enough to bring out the worst in people. Then there's the way that police tend to cover for each other, making otherwise honest cops part of the problem when they look the other way at their collegues' abuses of authority. It is sometimes called the "blue wall of silence". The citizens have a duty to call attention to all abuses and demand that they be remedied. No one else is going to do that. No one else has a stronger interest in seeing that this is done.
Have you ever heard of an employer that never audits the quality of employees' work in some way? Do they ever say "well you've always been a good employee so we'll stop caring about the work you do now"? The stakes are much, much higher when you are dealing with a branch of government which has a legal monopoly on the use of force.
I'm tired of all the glorification of cops and their jobs and authority backed by force, in general. There's nothing glamorous or admirable about it. The only reason we even have governments and police is because it's slightly better than not having them. They are both necessary evils.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Since the actions of the police are not exempt by the BKA law the usual anti-hacking laws should apply. Is someone going to jail?