Beware the Backdoor Man...

A German court on Monday ruled that police cannot remotely search criminal suspects' computer hard drives over the Internet without their knowledge.

The decision of the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe bars police from using the online "Trojan horse" method, which involves using a computer program to search through remote hard drives over an Internet connection, unless parliament passes a law explicitly allowing it.

Police will still be allowed to seize evidence from computer hard drives when conducting searches in person.

Arguing that stealth searches were indispensable to investigating criminals and terrorists, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, the country's top security official responsible for police, called for the government to go ahead and seek swift changes in the law.

"It is indispensable for criminal investigators to be able to carry out online searches secretly and with a corresponding order from a judge," he said in a statement.

"In this way we are able to get more and regularly important leads."

The decision came in response to a request by the Federal Prosecutor's Office, which had sought to use the Trojan horse method to investigate the suspected organizing of a terrorist group.

The prosecutor's office had argued that the legal reasoning used to allow telephone surveillance and other electronic eavesdropping techniques should also be applied to evidence gathering over the Internet.

Although the decision produces difficulties in evidence collection, the prosecutor's office welcomed the decision for clearing away a lack of clarity over the issue.

Citing the increased use of computers and the Internet by terrorists, the office also emphatically called for swift introduction of legislation enabling the searches.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/02/05/D8N3NIS00.html

Even the most basic of security type software should prevent this......if organised crime gangs are the target I suspect the police will have their work cut out for them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nokia

Even the most basic of security type software should prevent this...

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Well, with the plethora of security-type software out there,
in theory, rogue apps should be no problem. But of course,
we know this is not the case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nokia

...if organised crime gangs are the target I suspect the police will have their work cut out for them.

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Yar!, it might behoove them to contract with organized crime
to get the backdoors created! That indeed would be a dilemma.

I am trying to envision how they'd "plant" the backdoors. Some
good ol' fashioned social engineering, or perhaps some kind of
warrantless entry? Reading between the lines, it's painfully obvious
some in die Deutschland intend to fully push legislation through
that will allow the gov't to have their way with your PC. :(

Hmmmm,

Makes you wonder about the admissibility of this "evidence". A lot of countries have pretty strict rules about gathering computer forensics.

Now, if you are just using it to gather "criminal intelligence" and rely on other methods to gather "evidence" this might not be such an issue?

hmm can anyone say Project Carnivore? lol

Sure, Project Carnivore was a total failure, and scrapped as a result. The internet is far too large for random surveillance, it has to be focussed to be effective.

More like what the RIAA and MPAA get up to? ;)