Chaos Computer Club: Anatomy of a digital pest

On February 27, 2008 the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court of Germany) issued an historical judgment. Concluding the discussion surrounding the Bundestrojaner (or Staatstrojaner, literally „state/federal trojan“, colloquial German term for the government malware concept) – known as an „online search“ in official German – the highest court in Germany announced a new constitutional right to uphold IT system privacy and integrity. It sets severe restrictions on the secret services and investigation authorities when they seek permission to infiltrate computers in Germany for the purpose of extracting data and surveying core privacy.