Plans for Spy E-Mails

Cologne's Stadt-Anzeiger (KSTA) and the national tageszeitung (taz) newspapers reported Wednesday that Germany's interior ministry wants to employ fake e-mails to allow agents to search private computers.

According to a 22-page paper from the interior ministry (a copy of which KSTA obtained), the plan would involve sending e-mails attached with Trojan horse malware to suspected terrorists. The paper said that "sending e-mails under the names of other government authorities" could be employed in justified, exceptional cases.

The interior ministry distinguished between two types of searches: a one-time "perusal" of a computer, or long-term "surveillance."

Tiny bits of information

The spying software would install itself onto a private computer and search for particular data, which would then be sent to criminal police computers as soon as the user goes online. Only minimal data would be transmitted so as not to arouse the user's suspicion.

Also, entries made onto keyboards could be monitored, which would allow agents to track passwords used to call up information on external servers.

Tageszeitung reported that the spying software could slip past anti-virus programs and firewalls used on private computers.

Tagesschau.de, the online portal of Germany's ARD broadcaster, reported that in the 22-page paper, the interior ministry answered questions posed by the justice ministry about searching computers linked to the Internet.

Apparently, the paper was intended as a basis for a technical discussion on Friday between experts from Germany's ruling coalition of Social Democrats (SPD) and Christian Democrats (CDU).

Warnings

The justice ministry has warned the interior ministry against implementing such a plan. According to tagesschau.de, the justice ministry said that "manipulating mails from German government agencies could put general correspondence from those institutions at risk."

Jörg Ziercke, the president of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), has downplayed concerns about Internet monitoring. He said that the debate was intended to "instill fear" among the public. He told German weekly magazine Stern that such "online monitoring" of terrorist suspects would only involve five to ten cases a year. More, he said, would not be possible because the efforts involved in surveillance of one suspect were intense as "software must be customized for each case."

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who is a member of the conservative CDU, has pressed for new laws to combat terrorism. Politicians are set to discuss legal questions surrounding such proposals this Friday. The center-left SPD has meanwhile voiced criticism of Schäuble's e-mail-Trojan surveillance plan.