As part of a 5 year action plan to 'combat the growth in cyber theft and spam' the EU have granted Europol £250,000 to create a system to allow european police forces to share data with each other which they have gained be illegal means. Obviously they worded it slightly better than I have, but essentially that is what they have allowed.

The meeting, backed by 'the anti-cyber crime strategy' is to sanction virtual patrols of 'some areas of the net' - what ever that might mean. They are also encouraging 'better sharing of information between police forces in member nations and private companies on investigative methods and trends' - or, to you and me, encourage the police to out source their hacking.

Do I really mean hacking? after all Jacques Barrot (EC vice-president) said in a statement that the strategy was to encourage 'the much needed operational cooperation and information exchange between the Member States' and hey - sharing information will be great for catching criminals right? But what data will they be sharing? - this is where it gets interesting, forces will 'patrol online' to track down criminals - but they will also take part in 'remote searches' - yes, you heard right - the EU is not only allowing, but encouraging the police to remotely scan people hard drives - and to share that information with other police forces around the EU.

Last I heard, remote access to a computer network or system without the system owners permission was illegal - but not, it would seem, if you are a european police force. Also note that with remote searching encryption probably won’t help you - as most people will unencrypt the drive while they are using the internet.

Original Article:  http://blog.kiasworld.co.uk/1_kiasworld_blog/archive/76_eu_makes_hacking_legal_for_the_police.html