genew@telus.net
Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2018 11:05:07 -0700
Germany's use of state-sponsored malware to fight crime is under fire from several sides. http://www.zdnet.com/article/german-police-hacking-hit-by-volley-of-complaints-can-state-trojan-law-survive/
Civil rights activists and politicians will in the coming days launch a volley of constitutional complaints against the German government over its use of state-sponsored malware in criminal investigations.
The first is that the recent law does not respect the boundaries set by the
Constitutional Court in a 2008 ruling, which said state-sponsored malware,
Staatstrojaner, can only be used to monitor ongoing communications, and not
to search people's computers.
The second part of the GFF's argument is that ``there is an indirect detrimental effect on IT security as a whole.''
Ulf Buermeyer, the organization's chairman, said: ``To use one of these state-sponsored malwares, authorities usually need a security flaw in the system they want to target. These flaws can not only be exploited by German state actors, but also by foreign state actors, or by plain criminals. We argue that trojans are detrimental to our security in general. It creates a strong incentive for state actors in Germany not to disclose security flaws to vendors. We say this is a risk and the German legislature entirely neglected this risk.''