Changing views of governments and the internet?

[TexWebslinger]

Below is a snip-it of an email that was sent out, in regards of how governments are now thinking of putting spyware on peoples systems. Just a point, about general attitudes on the net?

Has anyone heard anything else along these lines.

Wayne
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Editor's Corner


Should Governments Be Allowed To Install Spyware?

The German government is floating a proposal to deploy
spyware to infect the computers of suspected terrorists
and/or criminals. The security community is still up in arms
about the recent "anti-hacking" law that essentially
undermined legitimate security research in Germany.

Now the German Interior Ministry has been seeking support
for a new security law that would allow the German feds to
cyberspy on cases they think might work on terrorist
attacks. And since this week's terrorist attack that got
foiled was executed by homegrown Islamist radicals, (first
names Fritz and Daniel) you can see why they would want
this.

On the other hand, putting a government sponsored Trojan on
the PC of a suspect goes straight into the teeth of privacy
and is an invasion by Big Brother. More over, what would be
the situation when outfits like us would find the trojan and
be asked not to put it in our threat database? Interesting
situation don't you think? I'd like your input on that and
will report back next week on this. Email me at:
feedback@wservernews.com

[Davemon]

Thats what the courts are for. A balance to law enforcement.

Anyway, placing something on someones computer is essentially a phone tap. Something that has been done for decades.

The question is, how do spyware and anti-virii software apps work/don't work, ie ignore "The Man's" software...

I don't like the though of using some anti-virus software only to have it partially functional because the govt software is ignored. Then you'll have virii writers tagging along pretending to be legit police/govt tracking software.

Along these lines, I am having doubts about the whole IP based scheme. Too much anonymity is killing the internet and slowly forcing it into a a place not worth being. People have had phone numbers for decades and they were based on regions. I am thinking of IP's based on region too. Would be much easier to track. Besides, the original idea behind the IP4 scheme was to keep isolated government facilities anonymous and hidden.


The solution to all the crap would have been to have a central reporting agency that you could contact and report a compromised system that is spamming, DOS'ing etc. And then this central agency would contact the ISP of said system and tell them to lock it out. When the offender gets home and finds out they are off line, they call their ISP and find out they need to clean their system before they can go surfing. Sadly, I think it is too late for something like this.



Davemon

[TexWebslinger]

Besides, the original idea behind the IP4 scheme was to keep isolated government facilities anonymous and hidden.

Uh, Dave it was not designed to HIDE government facilities. Its main function, among others, were the 100% reliablity of getting information from point A to point M without having to go by way of any single location on the planet. That way if we got nuked in say, Chicago, that the communication from Denver to NY would not go down. That data may not take the same path, nor even arrived in 123 order. Data 2 may get there after part 1983473 gets there? ONLY thing it was designed for, was that no mater what, it would get there....