German Federal Trojan | Bundestrojaner

[Ceyfer √]

A number of other German states have  followed  Bavaria in confirming the use of a controversial software  program to  spy on people through their computers. The German justice  minister has  demanded an investigation.

"Federal Trojan"


The Chaos Computer Club (CCC), a well-known German hacker group, on Saturday announced its analysis of the so-called "Bundestrojaner," or "Federal Trojan," had revealed that this "lawful interception" program goes far beyond what normally would be allowed under German law.

"The malware can not only siphon away intimate data but also offers a remote control or backdoor functionality for uploading and executing arbitrary other programs," wrote the organization in an English-language post on its website. "Significant design and implementation flaws make all of the functionality available to anyone on the Internet."
The spyware could even be used to plant evidence on a computer. "Functions clearly intended for breaking the law were implemented in this malware," the CCC asserted.


The CCC, which came across the software through an anonymous tip, alleges the Trojan was developed by German police forces for intercepting personal data from computers, including those of private individuals.
Earlier Monday, Constanze Kurz of the CCC told German public radio that the group was "quite sure" the German government had developed the malware.

"We have no doubt, otherwise we wouldn't have gone public with it," she said.

The CCC's analysis showed that the Trojan can log keystrokes, take screenshots, record Skype conversations and even activate webcams or computer microphones to survey private happenings inside a person's home.

What's worse, the CCC said, is that poor data encryption protocols in the Trojan could allow the software to be used by third parties.

More here: Deutsche Welle - DW-WORLD.DE
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15449054,00.html

[Bearcat]

Thanks for the interesting read ceyfer. It makes a person wonder if their own gov't is doing the same thing, but just hasn't been caught yet. Of course over here we have the department of Homeland Security, who can get away with almost anything nowadays, after the World Trade Center was destroyed.

[JayCub]

Thank you Ceyfer good to see you around the forum, i don't think Germany are the only country to do this... Ireland does it the old fashioned way with the brown envelopes, whats worse is they never denied it they just didn't answer directly.. i bet they feel fools now when they could have wrote a nearly clever code..

i would think all large countries do this, i remember England doing something similar if not dated in the 70s

i wonder where the tip off came from....

[A Guy]

The Federal Trojan Background and a statement from Emsisoft

What is the Federal Trojan?

On November 9 2006 the German Lower House of Parliament passed a package of measures to counteract new terrorist dangers, the "Program for strengthening inland security" (PSIS). Part of the package involved the planning of technical measures for online searching of computers. Ultimately, this means the ability to monitor a PC connected to the Internet in a manner that is more or less undetected. This is basically the same technology as a "Trojan Horse" ("Trojan"), which has been known for many years.

Due to lack of a clear legislative basis, this type of online search has been heavily discussed since 2006. Private information is stored on home computers and this represents part of the private personal sphere of citizens. In February of 2008 the German Federal Constitutional Court issued a still valid ruling that presents high legal hurdles for online searches and defines a "Basic right to a guarantee of confidentiality and the integrity of data processing systems".

[url=http://www.emsisoft.com/en/kb/articles/tec111011/]Source

A Guy