14 DAY TRIAL // Nothing is certain yet, but it seems that in 2007, an FBI assistant legal attaché in Germany was asked by local authorities about an IP address verifying tool that was at the time deployed by the Bureau to track a bomb threat.
According to Wired, the request was made two years prior to the date the Germans started using their spy tool. This would give them enough time to update it to the point where it would be the piece of software everyone's talking about lately.
It's amazing what a Freedom of Information Act can do. In 2007 EFF filed such a request and now they've received a large number of documents that relate to the utilization of CIPAV (Computer Internet Protocol Address Verifier), which was at the time successfully used by the Feds.
One of the documents contained a letter of the attache in which he asked his US colleagues for assistance regarding CIPAV.
“I am embarrassed to be approaching you again with a request from the Germans (after you previous help and offers of assistance that have not yet been followed up on by our German colleagues) but they now have asked us about CIPAV (Computer Internet Protocol Address Verifier) software, allegedly used by the Bu[reau],” the letter wrote.
This news comes after a hacker group called CCC discovered the controversial tool which authorities claim is used within current legislation.
The Federal Trojan is being investigated by the Justice Ministry, but the findings of CCC discovered that the application is not only purposed for tapping internet telephone services as it was originally believed and the large quantities of information obtained by it are transmitted without being encrypted, which would allow anyone to deploy it for malevolent purposes.
It's not yet clear if the Bundestrojaner was inspired by the FBI's software, but considering the latest findings made by the EFF, it's a plausible scenario.