International coalition calls for withdrawal of Dutch hacking plans

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Deutsch: [Niederlande: Internationale Koalition fordert Rücknahme der Hacking-Pläne | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.23_Niederlande_Internationale_Koalition_fordert_Ruecknahme_der_Hacking-Plaene?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20121205]

An international coalition of more than 40 civil rights organizations
and security experts have expressed their “grave concerns” about a Dutch
proposal to break into foreign computers and search and delete data. In
a letter handed over to the Dutch minister of Security and Justice by
Dutch digital rights organization Bits of Freedom on Monday 3 December
2012, the coalition urgently calls upon the minister to withdraw his
proposal.

According to the international coalition, the proposal poses serious
risks to the human rights and cybersecurity of individuals worldwide.
This is aggravated by the fact that countries will likely follow the
initiative of the Netherlands. This will lead to a situation where
countries will enforce their local laws on foreign computers. These
local laws would not solely address cybercrime, but also issues deemed
illegal in other countries, such as blasphemy and political criticism.

The coalition therefore strongly urges the minister to withdraw his
proposal. The letter is signed by more than 40 members of the civil
society. These include civil rights organizations such as the Electronic
Frontier Foundation (US), Privacy International (UK), the Chaos Computer
Club (Germany) or EDRi. In addition, renowned security-experts and
software developers Bruce Schneier (US), Richard Stallman (US) and Ron
Deibert (Canada) signed the letter.

The proposal will be debated in the Dutch parliament on Thursday, 6
December 2012. The letter is then likely to be discussed, as it received
broad media coverage. If you are interested in the outcome, please mail
directly to .

EDRi-gram: Dutch proposal to search and destroy foreign computers
(24.10.2012)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number10.20/dutch-proposal-state-spyware

Dutch plans to remotely conduct searches and delete data on foreign
computers (30.11.2012)
https://www.bof.nl/live/wp-content/uploads/20121203-Sign-on_proposal_Opstelten.pdf

(Contribution by Simone Halink – EDRi member Bits of Freedom, Netherlands)