Spyware-led investigations

Australian police given power to use spyware.

Police in Australia have been awarded the right to use spyware for evidence-gathering, thanks to a new law passed last week.

Under the Surveillance Devices Act, police can obtain a warrant to use 'software surveillance technologies', including keyloggers. However, the new law has been heavily criticised, with many fearing that the law goes too far in allowing police surveillance - the Surveillance Devices Act allows surveillance for less serious offences than those allowed under the existing Telecommunications Interception Act.

Warrants to intercept telecommunications can be obtained only in cases where the offence being investigated carries a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment or more. However, under the Surveillance Devices Act, warrants can be obtained for offences that carry a maximum sentence of just three years.

The new law raises an interesting point of discussion for anti-virus/anti-spyware vendors. Two years ago, at Virus Bulletin's VB2002 conference, one speaker asked e-bugs: should anti-virus products detect them?. At that time, the media was rife with reports about the FBI's use of software to monitor the activity of suspected criminals and terrorists and AV vendors were divided over whether they should include detection of such investigation devices.

14 December 2004

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