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Antivirus Firms "Won't Co-operate" With PC-Hacking Dutch Police
nk497 writes "Dutch police are set to get the power to hack people's computers or install spyware as part of investigations — but antivirus experts say they won't help police reach their targets. Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, said the Dutch bill could lead to antivirus firms being asked asked to cooperate with authorities to let an attack reach the target. So far, Hypponen hasn't seen a single antivirus vendor cooperate with such a request, and said his own firm wouldn't want to take part. Purely for business reasons, it doesn't make sense to fail to protect customers and let malware through 'regardless of the source.'"
I think hacking has one big downside compared to traditional phone tapping. It is possible person being hacked can detect this and make counter measures against it OR even supply false information. For police standpoint I would consider information gained through hacking very unreliable.
The problem is simple: if you can impersonate police malware, any and all protection is instantly voided.
This is why it's a VERY, VERY bad idea.
"So far, Hypponen hasn't seen a single antivirus vendor cooperate with such a request"
That's because it's not law yet; once it's law, they will.
I sincerely doubt that. I'm sure more than a few of those asked to cooperate saw the marketing potential in possibly having one of the few AV services billed as "free from government malware!" Now that all that have been asked have refused, it'd take a death wish for a company to volunteer to be the black sheep.
The second a security company allows insecurities to exist NOBODY will use their software, nor should they. If a governmental agency wants to monitor its citizens they need to wiretap or do it some other way. It seems governments nowadays think they can do anything...