Governments Recruiting Backdoor Authors #germany

Friday, September 7, 2012 | Posted by Mikko @ 12:17 GMT

https://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002423.html

Just couple of years ago, it would have been unthinkable that governments would be openly recruiting trojan and backdoor developers to work for them.

Yet, that's exactly what's happening now.

For a fresh example, here's an ad[1] from the website of the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA)

They are looking for a developer. Let's take a closer look at the job description

Ihre Aufgabe: Mitarbeit bei der Softwareentwicklung und -pflege zur Schaffung der technischkriminaltaktischen Voraussetzungen zum verdeckten polizeilichen Zugriff auf entfernte Rechnersysteme

Translated to English:
Your task: Contribute to the development and maintenance of software to provide covert police access to remote computing systems

This isn't new: We know that German Government has been using trojans against their own citizens[2] before. However, they used to buy their trojans[3]. Now it looks like they are developing their own. 

[1] http://www.bka.de/nn_194250/DE/Berufsperspektive/Stellenangebote/11-2012.html
[1.2] https://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/bka_ad2.png
[2] http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002249.html
[3] http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002250.html