By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
If the whisteblowing website WikiLeaks is to be believed then Germany, who seems to have created the so-called Federal Trojan (Bundestrojaner), which could be translated better to government Trojan, to spy on people's computers, and do more than simple spying on their computers, has also found a ready market for this piece of malware in British government circles.
Not that that, in fact, surprises me, the fact that the UK government, as well as and especially security services and police, employing such a device. It was something to be expected that, as soon as it was becoming available on the more open market, the British government and its agencies would be some of the first in line to obtain this Trojan.
The way the authorities in the UK, nowadays, are restricting every kind of political and campaigning activity and protests and the way surveillance of the most intrusive kind is being used against environmental protesters and such is becoming a disgrace.
The mother of modern democracy, as Britain would like to be seen, is becoming a fascist state in all but name and thus the sales of the government Trajan by Germany to the UK agencies should not come as a surprise.
Knowing the capabilities of this piece of malicious code, however, is what worries me and should make every freedom-loving person in this country and elsewhere concerned in the extreme.
Not only can this piece of code be used to spy on people's computers and what they view and do; it can be used to alter what is on that computer infected by this piece of malware.
The Government Trojan is said to have the capacity to allow agencies to manipulate the contents of an infected computer to the extent of deleting and altering of files and even to adding files and folders from the outside, all of which will appear as if this all originates from the user.
In other words; the Government Trojan, now in the hands of a number of agencies across Europe, can be used to actually plant evidence on someone's PC in order to make a conviction on, say, terrorism related charges stick.
Not a very nice thing to consider but...
© 2011
