German government Trojans on Afghan PCs, and the establishing of total control

[Skybird]

In germany, plans to allow online searchings of PCs of suspects have just passed legal hurdles and will be possible soon, although police is not allowed to enter a suspects home and install according spysoftware by hand - this software, which is known and nicknamed in germany as "Bundes-Trojaner" (Federal Trojan) must be delivered by wire, like any other spyware that tries to infest your systems. Of course, considering that many users today use firewalls, and diverse scanners, this can prove to be difficult as long as the law enforcement and intelligence offices do not hammer out a deal with producers of Os or security software that the yhave to leavce open securitiy holes ("backdoors") by which PCs can be infiltrated by police, intel services, etc.

Of course, so swears any politician defending the measure, it is only with best intentions, and a state att0orney or judge should allow it only in very rare cases.

Obviously not rare enough. since maybe two years Germany sees a never disappearing debate now on the spying of police and intelligence services reghadirng newspapers and journalists, we have had several incidents were the right to keep infromants secret and thus protect the anonymity of journalist'S sources, have been violated. If this becomes the rule, journalists will have no informants anymore, of course anymore. Which is nice for the government, politics and lobbyists, but is bad for the independence of medias and democracy itself. If journalism shall serve in a monitoring and counterbalancing function in a democracy, the anonymity of cources and the independence of jpournalists and newspaper has to be guaranteed - always.

Just these days, another scandal has popped up, and it is likely to cost the head of the chief of the Federal intelligence service, BND. but it has a delicate sidenote, which turns this tory into a shameful joke and a warning as well: Again a journalist has been spied on, and her email traffic has been rcorded over months. the delicate thing is that she is a specialist for Afghanistan and exchnged such emails with a highrankling Afghan ministre in the current Afghan cabinet.

The Afghan cabinet's PCs are infested with the Bundestrojaner now as well. It seems Germany won a 17th federal state...?!

Wether or not the Afghan government will make a big issue of it and pull the germans into the spotlight of interntional media, or not, remains to be seen, condiering the sensitive situation in Afghaniostan and the German engagement there.

But it all teaches another warning on this madness to erect the total surveillance of our societies and to control all and everything - and claiming that laws would be enough to prevent abuse. Laws are not enoigh to prvent the temptation of abusing the methods once they are there. they also say that personal data being collected by current or planned measures will only be used for harmless, minor purposes, like automatic toll collection on the autobahn. But such datas are a much wanted good for police, intel services, health insurers, future employers, etc. If the data exists, all these parties will try to take benefit of them, no matrter if allowed by law, or not. that laws will prevent it, I do not believe for a single minute.

Without wanting to dramatize, I really think that democracy has definetly seen it's climax somewhere between the end of WWII and the end of the cold war, and that from then on we were heading into a more totalitarian or absolutistic culture again. the latter becomes even more obvious if considering the poersonal cult that is made of election candidates or leading faces of parties today, and the fact that the professionalisation of poltiics has formed a new caste of profi politicians who never disappear from the stage again, even if loosing elections - they end up on any given different position then, or are send to a profitable post at the EU, or the economy to which they are linked by previous lobby work they did for it. n fact, it reminds me very miuch of the social class of the noble men during the absolutistic age. That elections are being held cannot hide the fact that in most cases you may be allowed to vote, but that you have no substantially different alternatives left to differ between and chose from anymore.

We are letting go our most basic and precious freedoms and rights - and it seems that many people are ot even aware of it, or do not care at all. If this stupid term "war ion terror" has any reasonable meaning at all despite it's implict contradictio0n, then this: that it is a most welcomed excuse to hollow out the freedoms and rights our ancestors for generations have fought and suffered for.

Seen that way, the bundestrojaner on Afghan ministre PCs is not a joke, but just one symptom of what is really going on: establishing the total control, and regulating people'S access to independant data and information - as if that is not already successfully turned into a monoculture, getting feeded from a relativel small number of central news distributors who spread them to a wide range of newspapers. It then is only logcial if I see the quality of journalism and the quality of newspapers detporiating since years, and it seems: at an increasing pace. More and more Wetsern medias have been transformed into news magazine of the kind Eastern nations had them during the era of the Warsaw Pact: official propaganda channels only.

the aim of suh channels as well as that of preventing the anonymity of journalist'S sources is clear: to prevent citizens to form free, unmanipulated opinions and winning the ability to doubt, to ask questions and to be aware of what is going on.

and this trend I find to be most troublesome, and scaring indeed. Compared to where it all seems to lead, the daily perversions Steed and others make mockery of in Britain, regarding political correctness issues and absurd laws, are not really harmless and only illustrate that the will to push it further and in the direction I lined out - obviously and already is there.

[Platapus]

German government Trojans on Afghan PCs???

Why would you want to put a condom on a Personal computer????

That is not the way to protect your PC from viruses.

[Stealth Hunter]

Originally Posted by Platapus

German government Trojans on Afghan PCs???

Why would you want to put a condom on a Personal computer????

That is not the way to protect your PC from viruses.

Introducing Hermann the Happy and Abstinate Police Clown!

"Hey kids, do you know why I'm happy? I'm free of S-T-D's!!!"

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Platapus

German government Trojans on Afghan PCs???

Why would you want to put a condom on a Personal computer????

That is not the way to protect your PC from viruses.

Hm. I remember that somebody mentioned some weeks ago that there is some kind of word trick implied, but I forgot it. I mean trojan=the well known type of malware and invasive software, for sure.