Operating within the treacherous gray regions of internet law, computer hackers have come to be vilified by many for their various deeds. But that may not be the case for much longer in Germany, where the hacker group Chaos Computer Club has exposed a dangerous and illegal cyberbug allegedly engineered by the German government.The spyware was designed to allow electronic surveillance of targeted individuals, sneaking in via trojans sent to the target’s machine. Two problems with this: One, using trojans for surveillance has been illegal in Germany since 2008. And most importantly, two, it opens up the affected computer to outside attack from literally anyone.CCC published the malicious program’s source code in its entirety on their website, quickly followed by a report from Der Spiegel. If their allegations on its origins are accurate, it could have damning effects on not just Germany, but governments and law enforcement around the world whose overreaching electronic tactics have unnecessarily endangered citizens through their negligence.There’s a growing sentiment that governments are really quite bad with computers and electronic security in general. Countless countries including the U.S. have adopted the RFID chip for their passports and identification cards, despite proven security flaws which enable anyone with $250 to intercept the signals and steal data. There’s also the issue of GPS tracking, now being hotly debated in the courts, which security experts are already saying could be easily subverted by third parties.Maybe it’s time for governments of the world to start putting hacking groups like CCC on speed dial, instead of on Most Wanted lists.
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