The German government is spying on computer users in its country with a trojan horse program without their consent, a German hacker group claims.
The Chaos Computer Club (CCC), claims on its website that it has obtained and analyzed software that is ostensibly a âlawful interceptionâ program designed to legally listen in on internet-based phone calls as part of a legal wiretap. Its capabilities, the group says, go beyond legally acceptable bounds, MSNBC is reporting.
The program is capable of logging keystrokes, activating Webcams, monitoring Web usersâ activities and sending mountains of data to government officials, the club said.
Covering its tracks, through rented servers located in the United States, the program logs keystrokes, activates webcams, monitors internet activities and sends data to government officials, the club alleges.
However, the CCC said, the spyware appeared to be of poor quality and dubious application. âWe are extremely pleased that a competent programming expert couldnât be found for this computer bug of morally questionable use,â the CCC said in statement and reprinted by thelocal.de.
Focusing on IT security issues, CCC expressed concern that the program did not provide even basic protection for the data it took from peopleâs computers, reports The Local, an English-language German news outlet.
No one from the German government has commented on the report, but antivirus companies are reacting to them. Security firm F-Secure will detect and disable the alleged government monitoring software if found on clientsâ computers.
âYes, it is possible the Trojan found by CCC is written by the German government. We just canât confirm that,â said Mikko Hypponen, F-Secureâs chief technology officer, via Twitter and quoted by MSNBC. âWe do not know who created this back door and what it was used for, (but) we have no reason to suspect CCCâs findings.â
CCC criticized security measures by programmers of the alleged spyware. Shoddy encryption allows a malicious third-party to possibly intercept the government communications, or take control of government-infected machines, it said.
âThis complete control over the infected PC â owing to the poor craftsmanship that went into this trojan â is open not just to the agency that put it there, but to everyone,â the club said. âThe security level this trojan leaves the infected systems in is comparable to it setting all passwords to â1234.â â
â(This) puts the whole rationale for this method of investigation into question,â the club said.
Software companies offering antivirus programs have long said they would detect and disable any such government-monitoring software found on usersâ machines. Still, the firm said it has not yet faced a direct confrontation with a government agency over the policy.
âWe have never before analyzed a sample that has been suspected to be governmental back door,â it said Saturday. âWe have also never been asked by any government to avoid detecting their back doors.â
The Chaos Computer Club used the announcement to make a plea for less electronic monitoring by government departments. âThe (government) should put an end to the ever-growing expansion of computer spying that has been getting out of hand in recent years, and finally come up with an unambiguous definition for the digital privacy sphere and with a way to protect it effectively,â it said.
âUnfortunately, for too long the (government) has been guided by demands for technical surveillance, not by values like freedom or the question of how to protect our values in a digital world. It is now obvious that he is no longer able to oversee the technology, let alone control it.â
And if you send or receive email from any of those places, your Uncle may also be reading it — you know, the guy with the top hat, the snowy beard, and the fondness for red-white-and-blue ensembles? Him.
That goes double if you work for companies the U.S. government has a keen interest in, such as Wikipedia or the Tor Project. Jacob Applebaum works for both — as a volunteer for the notorious whistle-blowing operation and as a developer for Tor, a technology that anonymizes communications across the Web and is used by WikiLeaks leakers, as well as dissidents in repressive regimes around the globe.
THE Victorian Ombudsman has admitted he is unable to determine whether the Office of Police Integrity was justified in bugging the phones of former police deputy commissioner Ken Jones, concluding that no agency has the power to properly scrutinise its use of telephone intercepts.
Ombudsman George Brouwer yesterday confirmed that the OPI investigated an allegation of serious misconduct against Sir Ken and placed him under surveillance.
Mr Brouwer, who was the inaugural director of the OPI before his appointment as Ombudsman, said all details of the surveillance, including use of any telephone intercepts, were “blacked out” from documents passed to his office by the OPI, and that he had to rely on media reports to conduct his investigation.
He said he was informed by the OPI that the heavy redaction of surveillance documents was required by federal law.
The Victorian government has backtracked on claims it would directly brief the new phone bugging and surveillance watchdog.
The minister responsible for the establishment of an anti-corruption commission, Andrew McIntosh, introduced a bill into parliament on Thursday to establish a body called the Public Interest Monitor (PIM).
The PIM will be made up of lawyers registered to appear in courts and tribunals to test the merits of applications from Victoria Police, the Office of Police Integrity (OPI) and the yet to be established Independent Broadbased Anti-Corruption Commission for permission use phone bugging and surveillance devices during investigations.
Mr McIntosh told reporters it would be the state government, probably himself, who would brief the PIMs.
“It will probably be, no doubt, the minister responsible for the establishment of the anti-corruption commission or it may be the department,” he told reporters.
“But the reality is, you know, it will be the government that will do the briefing of the person to appear on behalf of the public interest.”
Later, after the opposition accused him of politicising the new body, Mr McIntosh told parliament he had made a mistake during the heated press conference.
“The Public Interest Monitor will be completely independent of government,” he said.
“The fact is there will be no briefing … there will be absolutely no input from the government agency, minister or department whatsoever.”
Opposition anti-corruption commission spokeswoman Jill Hennessy seized on Mr McIntosh’s gaffe.
“We have to remember so-called independent bodies may indeed have to investigate their masters, that is the government,” she told reporters.
“It’s quite extraordinary for a minister to suggest that it would be he who would be issuing the instructions to a so-called independent body.”
A spokesman for Mr McIntosh said PIMs would have access to documents presented to the court or tribunal by the police or integrity body in their application.
They will be bound by confidentiality rules and could be jailed for a year for breaching those obligations.
Mr McIntosh rejected suggestions the government did not trust judges to properly take into account the public interest when deciding whether or not to grant phone tap and surveillance device warrant applications.
But he said none of the 424 applications made by Victoria Police and the OPI for telephone intercept warrants were rejected in 2009-10, and only two of 141 applications for surveillance device warrants were knocked back.
Mr McIntosh continued to refuse to reveal when he expected the IBAC would be operational, only saying the legislation would be introduced into parliament before Christmas.
Before winning office, the Baillieu government promised the IBAC would be operational by July this year.
A Syrian-born US citizen has been charged with spying on anti-Assad protesters and handing recordings to Syrian intelligence in a bid to silence the opposition, US officials said Wednesday.
A federal grand jury charged Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, 47, on October 5 with six counts for spying on activists in the United States and Syria opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. He was arrested Tuesday.
The Leesburg, Virginia man was charged with conspiracy and acting as a Syrian government agent in the United States. He was also charged with two counts of providing false statements on a firearms purchase form and two counts of providing false statements to federal law enforcement.
The White House accused the Assad government of a “desperate effort” to monitor protestors in the United States and of grasping for ways to silence those speaking out against its “brutal” crackdown on protests.
“The regime’s efforts to monitor and silence protestors here in the United States will do nothing to satisfy men and women in Syria who are yearning for democracy and freedom,” said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.
“As long as Assad remains in power, we will continue working in concert with our international allies around the world to increase pressure on him and his regime until he steps down.”
The allegations were swiftly and vehemently denied by the Syrian embassy however, which said they were a “campaign of distortion and fabrications.”
“Neither Mr. Soueid nor any other citizen of the US is an agent of the Syrian government,” the embassy said in a statement.
“Contrary to the statement of the Department of Justice, Mr. Soueid is not an agent of any Syrian institution; he never worked under directions or control of any Syrian official,” it said.
The accusations, the embassy added, were “absolutely baseless and totally unacceptable.”
It also denied the Syrian government had paid travel expenses or any kinds of funds to Soueid, and rejected the notion that he had met privately with Assad.
The charges come amid escalating tensions between Damascus and Washington over the Syrian government’s months-long bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
In July, top State Department officials summoned Syrian Ambassador Imad Mustapha to discuss reports that embassy staff had filmed “peaceful” US protests against the Syrian regime.
Rights group Amnesty International issued a statement applauding US officials for acting on “the numerous credible allegations of abuse brought forward by Syrian activists” in the United States.
Amnesty’s Syria researcher Neil Sammonds said the arrest “sends a message that the Syrian government’s crackdown on opposition has its limits.”
As part of his conspiracy, Soueid and others intended to “undermine, silence, intimidate and potentially harm persons in the United States and Syria who protested against the government of Syria and President al-Assad, all at the direction and control of the government of Syria and Syrian officials,” the indictment said.
Soueid was said to have ordered individuals to make audio and video recordings of protests in both countries and of conversations with activists that he would then pass on to Syrian intelligence agents.
From about April 2 to June 10, Soueid emailed a Syrian intelligence agent about 20 audio and video recordings taped in the United States, according to the indictment.
“We’re in his ring now, (very) important details I have for you,” Soueid wrote in an April 6 email to a Syrian embassy official that included a link to a website for protesters in the United States.
During a late June-early July trip to Syria paid for by the government, Soueid was said to have met with Assad and spoken with him in private.
But when questioned by FBI agents around August 3, Soueid denied he had ever recorded or collected information on people in the United States and or shared any such data with Syrian government officials.
If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison on the spying charges, 15 years for the firearms charge and 10 years for making false statements to federal investigators.
