Yes, and police spyware: Swedish police announced new crime-fighting techniques this week. One of them is the ability to deploy spyware on suspects' devices.
This specific software will aim to intercept encrypted communications and activate microphones and cameras.
The decision was announced by Swedish Interior Minister Mikael Damberg at a press conference held on Tuesday, October 22.
The new technical capabilities that the Swedish police will acquire are part of a 34-point plan to upgrade law enforcement powers to investigate gangs or violent crimes.
Damberg said that providing police with these techniques to intercept encrypted communications was a top priority, as they could not monitor criminal groups that often use services like Signal and WhatsApp to coordinate their operations.
According to ZDNet, the minister told local press [1, 2, 3, 4] that 90% of all communications that the police have tried to intercept for investigations in recent years were encrypted.
Spyware instead of backdoors in encryption
But unlike countries like Australia, where the local government has passed a law forcing tech companies to roll back encryption, the Swedish police will follow a different route – also known as the German route.
Over a decade ago, German authorities began developing a malware they called Bundestrojaner (Federal trojan).
The Swedish police plan is similar in that it plans to deploy malware with spyware capabilities on suspects' devices. This will help them listen to encrypted audio calls or watch real-time video. They will also be able to extract chat logs from encrypted instant messaging apps.
How the Swedish authorities will accomplish this is not known, but there are at least two routes. They can create the malware themselves or buy it from third parties. The latter option is the most popular with law enforcement agencies around the world, and there is a growing market for companies selling hacking tools as legitimate surveillance tools to law enforcement agencies.
The new capabilities are expected to come into effect on March 1, 2020. According to Damberg, police will only be able to use them if the crime is punishable by a sentence of four years or more.
