Press release 2008-09-17

Translation of press release concerning the raid to find the leak in the Bayerntrojaner-Case

Pirate Party in the spotlight – Existence of the „Bayerntrojaner“ confirmed

A few days ago, Bavarian Police raided the private rooms of the press spokesman of the German Pirate Party (Piratenpartei Deutschland). Like in the "Cicero Case", the authorities were searching for a leaker among their own ranks. The Pirate Party released an internal document in January, during a discussion about the so called "Bundestrojaner" (that is, "Federal Trojan" -- Spyware used to infiltrate private computers by state authorities). This internal document of the Bavarian Department of Justice was received by an unknown person and shows that such software may already be in use without legal authorization. As a result of the raid, the authenticity of this document is no longer in question.

The situation is politically charged because a member of the executive committee of the Bavarian Pirate Party is being affected. The German Pirate Party, long critical of this kind of spyware, is demanding that there be more parliamentary control over services like the BKA (Note: The German Federal Police, something like the FBI). They feel that this oversight is needed to prevent civil rights from being further undermined. Jens Seipenbusch, Vice Chairman of the PIRATEN says: "This procedure can only be considered a repression of our political efforts. It looks like some of our state officials want to establish a surveillance state without the people noticing.“

Since the individual who's private home was raided does not know the identity of the leaker, the raid can only be seen as a form of intimidation. Not only did the Pirate Party spokesperson have their private residence raided, but a server belonging to another Party member was seized. This server was located in Bavaria. The danger of information stored on this server being compromised is low, however, since it was encrypted with strong encryption software.

Andreas Popp, Chairman of the Bavarian Pirate Party says: "A brave person leaked documents to the Pirate Party, to inform the public about a procedure of the Bavarian Government, which is highly likely to violate the constitution. Now this persons is being hunted like a criminal. Private rooms are being raided, servers are being seized. I want to tell this person, that measures have been taken to avoid unwanted access to data, which might lead to him or her being identified."

press contacts:

Andreas Popp
Chairman of the Bavarian Pirate Party
andreas.popp [at] piratenpartei-bayern (punkt) de

Thorsten Wirth
Chairman of the Hesse Pirate Party
t.wirth [at] piratenpartei-hessen (punkt) de

Jens Seipenbusch
Vice Chairman of the German Pirate Party
js [at] piratenpartei (punkt) de