The UK government could use trojans or malware to fight organised crime, according to the BBC.
Following this week's London Conference on Cyberspace, Lee Miles, head of cyber at the UK serious crime agency, Soca, told the BBC: "In terms of the sensitivities around particular Trojans, it wouldn't be something that we would particularly like to talk about,"
"But if it's available to be deployed within a lawful framework... then we would use any tactics at our disposal to fight organised crime."
UK Minister for Crime and Security James Brokenshire also told the BBC: "We do need to exercise care embarking down this path [of using new techniques] because of the unintended consequences - it's something that has to be considered very carefully,"
"But we're very clear on having a robust legal framework balancing privacy and the ability of law enforcement to ensure that we're all protected."
Last month, the German state of Bavaria was called to account after it admitted to using spyware to investigate serious criminal offences, which it claimed was within the law.
Germany's Chaos Computer Club said "The malware can not only siphon away intimate data but also offers a remote control or backdoor functionality for uploading and executing arbitrary other programs".