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Dutch Ministry Proposes Powers For Police To Hack Computers, Install Spyware
hypnosec writes "The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security has proposed some rather over the line measures and wants to extend such powers to the police that would allow them to break into computers and mobile phones in any part of the world. According to the proposal (PDF in Dutch), dated October 15, the ministry has asked for powers that would allow police to not only break into computers, but also allow them to install spyware, search for data in those computers, and destroy data. As explained by digital rights group 'Bits of Freedom,' which obtained the copy of the proposal, if the Dutch police get such powers, the security of computer users would be lessened and there will be a 'perverse incentive to keep information security weak.'"
I'm sick and tired of seeing these new laws proposed almost weekly! What the heck is going and who is pushing towards all these new law propositions for allowing breaking into users computers, reading their email, tracking all activity and attempts at controlling the internet.
I wont allow these bastards who know nothing about how things even work to control this network of ours. They are trying take away our basic freedom all the time to communicate freely. They know that free speech is harmful for the powers that be. Enough already!
I call all sysadmins and network administrators to start opposing these law enforcers! We have the power to make the change. We are the ones who install these rules into production, and we are the ones who can stop this madness. And those who continue oppressing us, know this: f*ck you! You will not win. Give up already and let's try to work together instead of assuming everyone is a damn terrorist.
GeoKone.NET
What happens if the police do actual damage to important infrastructure. Either civic or private?
Or if police introduce a vulnerability that allows the above?
Don't mess with active systems.
This is what happens when 1) make mundane activities (like saying something cheeky online) illegal, and 2) insist that law enforcement do something about it.
Law enforcement says " I need to do X to accomplish Y." Government and public supporters say "ok, just crack down on Y for us, ok?"
Later, government says "cracking down on Y isn't enough! We have to make W P and Q illegal, and work to stop that too, to keep our citizens safe!" (Where "safe" is a ephemeral and impossible goal, like achieving lightspeed. Each increment toward the goal comes at exponentially higher costs, and you can never actually get there anyway.)
Law enforcement says "we need all kinds of expanded powers for that!"
Rinse, repeat, until people need licenses to speak, wear only government sanctioned clothing, are put on government regulated diets, and live with a swarm of automated security drones following them everywhere.
"To infinity and beyond!" Takes on a sharply malign connotation here.
The initial problems are less severe than the consequences of policing it. Rather than capitulate to further erosion of rights and libertis, we should just say no.
What are they going to do? They'd be screwed, right? I've recently thought about building some kind of virtual honeypot fronting as my connection to the outside world, with nothing actually sensitive in it. If someone broke into it, it would be so much fun to play games with the attackers.
Ezekiel 23:20
Privacy is over rated unless you have something to hide.
How is this any different than allowing police to break into homes and install covert cameras? Do they already allow this?
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
I can remember a time when the Netherlands was certainly the most laid-back, uncritical country in Europe - possible the world.
While getting backdoors into linux would be considerably difficult, it wouldn't be impossible.
Say for instance, government agencies tell nVidia to include an exploit in their binary blob kernel space driver.
How will you spot it, without the source?
Read it again, Sam! They're going for powers to do that to ANY COMPUTER ON THE PLANET!
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
We have police to stop crimes, not to commit them. What this dude just did, was proposing the commit of a crime at big scale.
-Woof woof woof!
My Independent Government in Exile from Mars has just been granted authority by the nDimensional judiciary to ignore national sovereignty and any simple definition of sanity - to damage or destroy Dutch Police information assets, where ever they may exist in the outer 3rd of the galactic rim.
The Quantum Pope already authorized my deputization of the WHOLE INTARWEBZ! So, your are all welcome to hop to it!
p.s.: I've watched some of those Dutch police beat the crap out of unmanageable, drunken British tourists near Dam Square. My advice? Avoid the REALLY tall ones.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
This message was brought to you by People's Party for Freedom and Democracy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Party_for_Freedom_and_Democracy
Main force behind these kind of laws/proposals are always the parties that have Freedom (to limit others) in their name (we have a couple of them) or from a Christian background (we know that is good for you plebs).
Binary code analysis. The same way most exploits are found.
Yes, and that has already happened. This is the push to avoid judges post hoc, but attain permission pre hoc.
The nuance: The proposal is to have law enforcement ask a certain type of judge to approve the hacking before it occurs, similar to the way phone taps are approved.
It would furthermore only be allowable when somebody is suspect of severe crimes, f.i. a crime for which the maximum sentence is at least 4 years of incarceration (note the wording here, one would assume 'suspected terrorist' is sufficient).
Realistically, though, the whole thing should be comparable to phone taps and one should either oppose both or deem both to be acceptable.
The majority of our (recently elected) parliament is supportive of the proposal (including the parties that are most probably going to form a coalition government), although many members of parliament note that when an actual law is proposed, the protection of privacy should be more strictly worded (in the sense that minor 'crimes' should not warrant government hacking).
So, some Dutch bureaucrats want to give their cops the authority to commit acts of war? Who do they think they are, the USA?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Note how the authorities never use the sledgehammer approach to stamping out crime (and potential crime) committed by politicians and police. It's only the citizenry that are subject to such heavy-handed approaches.
When it comes to politicians and police they tread softly, and with surgical precision. (If at all.)
Actually, you're dead right. The cops were mostly after no one getting hurt.
And even customs security agents have been good folks - not robots or "roles".
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
I agree. Mod this fucker up.
I saw surveillance cam footage of a cop in a nearby village (small town in the US)- off duty, breaking the antenna off a car in a parking lot and using it to beat his wife with it until she was on the ground in a fetal position screaming for help. I do not think she was seriously hurt outside some welts in various places. The day after this happened, someone was sentenced to 5 years in prison for domestic violence for telling his spouse he would kill her if she ever returned to his home again. He then shoved her out the door and she fell obtaining a few bruises. This supposedly happened after he caught her cheating with someone else moments earlier. The other guy ran and wasn't involved in the domestic violence.
The cop, he was sentenced to time served (over night) and had to complete an anger management course with 100 hours community service.
Another instance that recently happened which baffles the mind. An under aged woman (drinking age) called a friend who was a county sheriff claiming she was drunk and needed a ride home. He went to a bar outside of town and met her. Nothing has been said about if she was drinking at the bar or pulled into it after trying to drive from somewhere else and realizing she was to intoxicated to drive. The sheriff deputy went to get her, convinced her to follow him back to his house, then started making sexual advances towards her. The woman decided she wanted nothing of it and tried to leave. The Deputy wouldn't let her leave, she escaped and went outside. He subdued her using choke-holds and and various other aspects of his training even kicking and punching her. A few people saw this happening while exiting a near by bar and went over to prevent what they described as a rape in progress according to the 911 call. The deputy was arrested under suspicion of kidnapping, sexual assault, criminal assault, and something else by the town police. 3 weeks later, all charges against him had been dropped and he resigned from the Sheriff's department. 2 weeks after that, he was hired as a police deputy in a neighboring town and rumor has it that his pay actually increased in the process.
It seems like the justice system is really code for Just us as far as they are concerned.