thepirateparty.com

By EDRI.org

On 27 May 2009, the law on orientation and programming for the performance of the domestic security (Loppsi) was presented by Michèle Alliot-Marie to the French Council of Ministers.

The law will give the French police the possibility to physically or remotely install spying software to listen to electronic communications and introduces the Internet filtering by administrative decision.

According to the text, the Criminal Investigation Police will be allowed to place on a suspect's computer a sort of internal or external USB key which will send data to the computers of the authorities. The police may also remotely install Trojans which will give access to all the data in a computer in real time.

The police will be allowed to make use of these tools only in "the most severe cases" which however include "support given to the illegal entry and residence of a foreigner". Under the control of an examining magistrate (juge d'instruction), the investigating authority will have to justify the use of the technique by declaring the infringement investigated, the place where the investigation will take place and its duration. The spyware can be installed for a four-month period that can be renewed once.

WASHINGTON — A plan to create a new Pentagon cybercommand is raising significant privacy and diplomatic concerns, as the Obama administration moves ahead on efforts to protect the nation from cyberattack and to prepare for possible offensive operations against adversaries’ computer networks.

President Obama has said that the new cyberdefense strategy he unveiled last month will provide protections for personal privacy and civil liberties. But senior Pentagon and military officials say that Mr. Obama’s assurances may be challenging to guarantee in practice, particularly in trying to monitor the thousands of daily attacks on security systems in the United States that have set off a race to develop better cyberweapons.