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Our take on this case: http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002249.html Also, we decided to detect it.
> Also, we decided to detect it. How generous...
Probably a stupid question, but does this target Windows?
Our take on this case: http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002249.html Also, we decided to detect it.
> Also, we decided to detect it. How generous...
The press release and the analysis are unfortunately poorly written and make it appear as if a couple of overeager teenagers wrote this, although their conclusion is accurate given the information given in the analysis. Releasing the binaries alone to back up such a statement might be good enough for the hacker community but if you want to persuade the public you need to be more professional in your choice of words.…
And it's things like that that will make even more people vote the Pirate Party. Luckily the German public is by and large opposed to surveillance. (for historical reasons)
The fact is that the citizens of Germany, and most other Western nations formerly known as the "free world" are today under more intense surveillance than the Stasi could have ever dreamed of. The German public in general is just mildly less apathetic about this as the rest of us.
The only thing that makes a real difference in Germany is the constitutional court, that appears to suffer less from political influences than the highest courts in most other nations, and actually takes its task of protecting citizens constitutional rights very seriously.
F-Secure will detect the malware according to their blog post: http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002249.html
http://www.f-secure.com/virus-info/bdtp.shtml
"F-Secure Corporation would like to make known that we will not leave such backdoors to our F-Secure Anti-Virus products, regardless of the source of such tools. We have to draw a line with every sample we get regarding whether to detect it or not. This decision-making is influenced only by technical factors, and nothing else, but within the applicable laws and regulations, in our case meaning EU laws."
So they won't leave explicit backdoors in their software, but their decision on whether or not to detect a particular malware is influenced by EU law.
So much win. I am really thankful that the CCC has such a strong standing in Germany. I am looking forward to the news tomorrow :)
[1] http://www.faz.net/aktuell/chaos-computer-club-der-deutsche-... [2]
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The first paragraph: > Dem Chaos Computer Club (CCC) wurde Schadsoftware zugespielt, deren Besitzer begründeten Anlaß zu der Vermutung hatten, daß es sich möglicherweise um einen „Bundestrojaner“ handeln könnte. Einen dieser Trojaner und dessen Funktionen beschreibt dieses Dokument, die anderen Versionen werden teilweise vergleichend hinzugezogen. Translates to: > The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) received malware, whose…
Yea. So they got it from people who believe it might be the federal trojan. No proof. I'm not saying it unlikely to be the federal trojan but if they had real proof, that would be so much bigger and could really damage the surveillance efforts.
I guess they are right. However, the features implemented in this trojan horse (Skype wiretapping, taking screenshots, keylogging, etc.) certainly look like it is to be used for general wiretapping/espionage. Additionally, CCC has obtained copies/variants(?) from several sources. If guess these were found on computers of people who have reasons to suspect the German police is spying on them. Overall, I assume that all other explanations for the existance of this software are significantly less likely than it being a police wiretapping rootkit.
Edit: FAZ (German) writes that the software was found on several harddrives that were connected to a certain police investigation. The software had been deleted from the disks but could be recovered [2]. I guess that these disks were confiscated based on search warrants and later returned to their owners. This makes me believe that the analyzed software is indeed the German police's Bundestrojaner.
[1] http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002249.html
[2] http://www.faz.net/aktuell/chaos-computer-club-der-deutsche-...
And it's things like that that will make even more people vote the Pirate Party. Luckily the German public is by and large opposed to surveillance. (for historical reasons)
Opposed for historical reasons? The fact is that the citizens of Germany, and most other Western nations formerly known as the "free world" are today under more intense surveillance than the Stasi could have ever dreamed of. The German public in general is just mildly less apathetic about this as the rest of us. The only thing that makes a real difference in Germany is the constitutional court, that appears to suffer…
Especially with the relatively good European laws on the matter, most of stuff like this would lose in court but it never gets to that point because 1 - a lot of people don't want to spend the time and effort to push it to that point, 2 - with modern spying being so well hidden, people don't even notice their rights are being abused, so what would they sue for.