Germany

The legal situation in Germany is similar to Austrian case law. A law was passed in May 2007 against “arranging to spy and intercept data“ for criminal prosecution against cybercrime. The so-called “hacker paragraph“ is governed by the German Criminal Code (StGB) §202c:

(1) A person planning a criminal offence according to § 202a or § 202b by

1. producing passwords or other security codes that allow access to data (§ 202a (2))

2. computer programs whose purpose is the commission of such an act, for themselves, a third party, for sale, distributes or otherwise makes available to others is punishable by imprisonment for up to two years or a fine. (2) §149 para. 2 and 3 apply accordingly.

- Criminal code (StGB), § 202c preparing to spy and intercept data

As in Austria, we are not allowed to give ourselves or a third party unauthorised access to an IT system. This also pertains to data of non-public data transmissions, such as encrypted communication or private Wi-Fis. Even if the protection against unauthorised access is trivial at best, we are not allowed to bypass it. From a legal standpoint, e.g. standard accounts are a legitimate safeguard. Furthermore, merely acquiring hacker tools is punishable by law if these are not used for benign purposes. This means that in Germany too, we may only attack an IT system if a statement of agreement has been given by the operator.