German Bundeswehr Recruiting Hackers 156
bad_alloc writes "Heise.de tells us about the German Bundeswehr's idea of recruiting hackers in order to 'penetrate, manipulate and damage hostile networks.' (Note: The following passage has been translated from German into English: 'The Regiment is stationed in Rheinbach, near Bonn, and consists of several dozen graduates from Bundeswehr universities. They're training at the moment, but the 'hackers in uniforms' are supposed to be operational by next year. This regiment officially belongs to the "Kommando Strategische Aufklärung" (strategic reconnaissance) and is commanded by Brigadier General Friedrich Wilhelm Kriesel. The Bundeswehr has not said anything to this regiment yet.' You can find the full article in German."
Re:That's great and all, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
... it would be nice if you could post a link to a full article in English, what with this being an english site and all. No, babelfish doesn't count.
Yes, we should ignore all foreign articles until they've been officially translated, even tho' translation tools are adequate to give you the gist of an article
I mean - it's not like there's any Germans who read Slashdot & will translate in the comments or anything is it?
Re:Just asking. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:That's great and all, but... (Score:2, Insightful)
Perhaps you could post a link to an English version of the article instead of just complaining that somebody else didn't?
No?
Perhaps you should just keep your whining to yourself then.
P.S. If you don't like Babelfish, vielleicht sollst du Deutsch lernen.
Re:That's great and all, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, we should ignore all foreign articles until they've been officially translated, ...
And it's not as if this is specifically an English-language site anyway, is it? I mean, look at the URL -- ".org". Not ".us", ".uk", ".au" or anything nation- or language- specific. The URL clearly indicates that it's supposed to be a pan-national site.
(Yes, I know what the FAQ says. The URL sends a stronger and more direct message than the FAQ, however.)
Re:That's great and all, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:IT Work (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Wait what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly when has the "Bundestrojaner" been actually used without authorization? No, seriously, I'm curious now.
And how's it any worse than, say, the USA? You can find plenty of cases where the FBI planted a trojan or a keylogger on a _suspect's_ computer, which is all that the "Bundestrojaner" is supposed to do. The difference is that in Germany there has been a whole debate about it and it's been shot down on constitutional and privacy grounds repeatedly, while in the USA nobody even bothered wondering much about it.
Let me repeat: the "Bundestrojaner" is supposed to only be used with a court mandate, only for a limited time, and only on the computers of people suspected of terror activities and the like. Plus a court is supposed to establish (as per the german supreme court decision) that the use does not pose any danger to a person's other rights, among which their freedom. It'll be interesting to see if they can use it at all then, but at any rate you can't use it, say, to intimidate your opponents.
But seriously, how's that any worse than what the rest of the world already does? It seems to me like the USA just shipped such suspects to Gitmo for some waterboarding. I'll take a court-approved keylogger instead if I'm ever suspected of anything, thank you very much.
And then you have cases like the NSA spying on its citizens without any court approval or legal mandate.
Basically if you think that a law which sets clear limits is actually worse than no law, well, you're naive.
Re:That's great and all, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
And .us would also not mean English-language as the the US has no official language.
And Hawaiian is an official language in the state of Hawaii.