[ISN] Security vendors: We would block police hacking

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:09:42 -0600 (CST)
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39589104,00.htm

By Tom Espiner  
ZDNet.co.uk
08 Jan 2009

The Home Office on Friday said it was working with the European 
Parliament on plans to extend police powers to conduct remote searches 
of computers. UK police already have the power to hack into suspect 
systems without a warrant, due to an amendment to the Computer Misuse 
Act, which came into force in 1995.

However, security vendors Kaspersky Labs and Sophos told ZDNet UK that 
they would not make any concession in their protective software for the 
police hack.

Kaspersky Labs said on Tuesday it would block all attempts to access its 
customers' systems, regardless of the agency attempting the entry.

"Ultimately, we are politically neutral, but we consider it our duty to 
protect our customers," said David Em, Kaspersky's UK senior technology 
consultant.

Cambridge University security expert Richard Clayton told ZDNet UK on 
Monday that UK police were most likely to hack into computers by 
entering a premises and installing a keylogger on the target system. 
This would be more effective than a drive-by download or sending an 
email with a malware attachment, as the chances of successful 
interception of data were higher, said Clayton. As an alternative, 
police could hack into Wi-Fi networks to search systems, he said.

[...]


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Received on Sun Jan 11 2009 - 23:09:42 PST

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