Austria: Calls for expansion of messenger surveillance

Austria's government is planning to buy millions worth of malware and use it to monitor citizens who are not suspected of any crime – if other investigative measures appear futile. The liberal coalition partner NEOS was actually against this, but a compromise was reached: The scope of use of so-called federal Trojans is limited to “prevention of certain, particularly serious attacks that threaten the constitution”, which are punishable by ten years or more in prison, as well as counterintelligence. But even before the law has been passed, the Minister of the Interior is already calling for its expansion.

The government bill for the first stage of legalizing state-sponsored malware was submitted to parliament last week. The surveillance attacks are to be carried out by the Austrian Secret Service. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) already spoke out in favor of extending the planned surveillance method to other areas of criminal law during an appearance on color television this week.

“I think it's good – that's ultimately also agreed – that this area should also be tightened up in due course. I think there will also be working groups on this,” said Karner, “I think it makes sense to do this.” He is supported by the chairwoman of the Association of Public Prosecutors, Elena Haslinger, and the head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Andreas Holzer. Haslinger wants the public prosecutor's offices to be able to order the use of federal Trojans, while Holzer wants to empower the criminal investigation department.

SPÖ and NEOS do not support Karner

According to Karner, the tightening has already been “agreed”. The coalition partners see things differently. “Extending the monitoring of dangerous persons to other offenses is not an issue in the government,” says the SPÖ in the person of its security spokesperson Maximilian Köllner.

The NEOS are not prepared to negotiate: “An extension of the surveillance of dangerous persons is out of the question. Our task in politics is to protect the people of Austria and our constitution in equal measure,” writes NEOS party leader Yannick Shetty in a press release, “This includes recognizing attacks on our society and democracy by terrorists and extremists at an early stage to be able to prevent them. We will not extend the surveillance of dangerous individuals to other offenses during the entire government term.”

Budget in the millions

The malware can be secretly installed on computers and cell phones to spy on encrypted and unencrypted messages and information, as well as other stored data. According to the current government proposal, this must be approved by the Federal Administrative Court in each individual case. The Ministry of the Interior officially expects to receive around 30 requests per year to spy on unencrypted messages and 5 to 15 requests to monitor encrypted messages. 18.3 million has been budgeted for federal Trojans and the necessary precautions for 2026, and around ten million euros in each of the following years.

Only if encrypted messages are actually spied on 30 times in a calendar year does the Minister of the Interior have to inform the permanent subcommittee of the National Council's Internal Affairs Committee. (The National Council is the directly elected chamber of the Austrian parliament, note).

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