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to swoop down and investigate in detail what was happening on any of the dozens of computers he now managed.

One morning, when staff logged onto their computers, Darryl sent a message warning everyone from the Managing Director downwards that henceforth anyone might be subject to screening by the Computer Manager. Unbeknownst to most, Darryl's newly installed VNC was humming away merrily in the background. If he received an alert that somebody had downloaded a virus or was trying to install some unrec- ognised software, the VNC would be activated.

The VNC is a mighty powerful tool. To some, its use will appear like a straightforward business practice, but in the global Internet, deployment of VNC software is fiercely contested. In much of conti- nental Europe, governments and companies are strictly forbidden from accessing any information on their employees' computers that is not related to work (and even that is not easy). The monitoring of emails is strictly illegal.

Crime detection and civil liberties have always been uneasy bedfel- lows, but their coexistence has become significantly more troubled since the spread of the Internet, and this will continue in the future. In Germany, if a police officer is tracking a suspect anonymously over the Internet, he or she is legally bound to identify themselves as belonging to law enforcement, if asked by an online interlocutor. This makes very difficult the practice widespread in Britain and the United States of officers posing as underage girls and boys in order to entrap paedophiles who appear to be grooming children online. The deploy- ment of a VNC is politically charged and circumscribed by important data-protection laws. So Darryl Leaning had to handle his pet with great care.

One day in early February 2008 an alert that warned of suspect software flashed up on Darryl's screen. Unauthorised Application: Messenger. Darryl's systems were looking out for several different types of unauthorised application. The word 'Messenger' suggested that someone was trying to install or operate some form of communications package like Skype. Within minutes Darryl had traced its origin to one of the chemical engineers who represent the backbone of GSA's busi- ness. Walking over to the workstation in question, Darryl decided simply to ask him outright whether he was running any new instant messenger on his machine.

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