After the exposures by Edward Snowden, internet service providers reacted to the constant surveillance by companies and secret services, choosing to protect communication between users through encryption. Police authorities, secret services, and security politicians stress steadily that the surveillance of encrypted online communication is a necessity to combat crime. This is not, however, easy to accomplish on a technical level. So their solution is: The state should be allowed to hack into the devices of the affected people and tap into communication before it is encrypted / after it is decrypted. This process entails compromising the security of the world-wide IT infrastructure and of every single smartphone, tablet, and computer. In short: In order to monitor the chats of a few suspects, everyone's security is sacrificed. In Austria the government is currently trying for the third time to introduce the judicial basis for a state trojan. Twice we successfully fended off these plans. Now they are again part of the surveillance package of the government.
Update end of April 2018: On April 20, 2018, the legalisation of governmental spy software was adopted. The warnings of experts and political opposition were ignored. Use of the state trojan will be allowed starting April 1, 2020.
