Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/10/german_police_hack_domestic_row_theory/
German cops hacked in revenge for dad spying on daughter
Payback after officer used cyber-bug at home
Posted in Security, 10th January 2012 11:49 GMT
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An infiltration of a German federal security system last year has been traced back to a botched attempt by an unnamed security official to use a Trojan to monitor his daughter's internet usage, Der Spiegel reports.
According to the report, a hacker friend of the young woman found the spyware on her machine before hacking into her father's machine, supposedly as payback for the privacy intrusion.
The girl's friend discovered a cache of security-related emails on the father's machine; according to the report [1], the policeman had diverted official emails to his private computer. This allowed his daughter's pal to infiltrate a German police system – called PATRAS – used to log the location of suspected criminals through cell phone and car GPS systems.
The intrusion (launched from systems in Russia) was detected, prompting a decision by German police to take systems and servers supporting the PATRAS program offline.
A 23-year-old from North Rhine Westphalia was arrested last summer for hacking into German customs authority computer systems.
The “No Name Crew” hacking group, which is blamed [2] for another hack into the PATRAS system, has uploaded sensitive information from customs investigations. A police spokesman declined to say whether the two cases were linked.
More on the story can be found in the original report by Der Spiegel here [3] (in German) and local English language reports here [4]. ®