German police attack ban on computer surveillance
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German police on Tuesday attacked a  court ruling banning them from secretly monitoring computers,  saying electronic searches were essential to hunting down  terrorism suspects.
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The irony of the German government floating a proposal to deploy spyware to infect the computers of suspected criminals isn't lost on the security community, still furious over the "anti-hacking" law that has undermined legitimate security research in that country.
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German police raided a mosque in the northern town of Wismar on Thursday, searching for Islamic extremist videos and leaflets which state prosecutors said pointed to suspected militant activity.
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German police said they had exposed the names of thousands of users of illegal Internet piracy sites as part of a crackdown on swapping bootleg copies of movies, computer games, software and music.
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Police raided the offices of Germany's Air Berlin PLC as part of an investigation into claims of insider trading ahead of its acquisition of rival dba last year, the carrier said Tuesday. via Sympatico Finance
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The German public prosecutor's office raided seven ISPs late last week in an attempt to crack down on child pornography. Ten servers were seized, all of which were running a program called Tor, distributed by the EFF and billed as a way to protect user privacy by anonymizing Internet traffic.
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Canadian detained after German police unscrambled image in which his face was digitally obscured.
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(InfoWorld) - In the five years since terrorists attacked the U.S., Europe has been the target of extremist attacks, as has India. Bombings in London and Madrid and a recent failed attempt to blow up passenger trains in Germany have prompted a security clampdown never seen on the Continent. Throughout the European Union, governments are grappling with how to guard against terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, Indian IT services companies have beefed up efforts to protect data. The discovery of bombs in two German trains in July pushed up several security measures on the political agenda there. In September, the German government agreed to a new antiterror database, which will be available to authorities across the country and contain information such as a person's religion, travel history, telephone number and Internet data and bank details. It also approved increased use of video surveillance in public areas. These measures reflect a gigantic shift in thinking about privacy in Germany, which has been highly sensitive about data protection and surveillance because of its Nazi history and, more recently, the Stasi secret police in the former communist-run East Germany. The need to tighten security has created demand for new technologies to help authorities combat terrorism. The German subsidiary of IBM Corp., for instance, is working on new technology that will enable computers -- not human beings -- to filter information from the cameras monitoring public areas and other locations. Two German companies have developed a new biometric system for identifying airline passengers. Lufthansa Systems Group GmbH, the IT services arm of German airline Lufthansa AG, and high-security document producer Bundesdruckerei GmbH have developed the SecBoard system. The companies hope that the system, designed to conduct biometric checks on passengers prior to boarding an aircraft, will play a significant role in "trusted passenger" programs planned by the airline industry to increase security. In the U.K., the government is close to activating part of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) of 2000 that deals with encrypted data, one in a set of powers covering electronic surveillance and wiretapping. Authorities say the increased use of encryption is hampering their access to information on suspectsâ computers. RIPA would allow police to demand that a suspect decrypt data or face up to two years in jail. The encryption measure in RIPA has remained dormant since the techniques werenât widely used when the law was passed, according to the U.K. Home Office. Terrorist suspects already face up to five years for failing to decrypt data or provide an encryption key. But critics contend the law, which would apply in more than terrorism-related investigations, gives too much power to law enforcement and has the potential for abuse. High-ranking officials could demand the decryption of data without a court order, and the law binds to secrecy those served with a request. Experts say the law could increase the chance that, if seized, a companyâs mission-critical data could be mishandled. Elsewhere in Europe, heads of state met to discuss 57 antiterrorism measures two weeks after the March 11, 2004 bombings of four crowded commuter trains in Madrid. Among the measures discussed were the surveillance of telecommunications, Internet communications and air transportation. Civil liberties groups accused them of using the fight against terrorism as an excuse to increase police powers. E.U. legislation was slow to follow but, from September 2007, telecom carriers and ISPs (Internet service providers) must keep data on all mobile and fixed-line calls for between six months and two years. From March 2009, they must keep data on VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calls, Internet connections and e-mail messages. Law enforcement officials will be able to demand the date and time of calls and messages, but not their content, and identifying information of the calling or sending and receiving parties. In India, the Sept. 11 attacks were not a watershed event because the country experienced frequent attacks by Kashmiri separatist groups demanding independence. Even before Sept. 11, some of the large Indian IT services companies had hardened data centers supporting their offshore businesses, said T. R. Madan Mohan, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan Inc. After Web sites of a ministry of the Indian government and an Indian atomic energy agency were hacked, and anti-India messages posted on these sites, Indian businesses showed increased concern about the need for intrusion detection and related security measures, he added. Infosys Technologies Ltd., Indiaâs second largest outsourcer, already had disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place before Sept. 11, said a spokeswoman for the company in Bangalore. However, those attacks brought the threat of terrorism into sharp focus for Indiaâs export-oriented industries, such as software outsourcing, because U.S. and European customers began worrying about the preparedness of their Indian suppliers for terrorist attacks. (Reported and written by John Blau in Dusseldorf, Germany; Peter Sayer in Paris; Jeremy Kirk in London; and John Ribeiro in Bangalore, India, and assembled by Grant Gross in Washington, D.C.)
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Three people are arrested in Austria over a website threat to attack Germany and Austria, officials say.
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In a crackdown on Internet child pornography, German police detected several servers running a copy of Tor, a software designed to anonymize Internet usage.
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Google is threatening to shut down Gmail in Germany after the country's legislature came close to approving surveillance of communications over the Internet.
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German government plans to spy on terror suspects by deploying malicious e-mails draw sharp criticism.
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A German law currently in draft form would make hacking illegal, even if no data was stolen. It would also ban the creation or use of hacker tools -- a prospect that worries "white hat" security experts.
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Authorities say a spate of arrests has foiled a wave of bomb plots in Germany and Denmark. How the investigation unfolded.
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(InfoWorld) - The German government is taking a lead in Europe with draft legislation to control data generated by nongovernmental orbital systems. The draft Satellite Data Security Law aims to significantly curb the ability of commercial companies to create and distribute satellite-generated data of the country. The law will require anyone operating an "advanced orbital reconnaissance system" to obtain a permit from the government. Satellites, space stations and air-based transportation systems are among the reconnaissance systems mentioned in the draft law. Under the proposed law, operators must also conduct and document a series of checks on customers to ensure that requests for data don't pose a threat to national security. Offenders could face a five-year prison term or a fine up to â¬500,000 ($646,000). The draft legislation comes as military and security officials in Germany warn of terrorist groups and others using data captured by satellites and other orbital systems to undermine the country's security systems. The legislation refers to all sensor-generated signals that could be used to create photos, digital models, and other images as "militarily relevant" data. German lawmakers argue that if such data should fall into the wrong hands, it could breach not only Germany's security systems but also those of neighboring countries.
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Arrests in Denmark and Germany this week could spur widening investigative police powers.
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German authorities are adopting a Stasi technique of using odour to track G8 activists.