[andrekuper]

A government surveillance software scandal that erupted in Germany this weekend has spread beyond that nation's borders, raising questions about how far government officials around the globe might go to monitor citizens through spyware.
On Saturday, as reported on MSNBC.com, the German-based Chaos Computer Club announced it had examined a Trojan horse program allegedly spread by government officials to secretly spy on citizens' Internet travels, e-mail, chat and more. The software, originally intended only to help officials intercept Internet phone calls through legal wiretaps, went far beyond those permissible purposes, the hacker group alleged. The group called the government's use of the software outrageous and demanded it be destroyed immediately.
Since Saturday, new details have emerged which largely confirm suspicions raised by the hacker group. That has German officials calling for an investigation.
"Clearly the limits set by the Federal Constitutional Court have been massively violated," said Claudia Roth, co-leader of the Green Party, according to Der Spiegel's online edition
Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger has called for an investigation of the incident.
So far, four German states -- including Bavaria -- have said they've used the program, though officials maintain it was implemented legally in concert with court orders.
But a lawyer representing a suspect in an illegal pharmaceutical trafficking case told journalists that his client's laptop computer had been deliberately infected with the Trojan horse by Customs agents in 2009 when he was traveling through Munich airport, according to Deutsche Wells.
German firm DigiTask told several media outlets this week that the program inspected by the Chaos Computer Club was likely a tracking program it had sold to Bavarian authorities in 2007, and that it was looking into claims that the same software was sold to other German states. DigiTask officials also said it had sold similar spy software to government officials in Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, according to Deutsche Wells. The firm said it had never sold its software outside of Europe. http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2...-scandal-grows