The German government is hiring coders to make "Remote forensic software" (a very smart term for "Trojan"). This software would be used to hack into terrorists' PCs.
The idea first came, when earlier this year a Federal Court in Germany ruled that "clandestine searches of suspects' computers" make any evidence found using this method inadmissible in a court of law. The plan is yet to be legally approved, but the Ministry of Interior directed to carry on the recruitment.
Germany has no lack of hackers in and around the country, the list includes Sven Jaschan of Sasser worm fame and many others. The list grows even longer due to the EU rules on free movement of labor - pretty much any hacker in the European Union is an eligible candidate for the job.
These plans were met with fierce resistance from civil liberty groups and IT security specialists, the latter of whom are most fearful of the fact that the Trojan could make its way into the wrong hands - something that we've seen happening many times before. "Reworking of malware goes on all the time. If these Trojans are developed specifically for German anti-terrorist usage, it's almost certain that conventional IT security software will have no protection against their usage on civilian PCs," said Geoff Sweeney of Tier-3.
The Trojan would probably fail to complete its mission anyway, since all the terrorists would have to do to avoid this threat is to switch to Ubuntu Linux, or, quite possibly, even simply to have a patched anti-virus program.
The idea first came, when earlier this year a Federal Court in Germany ruled that "clandestine searches of suspects' computers" make any evidence found using this method inadmissible in a court of law. The plan is yet to be legally approved, but the Ministry of Interior directed to carry on the recruitment.
Germany has no lack of hackers in and around the country, the list includes Sven Jaschan of Sasser worm fame and many others. The list grows even longer due to the EU rules on free movement of labor - pretty much any hacker in the European Union is an eligible candidate for the job.
These plans were met with fierce resistance from civil liberty groups and IT security specialists, the latter of whom are most fearful of the fact that the Trojan could make its way into the wrong hands - something that we've seen happening many times before. "Reworking of malware goes on all the time. If these Trojans are developed specifically for German anti-terrorist usage, it's almost certain that conventional IT security software will have no protection against their usage on civilian PCs," said Geoff Sweeney of Tier-3.
The Trojan would probably fail to complete its mission anyway, since all the terrorists would have to do to avoid this threat is to switch to Ubuntu Linux, or, quite possibly, even simply to have a patched anti-virus program.
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