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German police given permission to use trojans to spy on suspects

Following a ruling by German Ministry of the Interior, German police and intelligence agencies will be able to use a spyware based trojan that could grant them unfettered access to a target PC.

The trojan is known as Bundestrojaner, Federal Trojan, and R2D2, a name given to the software from a string of code that reads C3PO-r2d2-POE. The spyware was previously not allowed to be used as it did not fall under the scope of German wiretapping laws.

These laws have since been amended to include the use of trojan spyware such as R2D2.

According to reports, this software can track internet browsing, log keystrokes, capture screenshots and even listen in on conversations being had on Skype. The trojan software effectively cracks open your PC and lets the attacker grab whatever they want from it.

The trojan itself is not a new piece of software. Back in 2011 Europe’s largest hacking collective, Chaos Computer Club, published a report that outlined the inner workers of the Federal Trojan and its weaknesses that could threaten the security of computers the software is installed on.

For example, any commands sent by authorities to the software were unencrypted and any information that is grabbed also makes it way to government without any protection. This means that anybody watching the connection need only reach out and grab the data.

Now, we should point out that this was back in 2011 and we aren’t aware of any of this being changed.

With all of that said, the problems CCC and various other parties have with R2D2 is that authorities may now use it legally. Of course, authorities may only use the software in cases where life-threatening danger or criminal activity that may impact the security of the state are suspected.

As we know – thanks to Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks – intelligence agencies, police and the government often use this type of software to spy on ordinary civilians.

Whether the German government will use R2D2 in a similar way is a matter of speculation right now but the point is they can if they choose to.

A scary precedent has been set in Germany and we should all be more concerned of our governments allowing the law to watch our every move, because while you may think that typing in “how to get a headshot” is an innocent search term to better you Call of Duty gaming, the police may not agree.

[Via – International Business Times] [Image – CC BY/2.0 Tama Leaver]

 

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