The famous Chaos Computer Club (CCC) has announced the discovery of a backdoor Trojan horse capable of spying on online activity and recording Skype internet calls which, it says, is used by the German police force.
The malware – which has been variously dubbed “0zapftis”, “Bundestrojaner” or “R2D2” – is likely to kick up a political storm, if the allegations are true.
For some years, German courts have allowed the police to deploy a Trojan known colloquially as “Bundestrojaner” (“State Trojan”) to record Skype conversations, if they have legal permission for a wiretap.
But the CCC’s claim is controversial, as the Trojan they have uncovered has more snooping capabilities than that. For instance, it includes functionality to download updates from the internet, to run code remotely and even to allow remote access to the computer – something specifically in violation of Germany’s laws.
Sophos’s analysis of the malware confirms that it has the following functionality:
* The Trojan…
Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.
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