

German State Confesses To, Downplays Government Spyware - llambda
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/10/11/1322202/German-State-Confesses-To-Downplays-Government-Spyware?utm_source=slashdot&utm_medium=twitter

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morsch
Note that this has been one of the top news stories for a couple of days in a
row now. And not for a lack of other pressing issues... The whole thing is
_extremely_ embarrassing for the hard liners, who seem to have a hard time
repositioning themselves in the face of ever new discoveries and new experts
chiming in (e.g. <http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002250.html>).

It's a neat combination of illegal behavior and incompetence. In one case, the
software continuously took screenshots of victim's desktops, which was ruled
illegal in Germany. The encryption used in the software is terrible. The
company which apparently developed the software -- though so far, the
government won't confirm it, citing fears of internet revenge against the
company (I'm not kidding) -- was convicted of bribery a few years ago.

A lot is still unknown, ie. how many other versions of the government trojan
there were and are, a more exhaustive list of the ways it has been used, etc.
Three cases in Bavaria are known so far: in two of them, the software was
installed in fraudulent border/customs checks, in one case the police broke
into someone's home to install it. None of these cases involved terrorism or
child abuse. Hopefully, the next couple of days will see further reveals or
leaks.

~~~
tryke
I never realized that files uploaded to Virustotal are shared with the AV
vendors, but that makes a good deal of sense.

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driverdan
Slashdot link? You couldn't bother to link to the news article

[http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1...](http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1667873.php/German-
spy-software-scandal-focuses-on-Bavaria)

or the original release?

[http://www.innenministerium.bayern.de/presse/archiv/2011/385...](http://www.innenministerium.bayern.de/presse/archiv/2011/385.php)

[http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&...](http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=www.innenministerium.bayern.de%2Fpresse%2Farchiv%2F2011%2F385.php)

~~~
mun2mun
Don't know why there is hatred about slashdot here? There is still some
quality discussion with insightful comment happening in slashdot like this
following link

[http://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/10/07/1438230/ask-
slashdot-...](http://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/10/07/1438230/ask-slashdot-
does-being-loyal-pay-as-a-developer)

~~~
0x12
When you graduate from /. you move to HN, see
<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=CmdrTacoMalda>

~~~
thenextcorner
Not sure if you need 14 years to graduate to HN though..!!

------
gyardley
The next time a venture of mine gets a nastygram from the Landesamt für
Datenschutzaufsicht, I know exactly where I'm going to tell them to file it.
What hypocrites.

------
smokeyj
If you love your country like a patriot should, you have nothing to hide.

~~~
raganwald
Instead of accusing you of trolling, I’ll respond seriously.

You are conflating the right to privacy with the need to hide something. I
draw the curtains when I am at home. Is this because I am trying to hide
something from my neighbours or from strangers?

I use a password for my personal email even though I don’t use it for business
transactions. Am I trying to hide discussions about my children’s nanny or
when I am riding my bicycle?

I wear clothes and will not take them off for strangers even though my body is
not-too-bad for a fellow of 49. Am I ashamed of it? Is there something illegal
like a gun tucked into my waistband? No.

The desire for privacy is independent of the need to hide things. It’s
actually related to the need for security from other people trying to control
you. What I would honestly say is that if you do not _fear_ your government’s
actions from time to time, you have nothing to hide from your government.

When you put it that way, yes, some people who are doing wrong things have
reason to fear their government. But others may be doing no wrong but
nevertheless be afraid of their government and be perfectly rational in
desiring privacy.

I have no idea whether the German government can be trusted with the contents
of my computer. But given the fact that in my lifetime the Canadian government
jailed thousands without trial during the FLQ crisis and again assaulted and
arrested hundreds during the G20 summit, I can say that while I like my
country overall and consider myself a patriot, I have a healthy distrust of
its behaviour from time to time and therefore question anything that gives
them power over citizens without constitutional or judicial oversight.

~~~
kleiba
Guys, he's just being sarcastic.

~~~
awakeasleep
We understood. However, the sarcasms and ironies we see are in a way, adults
playing with ideas, or even RFCs.

You might have noticed, but for years the sarcastic/ironic proclamation of
'nothing to hide' wasn't met with any sort of intellectual response. It was
only in the beginning of '11 that I started to see people blog coherent
arguments against it.

In his post, Reagenwald brings up those reasons, introduces them to any
readers who haven't seen them, and keeps the topic open for discussion. So
hell yeah!

~~~
kleiba
I got that, and I appreciate it. My comment was specifically a reaction to
ragenwald's first line "Instead of accusing you of trolling, I’ll respond
seriously": I don't think the OP was trolling at all, i.e., he didn't write
his post simply to get people agitated (which is my understanding of
trolling), but to contrast a stereotypical argument with reality.

So in that sense, the original post didn't call for a rebuttal, because it was
already arguing on the same side as ragenwald - just using a different
rhetorical device. I made my comment solely to point that out, and didn't
expect any upvotes for it, but I'm somewhat surprised that I actually got
downvoted.

