14 DAY TRIAL // GERMANY - These guys' cyber-security is nothing ordinary, that's for sure. A few weeks ago, one of their laws hit white-hat hackers really hard, as their tools have been outlawed. So, how can you work in computer security to try and disclose vulnerabilities, without the proper tools? I don't know. But, in any case, that's just old, now they want to use spyware on possible terrorists. First they don't accept any security threatening tools and now this...
I guess it might be part of a plan in which only the state can have access to malware, so that no one can attack any government's institutions, while they can spy on anyone they like. So, basically, this is an empowering of the state, one huge butch up on cyber-defense. Or at least, it will be if it gets accepted. Now, this "Let's use spyware against terrorism" idea is only in the state of a proposal to the government, but knowing that politicians go "berserk" when talking about national security, I think it will get accepted. Let's try and be honest - when was the last time a certain country could so something against terrorism and didn't?
They don't care if they stomp the right to intimacy and stuff like that. They will spy on people that are considered dangerous, if needed. And this is not something new, the FBI and the DEA have been doing it for a lot of time. Anyway, this is official, but who knows how many other countries are spying secretly? And I agree with the Germans - national security is way more important than a little bit of intrusion in one's private life.
This new spyware has been said to be e-mail-borne and since it will probably made by one of the country's greatest computer geeks, I doubt that it will be easy to track down. Simple hackers create malware hard to detect by anti-spyware, so I can only imagine what these guys will come up with. My only concern is - what if this new spyware is really great and tough to beat and black-hat hackers get their hands on it?