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German Police Allowed To Use Its Own "Federal Trojan" (helpnetsecurity.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The German Interior Ministry has approved for investigative use a spying Trojan developed by the German Federal Criminal Police (a so-called "federal Trojan"). In fact, it could end up being used as early as this week. The police will have to get a court order to use the spyware, and prove that the suspect is involved in a crime threatening citizens' "life, limb or liberty". The malware has been developed in-house, and has been available since autumn 2015. It is supposed to be used only for so-called telecommunication surveillance at the source, i.e. to read emails, chats and wiretap phone calls made by the target via his or her computer or smartphone, and not to access files, steal passwords, or set up video or audio surveillance via the device.
Isn't that what our Secret Service uses when they're partying and hiring hookers?
It can help prevent infection and pregnancy.
Seriously, now what am I going to do with my lolicon collection...Anyone looking for a new source material?
*updates antivirus*
The irony, it burnsssssss
B^)
Watching Us.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
And given the fact that lots of governments are spying on you already, your liberty is threatened anyway.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
" the suspect is involved in a crime threatening citizens' "
I'll bet it will be used to hack those that threaten refugees.
Does that mean if the malware was unsuccessfully entered into the system and the computer crashes or whatnot, the target can sue the government for damages?
Just kidding, they can sue and waste their money.
And gives the government incentive to hold back computer security, so that they don't lose the ability to install this malware. I think they've forgotten who their boss is.
How long before the rules are changed and/or a scapegoat is discovered who "made a mistake" and has been doing it as a matter of daily business (to facilitate a phenomenon referred to as "parallel construction" perhaps ?).
My guess: the point at which the above will be violated will happen in less than a year (a case of "asking the fat kid to guard the pie").
Contrary to what other countries are doing, this requires a warrant and just motivation. But it does create an incentive for the police not to report security vulnerabilities, because instead of reporting them they can use them to improve their trojan.
"It is supposed to be used only for so-called telecommunication surveillance at the source, i.e. to read emails, chats and wiretap phone calls made by the target via his or her computer or smartphone, and not to access files, steal passwords, or set up video or audio surveillance via the device."
Phew, for a second there I thought we'd need to call on the powers of Tim Cook to save us.
This is fine, since they are just spying on mass communications at the flick of a switch instead of trying to access a specific device with full judicial oversight since *that* would be an invasion of privacy!
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
The enlightened European citizens would never allow this to happen in the EU, unlike the silly Americans. Oh wait, you mean it is already in place and no one asked the citizens their opinion? Carry on then.
'The police will have to get a court order to use the spyware, and prove that the suspect is involved in a crime threatening citizens' "life, limb or liberty". '
If they have to prove the crime before getting a warrant, then why don't they arrest the perp for the crime ?
Am I reading that right?
As a German I feel discriminated against, for the new Federal Trojan will not run on my BSD machines. As if it wasn't bad enough that commercial software tends to be Windows-only, now also government-written stuff that I paid for with my tax euros.
Does somebody by any chance know a hack to still get it working?
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
This is so unlike the Germans to use Stasi tactics!
Ve haff vays of making your computer talk!
" It is supposed to be used only for..."
The cry of scumbag dictators everywhere...
Why do you think it won't work on BSD machines?
Usually they develop these kinds of software for all target platforms in a modular way, i.e. if the target system is BSD an access module will be added that uses an exploit for BSD, if there is no software exploit and the user does not fall for a Trojan, then the software will be installed by physically accessing the device.
@Anonymous: "Why do you think it won't work on BSD machines?"
Because if it ran on BSD, they would have said it in the title, instead of "Federal Trojan"
They never had a problem with the government spying on its citizens.
I mean, the US, UK, Canada, etc. all did it. But there weren't any problems that arose from the government spying. In contrast to Russia, China, North Korea and Germany.
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Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
You people with your bsd machines are all alike, cheap socialist people with affordable healthcare and free education running bsd on their worn out 10 year old boxes feeling entitled to all the latest trojans and spyware. I pay for my operating system to be slowed down by spyware and viruses and I pay for antivirus to slow my system down some more. Why should you be entitled to this when you didnt even pay for it??? CLOSE THE BORDERS! Make Murica Great again!
(Before you flame me...this was meant humorously)
This is targeted surveillance that requires a court order... Seems like the most sane way to get the job done, no different than phone taps or physical surveillance.
... the trojan ends up in the hands of black hats, gets "improved", sold and ends up on the computers of the German government?
And so it'll start looking for Outlook files on your BSD machine? Sounds pointless
The sad thing is if this was the United States they'd have this at the firmware level. It might actually be a good idea to live in Germany. At least Germany won't have the technological capability to spy on there citizens at the firmware level. Unlike the Americans whom are in control of the underlying technology (Intel firmware management engine) and can't avoid it by running GNU/Linux or BSD.
How about a compromise? You downgrade to one of the two OpenBSD releases with a remote security hole in the default install, and then they port it to BSD?
Will this "Bundestrojaner" be on the anti-virus companies secret whitelist (i.e. will not be flagged)?
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.