Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Be Honest, You Expected This One

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I am in no way surprised by this announcement out of Germany.

From GlobalPost.com: German authorities plant spyware on citizens’ computers

According to a release from a German based hacker collective, known as the Computer Chaos Club, the German government is involved in the spread of spyware that effectively turns your private computer into a tool of Big Brother.

Computer viruses, spy ware, trojans, and any other number of malicious software infections have been a problem plaguing the internet essentially since its inception. And as the capabilities of our machines escalates, so to do the functions of these hyperspace attacks.

The Computer Chaos Group says it has discovered a trojan horse designed by a private tech firm for the German government to be used in monitoring internet phone calls. Now, while such monitoring is allowed in Germany under certain extreme circumstances, eavesdropping was not the only function of the malware. The hackers found the trojan was also capable of taking screenshots of the infected machine, adding and removing files from the hard drive, and even control the microphone and webcam that now comes standard in virtually every computer on the market.

Of course, the fact that we are now hearing this story out of Germany tells us that most likely these invasions of privacy through our computers has probably been going on for a good long while, and that it is doubtful that the Germans are the only government guilty of the act. Of course, I have no tangible proof for this claim, but what does your gut tell you?

Just another fancy piece to file away in your back pocket.

Make sure you remember, friends - Just because you're paranoid...



Don't mean they're not after you

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