Deutsche Welle [] 2013-14

8/10/2019 Deutsche Welle [www.dw.de] 2013-14

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Viviane Reding thinks its time to 'level the playing field'

NSA SCANDAL

Does the EU need its own spies?

The EU justice commissioner thinks Europe needs its own central intelligence office, as a

"counterweight" to the NSA. But the legal and political obstacles are significant, say

experts, and would it even be worth it?

Viviane Reding, the European Union's justice commissioner, was in combative mood when she spoke

to Greek newspaper Naftemporiki on Monday (04.11.2013). Asked to comment on Edward Snowden's

revelations about the US National Security Agency's activities - particularly the mass surveillance of EU

citizens' data - Reding suggested it was time Europe pushed back: "What we need is to strengthen

Europe in this field, so we can level the playing field with our US partners."

Reding went on to make a concrete proposal: "I would therefore wish to use this occasion to negotiate

an agreement on stronger secret service co-operation among the EU member states - so that we can

speak with a strong common voice to the US," she said. "The NSA needs a counterweight. My long-

term proposal would therefore be to set up a European Intelligence Service by 2020."

There was obviously a political point in the notion as much as a practical one - perhaps a rhetorical

exercise to assert European power. One EU official assured the EUobserver website that Reding had

spoken off the cuff, and had not yet discussed her idea with fellow commissioners.

Europe's disadvantage

Reding's partially-veiled anger is

understandable, given that the NSA allegedly

spied on several EU leaders, EU offices both in

Brussels and elsewhere, and on EU citizens.

"There is a perception among European

bureaucracy that Europe is at a disadvantage,"

said Nigel Inkster, director of transnational

threats and political risk at the International

Institute for Strategic Studies, and a former

SPY GAME: CAN ANYONE CONTROL THE NSA?

TOP STORIES / WORLD


2/46

EU offices in Brussels were also targeted by the NSA

British Secret Intelligence Service official. "So when Europe wants to exercise leverage over America on

issues of this kind it can't do so through the same mechanism. It's only option is to do so through

legislation around issues like data protection."

The proposal for a European intelligence agency is not new. The idea was first mooted after the

Madrid train bombings in 2004, when the governments of Austria and Belgium called for an EU-wide

agency to pool counter-terrorist intelligence. That idea was duly cold-shouldered by France, Germany,

and the UK - partly because of the daunting political problems involved.

For one thing, it would require a comprehensive revision of the Lisbon Treaty, which currently says

clearly that security is a national concern. "At the end of the day, intelligence collection is almost the

supreme expression of national sovereignty," said Inkster. "It is quintessentially national in its purpose

and intent."

Intelligence nightmares

There are plenty of reasons why major European countries would not want to share information with

their smaller neighbors, pointed out Paul Schulte, former defense official in the British government

and senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Who would agree to have

their national information-flow fed into some multi-national pool?" he told DW. "Would they be able

to keep agents, would they be able to keep budgetary appropriations? You get free-rider problems

immediately."

Schulte also suggested that the perennial problems

hanging over intelligence and national security

issues - dealing with parliamentary oversight, the

threat of leaks - would only be complicated by

keeping a centralized office. "That's a nightmare of

intelligence officials - every time you share

something, you risk its usefulness being devalued,

because the message gets out that you know this,"

said Schulte. "So you have to think about the pretty

hideous problems of credibly maintainingconfidentiality amongst 28 member states - some of which may not have the highest standards of

counterintelligence and internal security."

If it's not broken

Europe already maintains some central information-sharing organizations. The EU Intelligence

Analysis Centre (EU INTCEN) provides intelligence analysis to EU High Representative Catherine

Ashton and to the European External Action Service, while counter-terrorism specialists meet

regularly within the EU Council's working group CP931. On top of that, there arebilateral intelligence-

sharing forums outside the EU structure, such as the Club de Berne, an organization within which the

EU's 28 members share their secrets voluntarily.

Other international organizations operate by the same loose principles. "We've got this in NATO -

everyone gets some information, but there are a great many things held back by individual

governments or shared only on an inner-circle basis," said Schulte. "If you try and formalize this, and

say this must be EU-wide, it's not going to happen - there will be some formal acknowledgement, and

some cosmetic high-profile sharing, but the real crown jewels are still going to be jealously guarded."

"For it to constitute an improvement, you'd have to have a lot more harmonization of a lot of

arrangements within Europe, including different legal systems," said Inkster. "A European intelligence

service, if one were to be established, would necessarily take time to bed down and develop anything

like the capabilities that already exist."

DW.DE

US Privacy Board 'is unique in the world'

How can US surveillance be both more effective and more accountable? DW spoke to David Medine, chairman of

the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board, which is charged with protecting US civil liberties. (05.11.2013)


3/46

Senator Leahy, who led the Senate

hearing, supports limits on

surveillance

NSA SCANDAL

US Congress divided on NSA reformproposals

A US Senate intelligence review panel has found shortcomings in the NSA spy agency. The

panel of experts has been cross-examined by a Senate committee, which made an effort to

calm concerns about implementing reforms.

The National Security Agency (N SA) must be reformed: The review panel is unanimous on this point,

even if Congress is not.

Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the judiciary committee that interviewed the intelligence experts,

gave the hand-picked panel his backing. "I believe strongly that we must impose stronger limits on

government surveillance powers," the Democrat said on Tuesday (14.01.2014) at the start of the

hearing. But those called to testify before the committee apparently did not want to put it as starkly as

that. The five authors of the 308-page report entitled, "Liberty and Security in a Changing World,"

were adamant about not jeopardizing the work of the NSA.

"Much of our focus has been on maintaining the ability of the intelligence-community to do what itneeds to do," said one of the panel, law professor Cass Sunstein. "And we emphasize - if there is one

thing to emphasize, it is this - that not one of the 46 recommendations of our report would in our view

compromise or jeopardize this ability in any way."

Improve, not impair

The report, he added, was not meant to destroy the NSA - though

it clearly does not come out of the assessment well - but to

improve it, "by increasing safeguards aga inst insider threats and

by eliminatiing certain gaps in the law that make it hard to track

people under circumstances in which we have reasons to believe

they don't wish to do us well, " said Sunstein.

The panel, consisting of two constitutional lawyers, a data

protection expert, ex-CIA deputy director Michael Morell, and

anti-terrorism expert Richard Clarke, presented their report to the

White House in December. There was "a misperception on the

part of the media and much of the American public that the review group had indeed recommended


TOP STORIES / WORLD


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President Obama is due to announce his reform plans

shortly

The NSA was caught spying on allies, causing a great deal

of acrimony

an end to the program and we did not do that," said Morell. "We recommended a change in

approach."

That means change not only within the US -but abroad too. The pa nel's recommendations include a

proposal that the NSA limit its foreign surveillance a ctivities - and not only among world leaders. The

experts said future NSA directors should be civilians and at least partly chosen by the Senate. On top

of this, his areas of responsibility should be split between cyber security and the NSA's offensive

capabilities.

Metadata program

But the most important and substantial reform, the

panel suggested, was the metadata program. This

program, which allows the NSA to randomly

collect citizens' phone and internet data, was

brought to light last June through the revelations

of whistleblower Edward Snowden. Morell

admitted that critics were right to say that this

program had not prevented any terrorist attacks. "

The program only has to be successful once to be

invaluable," he added.

Sunstein emphasized that the important thing was

to manage various risks. "First and foremost the risk of national security, but including also the risk to

public trust, the risk to privacy, risk to economic values and risk to democratic self-governance," he

said. For these reasons, the panel recommended tha t the government pull out of the business of

collecting information for its own sake. Instead, a third party, such as a telecommunications company,

should store the data for a limited period and make it available to the government on request. This

proposal has been dismissed as window dressing by digital rights activists, whereas others believe it

goes too far.

House and American people divided

Regardless of what reforms Obama announces on Friday (17.01.2014), the president is limited when it

comes to implementing the panel's proposals. On most points, he needs Congressional approval. But

just like the US public itself, the House of Representatives and the Senate are divided on the reforms,

says long-term CIA employee Fred Fleitz, a former member of the Congressional intelligence

committee.

"There is a great deal of acrimony within the US

Congress on what to do," he said. "There is an

odd alliance between the right and left of

politicians who want to roll back the metadata

program and put strict limits on certain NSA

surveillance programs because they believe they

infringe on the proxy rights of Americans."

Many would even block reforms, if they don't go

far enough, while others are against them

because they are worried about undermining US

security standards. "However there is also a very

strong bipartisan Senate intelligence committee bill which would improve the NSA program and

address concerns about it without shutting it down," said Fleitz.

Fleitz, who works for the think tank Center for Security Policy, thinks any reform bill would have good

chances of being approved, though it could take some time to pass through both houses of Congress

and be implemented. Many analysts even doubt whether Obama will even be able to complete the job

in his tenure.

DW.DE

'No-spy deal is no cure-all'

Germany's future transatlantic coordinator Philipp Missfelder says it would be a setback if the No-Spy Agreement

didn't come about. But the agreement wouldn't answer all the questions either. (14.01.2014)


5/46

INTELLIGENCE

'No-spy deal is no cure-all'

Germany's future transatlantic coordinator Philipp Missfelder says it would be a setback if

the No-Spy Agreement didn't come about. But the agreement wouldn't answer all the

questions either.

In the wake of the NSA affair, Germany and the US have begun talks to find an agreement on the

activities of their spy agencies. In November 2013, the minister responsible for the German intelligence

agencies, Ronald Pofalla, said that negotiations on the so-called No-Spy Agreement were going well,

but the Sddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and state TV network NDR have reported that the talks are

close to breaking down.

Deutsche Welle: Does this latest development mean there is no reason to assume that US spying

activities will cease?

Philipp Missfelder: The agreement has not yet really collapsed. It's too early to say that for certain. I'm

convinced that it would be a setback for our cooperation with the US if the agreement did not come

about. In principle, I welcome the No-Spy Agreement, but let's not deceive ourselves: even if a No-Spy

Agreement were to be signed, there would still be many unanswered questions. The principles

governing how data is exchanged are a very difficult issue. And we would have to be certain that any

such agreement would actually be kept.

Isn't it nave of the Germans to believe that the US would seriously restrict its activities in Germany,

or even give them up?

I think the US needs to see the damage all this activity has done, and how much trust has been lost in

Germany. As allies, we can't allow ourselves a situation like the current one to continue for long - and

that doesn't just apply in the case of Germany, it applies to many others among America's partners.

Does that mean that the United States has to commit to greater self-restraint in the future?

The same self-restraint is also being discussed very intensively in the US - the discussion there is even

livelier than it is here. That's why it's clear that we have to try to maintain the transatlantic partnership


TOP STORIES / GERMANY


6/46

Date14.01.2014

AuthorInterview: Sven Phle / mll

Editor Ben Knight

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and friendship. But the gap which has emerged between us has to be closed again.

How should the gap be closed? Without the agreement, little will have changed - the US continues to

treat its allies like potential enemies.

No, that's not the case. Some of the American agencies have a questionable understanding of their

role, but America treats us as a friend and we are still friends and nothing will change that. It's just

that some of the agencies have shifted the balance in a direction which does not fit with US' political

conceptions. The fact is: the US is very helpful to us in many things, such as Germany's domestic and

international security - in the fight against terror, or with regard to cooperation in such things asinternational military operations. Afghanistan is one example, the resolution of the conflict in the

former Yugoslavia is another. We remain good friends and want to remain good friends. But the

friendship has been damaged by the fact that the agencies have taken what they wanted without

asking.

But now it looks as if it's the US that is not prepared to make concessions. It seems that the US fears

setting a precedent, since other countries could come and make similar demands. Should one take

account of US interests?

I don't accept those arguments. We want this agreement and we will continue to make efforts to

achieve it.

Philipp Missfelder is the new German government's designated coordinator for transatlantic

relations. He's a member of Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat Union in the German parliament

and its spokesman on foreign affairs.

DW.DE

German media blast US 'No' to no-spy agreement

After last year's media outrage was appeased by the prospect of a no-spy pact, recent reports that US-German

talks are unlikely to lead to binding promises on the US side have once again stoked the German media fire.

(14.01.2014)

Scowcroft: 'We're searching for a common strategy'

Brent Scowcroft is one o f Washingtons most renowned security experts. In an interview with DW, the former

security adviser under Presidents Ford and Bush senior analyzes the current challenges. (11.01.2014)

ACLU: 'NSA reforms should apply worldwide'

US President Barack Obama will soon announce plans for reforming the NSA spy agency. American Civil Liberties

Union National Security Fellow, Brett Kaufmann, told DW that he fears the reforms may not go far enough.

(10.01.2014)


7/46

NSA SCANDAL

ACLU: 'NSA reforms should apply

worldwide'

US President Barack Obama will soon announce plans for reforming the NSA spy agency.

American Civil Liberties Union National Security Fellow, Brett Kaufmann, told DW that

he fears the reforms may not go far enough.

The ACLU is one of many groups opposed to the NSA's spying practices

DW: Obama's reform plans are based on the advice of a review panel he appointed. What do you

think will substantially change when it comes to the work of the foreign intelligence service, NSA?

Brett Kaufman: The most important reform in substance will be the reform of the metadata program,

in which the government is collecting records about all the phone calls made and received within the

United States. That's what theACLUis watching most closely and that has been the subject of most of

the debate here in the United States.

The President's handpicked review panel recommended that the government get out of the business of

collecting all of this information. It said that the government really should not be demanding these call

records from telecommunications companies. And that's a really important marker in this debate.

The review group suggested the possibility that a third party might hold the records, or that the

telecommunication companies themselves might be forced to retain the records for a certain period of

time. We [at the ACLU] think that that kind of system is no solution at all because it raises the same

kind of privacy concerns that the government's collection of this information does. So we're watching

very closely to see what President Obama recommends.

Will the planned reform have any consequences for the leadership of the intelligence services, such as

the director of US intelligence, James Clapper, who in March 2013 was still denying that the NSA

collected data from millions of US citizens?

There hasn't been much talk of Mr. Clapper moving on. But Keith Alexander, the head of the NSA,


TOP STORIES / WORLD


8/46

Brett Kaufman works for the ACLU's

National Security Project

Date10.01.2014

AuthorAntje Passenheim (Washington) / asb

Editor Gregg Benzow




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and one of his important colleagues are both retiring in the

months ahead. So there will be a discussion of replacing those

individuals. And one of the topics that the president's review

group addressed was the possibility of splitting the roles that Keith

Alexander now holds - which addresses both cyber security as well

as the NSA's offensive capacities. There's also discussion of putting

a civilian in that role rather than a military officer. Those things

were probably good ideas, though it still remains to be seen where

the president will come out on those proposals.

After everything that has come to light lately, the review panel

has also suggested more restraint in intercepting

communications from foreign head of states. But would the NSA

reform also offer more privacy protection to ordinary non-US

citizens, for instance Europeans?

One of the most important and probably underreported proposals of the review panel was the

recommendation that certain privacy protections currently afforded to Americans also be applied

abroad.

It's just a fact that the NSA should not be conducting these kinds of bulk surveillance programs on the

entire world. And that's exactly what's currently happening. The US government is subjecting the

population of the entire world to a mass surveillance regime. And that is in violation of the

government's responsibilities under international treaties and international law.

We [the ACLU] sincerely hope that reforms are made that restrict some of these abusive practices - not

just in the United States - but around the world.

Lawyer Brett Max Kaufman is a National Security Fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union's

(ACLU) National Security Project.

DW.DE

EU report reveals massive scope of secret NSA surveillance

The European Parliament has wrapped up its inquiry into mass surveillance. In a draft report, politicians are

being hard on all sides - the US government, the NSA, but also on hesitant EU governments and companies.

(09.01.2014)

NSA surveillance eroded transatlantic trust

One year ago, most people on either side o f Atlantic had scant or no knowledge of the NSA and its activities.

Edward Snowdens revelations changed all that and rocked one of the pillars of transatlantic relations.

(27.12.2013)

Pressure builds to crack down on NSA spying

Not only is Obama's advisory panel putting pressure on the president, but Congress is also considering two bills

aimed at the NSA's spying programs. Will they provide additional protections for non-US citizens? (19.12.2013)


9/46

CIVIL RIGHTS

EU report reveals massive scope of secret

NSA surveillance

The European Parliament has wrapped up its inquiry into mass surveillance. In a draft

report, politicians are being hard on all sides - the US government, the NSA, but also on

hesitant EU governments and companies.

It was Thursday afternoon and the first week after the winter break and it was hardly a surprise that

only few seats were filled in room JAN 2Q2 at the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels. But Claude

Moraes, British MEP from the group of Socialists and Social Democrats (S&D), woke the European

Union from its winter slumber with a bang.

The rapporteur of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) had come to

present the 52-page draft reporton the committee's inquiry into the NSA spying scandal and its

implications on European citizens. The draft report is hard on all sides - including governments and

companies in the EU.

"Collect, store, analyze"

The report summarizes the findings from the past six months. On page 16, the text says that the recent

revelations in the press by whistleblowers and journalists, together with the expert evidence given

during the inquiry, have resulted in "compelling evidence of the existence of far-reaching, complex

and highly technologically advanced systems designed by US and some Member States' intelligence

services to collect, store and analyze communication and location data and metadata of all citizens

around the world on an unprecedented scale and in an indiscriminate and non-suspicion-based

manner."

The authors explicitly point at Britain's signals intelligence agency GCHQ and its upstream

surveillance activity (Tempora program) as well as decryption program (Edgehill), and add that it's

quite likely that programs of a similar nature as the NSA's and GCHQ's exist - "even if on a more

limited scale" - in countries like France, Germany and Sweden.


TOP STORIES / WORLD / EUROPE


10/46

Claude Moraes' draft report is a sweeping blow targeting

both US and EU authorities

EU buildings' IT infrastructure must be better protected

against political espionage, demand MEPs

Jan Philipp Albrecht and the Greens

want asylum for Edward Snowden in

the EU

Claude Moraes and his fellow committee

members drew their conclusions from hearing a

variety of experts during the second half of 2013

- among them technology insiders, civil rights

activists, legal experts, US politicians, former

secret service employees and spokespeople of

companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald also testified. He

was the first to publish former NSA contractor

Edward Snowden's revelations.

Fight against terrorism = a fig leaf

The fight against terrorism, according to the committee's draft report, can "never in itself be a

justification for untargeted, secret and sometimes even illegal mass surveillance programs." Moraes

and his fellow rapporteurs showed themselves unconvinced that the NSA's only goal is the fight

against terrorism, as the US government has claimed. In their draft report, European politicians

suspect that there are instead "other power motives," such as "political and economic espionage."

Moraes wrote that "privacy is not a luxury right,

but the ... foundation stone of a free and

democratic society." Above all, the draft report

condemns the "vast, systemic, blanket collection of

the personal data of innocent people."

The authors add that mass surveillance has

potentially severe effects on the freedoms of the

press, thought and speech, as well as a significant

potential for abuse of the information gathered

against political adversaries. In a nutshell, Moraes

said, surveillance programs are "yet another step

towards the establishment of a fully fledged preventive state."

During Thursday's session, MEPs repeated the call to halt negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and

Investment Partnership with the United States. But Kilian Froitzhuber from German-language blog

netzpolitik.org said he doesn't believe that talks will be suspended. He told DW he was glad, however,

to see that "in the draft report, the committee announces that the European Parliament won't sign any

agreement that doesn't explicitly protect the civil liberties of European citizens."

Will Edward Snowden testify?

The committee expressed its intention to hear from Edward Snowden himself. But it's not clear

whether that will happen. British Conservative MEP Timothy Kirkhope and others insisted Snowden

has to appear in a live and interactive session rather than sending a recorded testimony. Kirkhope was

among the LIBE committee members who have attempted to discredit Snowden, and on Thursday in a

written statement he reiterated his belief that Snowden "has endangered lives."

Internet policy activist Froitzhuber said Snowden's appearance in an EP hearing "would probably not

help bring about major new revelations, but it would be a great sign."

And MEP Jan-Philipp Albrecht from the Green group said it is

vital to acknowledge Snowden's work as a whistleblower. The

American, who has been granted asylum in Russia, should no

longer be seen as a criminal, Albrecht told DW, adding that

"Snowden has brought this all to light. I think it's very clear after

this inquiry how huge this scandal is and that we would neverhave heard about it if Edward Snowden hadn't taken this step."

The European Parliament's committee inquiry into the spying

scandal was the first of this scale. No individual EU country has

looked into the scandal this thoroughlyand no EU government


11/46

Date09.01.2014

AuthorNina Haase, Brussels

Editor Sean Sinico




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has been as explicit in its criticism of the US government.

That's hardly a surprise, according to Froitzhuber, who told DW that "national governments in Europe

are not interested in shedding light on the issue to this extent. The European Parliament is clearly

more independent in this respect."

Walking the walk

"This is a mature parliament when it comes to data protection and privacy," committee rapporteur

Moraes said in summary. Over recent years, the European Parliament has undertaken extensive

inquiries into data exchange agreements, such as Swift and Safe Harbor. But all too often, they havehad little implications, the committee said.

The list of policy recommendations in the draft report is long: Countries like Germany ought to revise

their laws so they're compatible with the basic right to privacy and data protection; parliamentary

control bodies that look into secret service activities ought to be equipped with better technological

know-how; and the EU's IT infrastructure ought to be better protected against attacks even if that

costs money - are just some of the recommendations.

Albrecht said he is convinced the inquiry has helped European citizens understand just how important

European standards are for their civil liberties and the protection of privacy. This, he hopes, may

ultimately lead to a higher voter turnout at the European elections coming up in May. "When they

realize that they're invited to go to elections for the next EP I think they'll consider how this EP and the

political groups have acted on the question of protecting their civil liberties in the European Union."

The LIBE committee will put its draft report up for debate at a session next Monday (13.01.2014) and

up for a final vote on 23.01.2014. Sophie in 't Veld, a member of the LIBE committee from the Dutch

Liberals, had this comment on Thursday: "We've been very naive, but if there are any hackers out there

- you have until next week."

DW.DE

ACLU: 'NSA reforms should apply worldwide'

US President Barack Obama will soon announce plans for reforming the NSA spy agency. American Civil Liberties

Union National Security Fellow, Brett Kaufmann, told DW that he fears the reforms may not go far enough.

Report: NSA seeking to develop 'quantum computer'

The NSA is seeking to build a quantum computer capable of breaking most encryption codes, the Washington

Post has reported. Encryption is used to protect sensitive information including banking and emails. (03.01.2014)

Germany eyes parliamentary inquiry into NSA activities

German politicians across party borders have spoken out in favour of setting up a parliamentary inquiry into the

NSA's spying activities in Germany. But what could such a panel achieve? (03.01.2014)

WWW LINKS

Go to the EU surveillance report


12/46

Obama apologized to Merkel for the extent of the phone-

monitoring

UNITED STATES

Germany eyes parliamentary inquiry into

NSA activities

German politicians across party borders have spoken out in favour of setting up a

parliamentary inquiry into the NSA's spying activities in Germany. But what could such a

panel achieve?

German coalition and opposition politicians can hardly conceal their restment as more details about

the extent of the US National Security Agency's surveillance activities on private citizens are made

public, including spy software for computers and mobile phones, mobile communication listening

posts and manipulated USB ports. They don't necessarily agree, however, on how to tackle the scandal

in Germany.

Early on, the opposition Left Party and the Greens demanded setting up a Bundestag investigative

committee, regarded as the chamber's strongest weapon since, at least in theory, such a committee has

the right to question an unlimited number of witnesses.

Presidential testimony?

The opposition parties, however, lack the 25 percent of the vote needed to appoint a Bundestag

parliamentary inquiry on their own. Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) has more

or less dismissed the idea, while the Social Democrats (SPD) have been hesitant.

Surprisingly, Horst Seehofer, the head of the

CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social

Union (CSU), this week joined in the

opposition's calls for an inquiry, even promising

to help set up an investigative committee.

But Hans-Peter Uhl, a parliamentary

spokesman on interior policy for the

conservatives, says the CSU remains

unconvinced whether such a committee makes




13/46

Berliners protested against NSA surveillance

Strbele visited Snowden in Moscow in November 2013

sense, and he questions what exactly it would

investigate. "A German parliament can't monitor the actions of foreign governments," Uhl told DW,

noting that it is unclear who would be called to testify. It's not likely, he said, that "you'll get Obama as

a witness before a German parliamentary inquiry."

Qualified witnesses

Hans-Christian Strbele, a veteran Green Party lawmaker and member of the parliamentary

committee that oversees German intelligence, disagrees. If German data transmitted via US-owned

glass fibre cables or servers is no longer safe, he said, then "we can't just watch and say that's a foreign

intelligence service at work - we can't interfere." The problem of questioning qualified witnesses isn't

new and is certainly no reason not to try, Strbele told DW.

SPD deputy Michael Hartmann remains

unconvinced a committee would contribute much

in clarifying NSA activities in Germany. NSA

director Keith Alexander isn't likely to stop by in

person, he told DW. The question is, he asked, can

an inquiry throw light on the issue, and if so, to

what extent?"

Hartmann said the Social Democrats arent

opposed to an inquiry, in principal, but it "should

not be a shot in the dark or raise expectations it

can't possibly fulfil." An inquiry, he added, should "confine itself to investigating to what extent

Germany's intelligence agencies may be involved in the issue."

The SPD is in somewhat of a fix. When the NSA scandal surfaced in 2013, the party was still in the

opposition and harshly critical of how Chancellor Merkel and her government handled the

surveillance affair. Today, the SPD rules in a national coalition government with the CDU - and has

had to adjust its tone of voice.

Snowden's role

The previous government, Hartmann concedes, kept a fairly low profile during the early days of the

surveillance affair. But he says the situation changed when it became known that US intelligence

wiretapped the Chancellor's cellphone.

Hartmann and Strbele agree that former NSA

contractor Edward Snowden, whose

information triggered the scandal, would be a

good witness for a potential parliamentary

inquiry. Snowden, they say, may easily be the

only one knowledgeable enough about the NSA

- and willing - to testimony before a German

committee.

Uhl has a different view of the NSA

whistleblower, he believes Snowden was never

an NSA expert. "He was an administrator who passed on data on a large scale but is in no position to

assess the information he passed on," Uhl said.

But the dispute over Snowden, observers point out, is academic, even if a parliamentary inquiry were

to begin its investigations into NSA activities in Germany. As the German government refuses to grant

the NSA whistleblower political asylum, it is unclear how Snowden could testify before a committee in

Germany without risking extradition to the US.

DW.DE


One year ago, most people on either side of Atlantic had scant or no knowledge of the NSA and its activities.


(27.12.2013)


14/46

NSA SCANDAL

Report: NSA seeking to develop 'quantum

computer'

The NSA is seeking to build a quantum computer capable of breaking most encryption

codes, the Washington Post has reported. Encryption is used to protect sensitive

information including banking and emails.

The Washington Post cited documents leaked by former US National Security Agency contractor

Edward Snowdenin a report published Thursday detailing the latest revelations.

The newspaper said the quantum computercurrently under development could be used to break

encryption codes designed to secure protect global medical, banking, business and government records

stored online.

It added that the research into the machine, which it said would be exponentially faster than classical

computers, was part of a $79.7 million (58.35-million-euro) research program called "Penetrating

Hard Targets."

The report said many in the scientific community had long been seeking to develop quantum

computers. The machines would be capable of performing several calculations at once, rather than in

a single stream.

While it is unclear how the NSA's progress compared to that of private efforts, one expert cited by the

newspaper said it was unlikely the US agency could be close to creating the machine without the

knowledge of the scientific community.

"It seems improbable that the NSA could be that far ahead of the open world without anybody

knowing it," Scott Aaronson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said.

The Post said the NSA declined to comment on the report.

US debates legality of data collection

Snowden triggeredwidespread outrage earlier this yearwhen he leaked information on huge US


TOP STORIES


15/46

Date03.01.2014




Permalinkhttp://dw.de/p/1Ake6

Istanbul police clash with

protesters angered by plansto restrict internet access

18.01.2014

Police have clashed with protesters

in Istanbul angered by government

plans to impose curbs on the

Germany's Bundeswehr

may be expanding itscommitments in Africa

18.01.2014

German media has reported that

the country's military force, the

Bundeswehr, may be facing an

Opposition Syrian National

Council agrees to attendGeneva 2 peace talks

18.01.2014

Syria's main opposition group has

agreed to attend internationally

sponsored peace talks due to begin

MORE CONTENT

surveillance programs targeting phone records and internet communications of private citizens. The

United States has since charged him with espionage, with the possibility that further charges could

follow. He is now living in Russia, where he has been granted a year's asylum.

His revelations prompted widespread debate about the balance between individual privacy and the

battle against terrorism in US society.

Last week a US district court ruled that the NSA's collection of so-called metadata on phone usage by

US citizens was legal.That came days after another US judge said collecting and storing metadata -

information on numbers dialed and the dates and durations of calls, but not audio from the phone

calls - likely constituted a breach of the US Constitution. The issue is now likely to move to the US

Supreme Court.

Meanwhile US President Barack Obama is currently reviewing recommendations on proposed changes

to US surveillance programs leveled by Snowden, and is expected to announce reforms next month.

ccp/jlw (AFP, Reuters)

DW.DE

US judge rules NSA phone surveillance lawful, contrasting with prior verdict

A US district court in New York has ruled in favor of the NSA collecting bulk "metadata" on people's phonerecords, days after a contradictory verdict from a different court. The Justice Department said it was "pleased."

(27.12.2013)


One year ago, most people on either side of Atlantic had scant or no knowledge of the NSA and its activities.


(27.12.2013)

Snowden warns about surveillance in 'Christmas Message'

Former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has warned of the loss of the private sphere in the so-called

'Alternative Christmas Message.' It was his first major media appearance since claiming asylum in Russia.

(25.12.2013)

Blind quantum computing points to the future

A Vienna team has shown how to send encrypted data to a quantum computer. But a stable and powerful quantum

computer remains a long way off. (09.02.2012)


16/46

NSA SCANDAL


One year ago, most people on either side of Atlantic had scant or no knowledge of the NSA

and its activities. Edward Snowdens revelations changed all that and rocked one of the

pillars of transatlantic relations.

When the Guardianstarted reporting on the largest disclosure of secret NSA files in the history of the

agency in June, it was only a question of time before the information spill reached America's allies

overseas. That's because the NSA's prime duty is to monitor and collect global signals intelligence. The

agency is by law prohibited from conducting electronic surveillance on Americans except under special

circumstances.

In the Guardian's first story on how the NSA was collecting the metadata of phone calls from Verizon,

a major US carrier, it was clear that data of European citizens would be involved, since the NSA's

secret court order included all calls made from and to the US.

But it was the second scoop on the NSA's PRISM programthat really blew the story wide open. It

revealed that the agency was siphoning off personal data like email, chats and photos from the world's

biggest Internet companies including Google, Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo.

Everyone affected

This revelation did not simply show that everyone using these services was affected by NSA

surveillance. It also made it impossible to ignore politically on both sides of the Atlantic. But official

reactions in the US were characterized by a strong focus on the leaker Edward Snowden and the

alleged damage by his revelations to US national security. European officials meanwhile tried to

downplay the relevance of the Snowden disclosures culminating in Chancellor Merkel's chief of staff

stating in August that the so-called NSA scandal was now over.

Two months and a slew of major disclosures later, news broke that the chancellor's personal mobile

phone had been monitored by the NSA.

"I think that alone would not have caused that much damage," says Jeremi Suri, a transatlantic

relations expert at the University of Texas. "But that revelation in the context of all the other

revelations from the documents that Edward Snowden released symbolized for many that the United

States saw almost no limits on what it could do. If we would tap into the cell phone of the German

leader, one of our closest allies, many people are asking, is there anything we wouldn't do. Are we


TOP STORIES / WORLD


17/46

Surveillan ce of Merkel's phone ca used public outrage

NSA surveillance shook the transatlantic partnership

Date27.12.2013

AuthorMichael Knigge

Editor Rob Mudge

willing do anything to support our interest?"

Turning point

The surveillance of Merkel's phone was a game

changer in Europe as well as the US. It forced

both the White House and Congress to

acknowledge that the practices of US

intelligence needed closer inspection. It also

drove Chancellor Merkel, Europe's most

important leader, to publicly take a tougherstancevis--vis Washington. Most importantly, it undermined one of the central pillars of the

transatlantic relations: trust.

"I think the damage is actua lly quite significant," notes Suri. "One of the most significant

accomplishments of the United States after World War II was to build with its European partners a set

of relationships were there was presumed trust and a believe that the US was acting in their interest."

Snowden's revelations, argues Suri, have eroded the "basis of that relationship and a younger

generation of Europeans that are coming of age not necessarily believing that the US is really their

partner, but instead perceiving the United States as a big bully with technology using its technology to

do whatever it wants. And that's a perception, once held, that's very difficult to eradicate."

Revamped relationship

Overcoming the transatlantic rift will require to rebuild trust and confidence between both partners

again.

A success in the current US-EU trade negotiations(TTIP) would be the best symbol of restored trust,

argues Klaus Larres, a transatlantic relations scholar at the University of North Carolina: "If the EU

and the US can really get their act together and perhaps include some privacy laws into these trade

negotiations than that would really demonstrate that transatlantic relations haven't been damaged for

good."

His colleague Suri is not convinced that this will

suffice. The US intelligence services need to become

more transparent, he says, so Americans and

people around the world know what they are

doing. "This is supposed to be an open society and

we have in the last 15 years moved away from

openness on many of these issues. We need to

build credibility and trust by being open not just by

apologizing and by saying we won't do this again."

Whether that will happen is all but certain. Since

taking office Obama has made a U-turnfrom his very critical stance on US intelligence activities.

"You can say that before he became president he was not quite aware of the extent and in his view

usefulness of these activities," says Larres. "Once he became president he was enlightened' by his

intelligence services and bought into it. You could say the same about the whole drone warfare."

DW.DE

Pressure builds to crack down on NSA spying

Not only is Obama's advisory panel putting pressure on the president, but Congress is also considering two bills

aimed at the NSA's spying programs. Will they provide additional protections for non-US citizens? (19.12.2013)

Vindicating Snowden, US judge rules NSA violates privacy, ACLU says

A US federal judge has ruled that the National Security Agency's collection of telephone data violated a

fundamental principle of the US Constitution. It's a groundbreaking decision, says ACLU attorney Patrick

Toomey. (18.12.2013)


18/46

Drummond expressed Google's

outrage over the revelations

NSA SCANDAL

How the NSA penetrates the cloud

The fury of the Internet giants over the latest NSA revelations is understandable, given

that data security is fundamental to their business models. However, cloud networks are

prone to attack by their very nature.

The US giants that rule the Internetwere enragedby the latest revelations about the National Security

Agency's activities. "We do not provide any government, including the US government, with access to

our systems," Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, responded to the Washington Post story,

before assuring the world's Gmail users, "We are outraged at the lengths to which the government

seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks, and it underscores the need for

urgent reform."

Google and Yahoo have a good reason to be furious - the thought among users that private data could

be compromised represents a direct threat to their business models. "There are a lot of security

concerns about cloud computing anyway, and companies, like Google and Yahoo, have spent lots of

money trying to reassure people that it is secure," said Carl Miller, research director of the Center forthe Analysis of Social Media (CASM) in the UK. "And there's a burgeoning industry of cloud

encryption that is trying to monetize all those concerns."

Bypassing encryption

As if to address that threat, Google's Drummond also said in his

statement, "We have long been concerned about the possibility of

this kind of snooping, which is why we have continued to extend

encryption across more and more Google services and links."

But encryption may not be the weak point. By their very nature,

networks like the one that Google relies on have to trade off

security for smooth service. "They build these huge 'cloud'

networks," Falk Garbsch, spokesman for German digital rights

group Chaos Computer Club, explained. "The trick is that you have to hold the data wherever the user

is - if I have an email account in Germany I also want to access it in the US, but if every data retrieval

happens via the transatlantic underwater cables, then it slows down the network connection. So

Google and Yahoo exchange data between the data centers."


TOP STORIES / WORLD


19/46

Google keeps a network of vast data centers around the

world

The NSA likely targets the points where data is unencrypted

In other words, Google keeps a number of data centers - often big enough to occupy an entire building

- all around the world. When data is transported, it is encrypted before it leaves and then unencrypted

inside another data center. To hack that data, Garbsch thinks it is likely that the NSA would try to

attack the point where the encryption happens.

"One problem with cloud systems is that you need one point within the data center with unencrypted

data - the data center needs to be able to read the data in order to organize it and show it," he said.

Prisms and court orders

It is not (yet) publicly known how the NSA wasable to attack this network. "There are several

possibilities," said Garbsch. "Either I get access to

the actual building somehow - either via laws that

allow me do it as a secret service, or I break in, or I

have employees inside to install some kind of

hardware that provide a connection to the

outside."

The most likely scenario is that the NSA gets a

court order on the company which provides Google with its fiber-optic cables - Level 3

Communications - which would then be forced to install special devices that contain prisms to divert

the cables light signals - without Google's knowledge.

The NSA can also use the structure of the cloud network to circumvent the law. "The NSA is not

allowed to investigate domestically, just as we in Germany have intelligence agencies that aren't

allowed to investigate domestically," said Garbsch. "So in this case it appeared that the NSA worked

together with the British agency GCHQ to access British data centers and then sent back information

to the US - so technically this was data not sent within the US."

The end of state paternalism

CASM's Carl Miller thinks this latest story is

another illustration of a much wider change in

perceptions about government. "This is allending the idea of security paternalism," he

said. "In the last couple of decades we've

undergone a radical shift in our expectations of

government. The boundaries between

government and people have got a lot more

porous - in whatever policy area. People want to

have more of a stake in how policy is made."

Edward Snowden's leaks about the NSA, Miller argues, represent an attack on the highest taboo of

government control - national security. "What Snowden has done is drag the last bastion of this

paternalistic model of policy-making into the light," he said.

But Miller also warned that it may take a while before the public debate on surveillance is truly open.

"What is happening at the moment is that the security community is digging in under the

bombardment of all these revelations," he said. "We haven't had any kind of balance. Security officials

feel too legally and morally constrained to be able to talk openly about why they're doing the things

they're doing, which means that the civil liberties groups are getting more frustrated and exasperated -

it's so radically polarized that there doesn't seem to be any way we can maturely move forward at all."

DW.DE

'Muscular' program triggers more indignation

The NSA reportedly gained secret access to the networks of Internet companies, like Google and Yahoo. Millionsof users could have been affected. But what is new in the revelations about the program known as Muscular?

(01.11.2013)

A chronology of the NSA surveillance scandal

First it was mobile phone data to fight terrorism, then the NSA surveillance scandal expanded to include the

German chancellor as well as millions of individuals around the world. DW reviews how the spy scandal grew.


20/46

US-German ties are at a low point, says Stephen Szabo of

the German Marshall Fund

NSA SCANDAL

'Snowden testimony would be a disaster'

The very idea that Germany is paying so much attention to whistleblower Edward

Snowden is an affront to many Americans. His Moscow meeting with Green politician

Hans-Christian Strbele has caused quite a stir in the US.

It would be a disaster for American-German relations if Snowden came to Germany and publicly

testified before the Bundestag." What Green MP Christian Strbele ultimately is hoping for after his

surprise visit with Edward Snowden in Moscow would be a nightmare for Stephen Szabo of the

German Marshall Fund, as well for the Obama administration.

The relationship between the two countries is headed towards "a deep, downward spiral," says Szabo.

This must be stopped. If Snowden were to come to Germany with official blessing, the situation would

escalate further, warns the long-time Germany expert and vice-president of the German Marshall

Fund in Washington.

In the US, Snowden is a traitor

Strbeles meeting with Snowden got media

attention in the US. It was reported by National

Public Radio, CNN and other media outlets.

But while in Germany Snowden is considered

enlightened, in the eyes of many in the US - and

especially President Obama - he is a traitor.

Particularly sensitive is the fact that Snowden,

according to Strbele, is apparently ready to

testify in Germany about NSA spying. This

intention is also underscored by an open letter

from Snowden. That German Interior Minister,

Hans-Peter Friedrich, has even welcomed the news, saying he "was glad to hear it" has left official

Washington speechless; even if most US experts believe Snowden is unlikely to go to Germany.


TOP STORIES / WORLD


21/46

Snowdown testimony would be a slap in the face, says

AICGS director, Jackson Janes

"Slap in the face of the Americans"

In an interview with DW, Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council of the

United States, did not directly mention Friederich's or Strbele's comments, but pointed out that

Washington was still seeking to prosecute Edward Snowden in a US court. Hayden did not answer the

question of whether the United States would insist on Snowden's extradition if he visited Germany.

"If it really happens, it would be a slap in the face

to the Americans, there's no question about that,"

said Jackson Janes, Director of theAmerican

Institute for Contemporary German Studies

(AICGS) at Johns Hopkins University in

Washington. "It's the same as with Moscow, where

they have permitted Snowden to remain - and it

could mean: We do not trust you," he told DW.

Janes interprets the growing interest of the

German federal government and parliament in a

statement from Snowden - wherever he might

make it - as a no-confidence vote against the Obama administration .

The former American ambassador to Berlin, Phil Murphy, is among those who formulate their viewsmore cautiously: Germany has every right to be concerned about the surveillance, he said, and, of

course, as a sovereign state can actively investigate. But the first country Snowden should go to is still

the United States, he emphasized. Murphy said he understood that Germany needed "tangible results"

to move forward towards a "solution to the crisis;" however, the former diplomat questioned whether

Snowden being interviewed by German authorities and parliamentarians was the right way forward .

Can Kerrys self-criticism calm things down?

It may be that the recent comments of US Secretary of State John Kerrywill appease angry feelings.

Kerry publicly acknowledged that the United States had sometimes gone too far. "Kerry was right,"

says Janes, but "to cage the beast requires an effort by everybody, not just the Americans, he added,

referring to the global network of electronic surveillance and security apparatuses that had taken on

lives of their own.

It was first and foremost,

however, "the policies of the

Americans - incidentally in

place before the attacks of

9/11 - which now have to be

examined," Janes said.

Stephen Szabo of the

Marshall Fund advisesagainst reading too much into

Kerry's remarks: "It is to be

expected that the State

Department would make such

comments. The question is whether the security establishment, whether the intelligence services, have

the last word, together with Obama."

Differences in fundamental values

Both Janes and Szabo see German-American relations at an absolute low point. They are "worse than

during the war in Iraq," says Szabo. "We have differences on very fundamental values, such as trust

and economic competition. And esteem for America in Germany has been very low for some time."

Szabo sees the recent meeting of high-ranking German and American security experts at the White

House as a first successful step towards restoring confidence . "We should give the Germans the same

assurances we gave the British that we are not eavesdropping on them," he says. "The U.S. government

must give the Germans the feeling that they are a special partner for us."

Snowden willing to testify


22/46

Date02.11.2013

AuthorGero Schlie, Washington / ad

Editor Gregg Benzow




Permalinkhttp://dw.de/p/1AATe

Jihadists fighting in Syria

boost Assad's image

18.01.2014

The Islamist jihadists' presence in

the Syrian civil war is growing.Their acts of terrorism have come

to dominate the political handling

of the crisis. The main beneficiary

of the new situation is the Assad

regime.

Analysts question US intel

on Syria chem attack

18.01.2014

Experts agree that the chemical

weapons attack in the Syrian capitalof Damascus could not have

happened the way the US

government contends. Meanwhile,

the planned destruction of the

weapons has been delayed.

Obama's NSA speech: more

than a sop? 18.01.2014

After weeks of debate, US

President Barack Obama

announced additional oversightmeasures for NSA surveillance

programs. But key questions were

left unanswered and little is likely

to change f or non-Americans.

MORE CONTENT

Confidence and self- protection

To avoid the embarrassment of possible future spying revelations, Janes advises President Obama to

adopt "a proactive information policy." That could have been done much earlier, he remarked.

At the same time, he stressed, it is not enough for the Germans to be indignant about massive

surveillance by the National Security Agency and otherwise to rely on Snowden statements. "In the

longer term it is not a question of asking Mr. Snowden to help us out with our problems," Janes notes.

Instead, he said, the Germans should strengthen their own protection mechanisms to protect

themselves and their privacy more effectively - not just against the United States.

DW.DE

US rights groups push for declassification of counterterrorism documents

The official legal rationales for US drone strikes and NSA surveillance programs remain classified. A growing

number of advocacy groups are calling on the White House to come clean about its counterterrorism programs.

(01.11.2013)

Stonewalled by US, Germany's attitude to Snowden shifts

Hans-Christian Strbele's trip to Moscow to see Edward Snowden may have been a typically maverick move from

the Greens parliamentarian. But it could signal a major change in Germany's approach to the whistleblower.

(01.11.2013)

How the NSA penetrates the cloud

The fury of the Internet giants over the latest NSA revelations is understandable, given that data security is

fundamental to their business models. However, cloud networks are prone to attack by their very nature.

(01.11.2013)

AU DIO S AN D VI DEO S ON TH E TOPI C

Snowden willing to testify


23/46

Friedrich is looking to include cyber security in the

INTERNET

Germany looks to erect IT barrier

Amid revelations concerning the NSA's spying on the German government, Interior

Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich is looking to erect an IT barrier in Germany and Europe.

DW takes a look.

Germany's Interior Ministry is looking to force Internet Service Providers to keep European data out of

the hands of third parties, including intelligence agencies, in the wake of an espionage scandal that

has cooled relations between the US and Germany overwidespread hacking.

Minister Friedrich told the weekly Welt am Sonntag that he wanted to "incorporate an IT-Security law

in the upcoming coalition agreement that would provide a legal framework for hindering the

interception of data exchanged [within Germany and Europe] by foreign intelligence."

But what Friedrich didn't mention was whether Germany was looking to protect data shared with

servers outside Europe - where the vast majority of Internet activity in Germany takes place.

Setting up barriers

"The infrastructure needed to create an inner European network exists," said Dirk Engling, spokesman

of the Chaos Computer Club, Europe's largest association of hackers.

"But the problem is: This is extremely counterintuitive," he told DW. "By 'ensuring' citizens that they

are only safe if they restrict their internet usage to within Europe, what is the Internet there for?"

Friedrich's proposals, which haven't been

elaborated further than the cursory statements

made in the Welt am Sonntag, made no

mention of forcing major US companies such as

Google and Facebook to set up servers in

Europe, something Brazil has pledged to do in a

bid to establish "secure" Internet

communication within its borders.

Asked whether such legislation could prove




24/46

coalition agreement

Telekom is ready to go with its national routing system

Andersdotter of the Pirate Party says the focus should be on

human rights

effective, Ian Brown, Associate Director of

Oxford's Cyber Security Centre, told BBC Radio

on Monday that "countries like Brazil and Germany" would have better chances getting companies like

Google to set up servers on their turf - on account of their sheer size and number of internet users.

"But smaller countries, of course, aren't going to have as much leverage."

With regard to the pledge of secure communication, Brown also acknowledged the possibility of

containing email traffic - provided users don't "expect security" when they correspond beyond Europe.

"If you're in [Germany] and you've emailed a friend in the United States, there's no way you can keep

that in [Germany]," Brown said.

'We don't want to cut connections'

Germany's largest telecommunications company, Deutsche Telekom, has already begun planning a

routing system that would restrict all Internet traffic within the country to domestic networks.

"This is just the first step," said Philipp Blank,

corporate blogger for Telekom, adding that

eventually the company was looking to expand its

routing system to the countries in the border-free

Schengen Area.

Blank emphasized, however, that "Telekom does

not want to cut connections or restrict users from

navigating to sites based outside of Germany or the

Schengen Area."

"Why should email traffic be routed outside [the Schengen Area] if both the sender and receiver are

located within its borders? If our system were realized, intelligence services from countries outside this

area would find it much more difficult to access this data traffic."

Safe haven Europe?

Telekom's claims haven't won over critics like Dirk Engling of the Chaos Computer Club, who pointed

out to DW that spying also took place on data that was restricted to European networks.

"We know now that data was intercepted here on a large scale. So limiting traffic to Germany and

Europe doesn't look as promising as the government and [Telekom] would like you to believe."

Amelia Andersdotter, who represents the Pirate

Party in the European Parliament, told DW that

the issue goes far beyond Internet security,

dismissing Friedrich's proposals as "trumped-

up lip service."

"Our politicians are making these claims now

about IT security to enhance their popularity.It's lip service, and it's ineffective, and it's

hypocritical. Over the last decade governments

have worked together with companies to build

up infrastructure that creates insecurity, in

effect preventing the Internet from serving its true purpose of communication and self-

empowerment."

And in the face of revelations of spying in Europe - not only by the NSA - Andersdotter called on the

German government to focus more on the protection of human rights in its cyber security pledge:

"The spying we've seen is an egregious violation of human rights. Why should we believe that the

limitation of internet traffic to Germany and Europe means the problem is solved? To me it seems very

vague, if not suspect."

DW.DE

Germany admits Europe's spy agencies cooperate on surveillance


25/46

Angela Merkel with the secure smartphone she uses for

government communication

TECHNOLOGY

Securing your smartphone

Professional eavesdroppers have it easy - and a huge range of ways to get at our data:

phone calls, SMS and web services may be all be unprotected beneath a thin layer of glass.

When it comes to protecting privacy, smartphones in particular constitute a serious security risk.

That's been known for some time, but it seems there first had to be an NSA spying scandaland theGerman chancellor's cellphone had to be tapped before people started to take these concerns seriously.

Only now are people asking themselves how secure their personal data is on their smartphone?

Jrgen Schmidt, the editor-in-chief of the online portal Heise Security, takes a sobering view. "It's been

well-known for years that, from a security point of view, the entire infrastructure of our mobile phone

networks is completely useless," Schmidt told Deutsche Welle. "That is being taken full advantage of by

the police and the security services among others - no one denies it."

So if someone places great importance on the

encryption of their data, they need to master a

few logistical hurdles right at the beginning. "In

order to install encryption, the person on the

other end has to install it as well. It's not

enough just to encode things yourself. That way

you're just sending a load of junk files off into

the ether that no one is able to decode,"

Schmidt explains.

But it seems that since the spying scandal, if not

before, many people are now ready to do

something about their own data security. And the market is responding to the boom in demand for

cellphone security apps. Jrgen Fricke, an IT consultant and communications expert, advises people

floundering in the avalanche of alternatives to keep an eye out for specific program features.

Can apps provide security?

Above all, he says, the cellphone app should be programmed according to the open source principle -

in other words, the so-called source code must be visible to anyone who wants to see it. Disclosing how

security is implemented is the best way to ensure that it will be effective. "That may sound like a

paradox to the layman," says Fricke, "but if you examine what lies behind it, it's exactly what is

required."


TOP STORIES / WORLD


26/46

Jrgen Fricke says the open source principle is an

important s tep towards improving security

Jrgen Schmidt of Heise Security argues the entire

cellphone network infrastructure is not s ecure enough

There are plenty of freely available open-source programs which at least make it much more difficult

to eavesdrop on conversations. To secure your own cellphone, Fricke recommends programs like Text

Secure to encode text and media messages, and Chat Secure instead of a service like WhatsApp, which

takes it for granted that there will be a certain degree of listening in.

While freely available programs for real time voice encryption on the mobile phone are technically still

in their infancy, Fricke recommends the programs K9 and APG for e-mail traffic as a good way of

keeping uninvited readers at bay.

Be aware of what's around you

Along with these precautions it is also important to

keep the phone virus-free - just like a normal

computer. Regarding the question of which is the

safest of the three mobile communication routes, a

call, an SMS or a Web-based service, Fricke advises

the latter - encrypted, of course.

One also has to be aware of security risks in the

computer environment - for example, when it

comes to mobile calendar synchronization. Here,

too, encryption is essential, such as the email

service Posteo provides.

Criminals say 'thanks'

But one doesn't just have to worry about the world's intelligence services. Criminals are a constant

threat, says Fricke. "For example, in Internet browsers: there are often small bugs which, oddly

enough, exist for many years without being noticed."

Fricke believes that the loopholes have been left by providers in agreement with intelligence services.

"The criminal world knows this and says, 'Brilliant, as long as they do not close this gap for strategic

reasons, we can continue to profit.' That's how this ugly market works."

This theory is supported by Schmidt. In his

judgment, "The technology is available which

would enable an upgrade to higher security

standards, but the problem then is that the

police and the intelligence agencies would no

longer able to gain access when they like, and

apparently no-one wants that."

Experts agree that it is all the more important at

least to complicate life for the eavesdroppers,

whichever way it's done. Criminals would then

be completely shut out, and governmental

agencies would find their work cost them more.

Data mining - legal snooping

In the end users have to ask themselves honestly how much privacy they are willing to give up. "My

Googlemail email address is more than just an E-Mail address. I'm saying yes at the same time to my

mails being monitored for marketing purposes."

Like Googlemail, WhatsApp or Facebook, many programs require that users allow those companies to

read your messages as part of their terms and conditions.

With apps for Android phones, this takes place, for example, in the form of a warning before the

installation of the program, Frick points out, "and that's when I can stop for a moment and think: this

app wants to send me recipes or an egg-timer - why does it need to have access to my address book?"

He advises users who are concerned about their privacy not to skate too quickly over such terms and

conditions and preferably to turn to open-source programs free of spyware: then at least, says Fricke,

you are not taking all your clothes off in front of your provider.

DW.DE

Cyber crooks get smart on smartphones


27/46

German intelligence services would benefit from a deal

TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS

Germany seeks admission to spooks' club

Despite all the public outrage over the surveillance of Angela Merkel, Berlin actually might

be less interested in curbing US intelligence activities than eventually joining the elite

Anglo-American spy club.

In August, two months after President Barack Obama's first official visit and weeks before the

country's federal election, when revelations and public anger over alleged mass spying activities on

Germany by the NSA refused to die down, Berlin hatched a plan to mitigate the fallout.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff and point man for intelligence matters, Ronald Pofalla,

floated the idea on August 12. Germany would simply strike a no-spy deal with the US, he told

reporters, adding that American and British intelligence services had assured him in writing that they

had not violated German law. Summing it all up, Pofalla, called the proposed no-spy agreement a

unique opportunity to set common standards for Western intelligence services and declared the NSA

spying affair case over.

Three months later the NSA case is anything but closed. Instead it has finally reached Chancellor

Merkel herself. The planned no-spy agreement according to media reports is also alive as well and

expected to be finalized in early 2014.

Eying Five Eyes

While details of the proposed anti-espionage

deal are unclear - top German intelligence

officials are currently in Washington to discuss

them - after 9/11 it is unrealistic to expect that

US services will simply cease all surveillance

activities in Germany. Instead it is much more

likely that Berlin and Washington will look at a

decades-old no spy agreement as a blueprint for

a German-American anti-spy deal: the so called


TOP STORIES / WORLD


28/46

Pressure against surveillance is increasing in the US

Five Eyes alliance.

From what is known publicly the Five Eyes members generally do not spy on each other and when they

do they act only with the consent or knowledge of the partners. From a German government

perspective this could be a workable option. Berlin could assuage domestic public sentiment by

claiming to have pressed the US to stop spying on Germans or to only do so under special

circumstances with German approval. If the agreement applied only to German or EU citizens,

nationals of other countries could still be targeted.

But regardless of the specifics of the planned no-spy deal, if it is anything like the Five Eyes agreement

then it is at least as much about collective and shared spying than about not spying at each other.

Domestic mirage

In fact, argue US-based analysts, joining Five Eyes - and not curbing America's spy activities - is

actually what Berlin is really after. "The public face is mostly a mirage to appease the German

domestic scene," John Schindler, professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College

and a former NSA intelligence expert, told DW via e-mail.

Chancellor Merkel is someone who recognizes the dangers of surveillance, but also thinks that it would

be good for states to have much of this information to work together, says Henry Farrell, an associate

professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. "So I think

Merkel's ideal coming from this would be a deal in which Germany gets admitted to this Five Eyes club

which would allow for much greater degree of access by Germany to US and UK intelligence and it

would also mean that UK and US intelligence couldn't spy on her."

Deep dependency

From the vantage point of German intelligence

services closer cooperation with the US or even full

membership in Five Eyes would be a good deal.

"BND (Gemany's foreign intelligence agency - the

ed.) and BfV (Germany's domestic intelligence

agency - the ed.) are already deeply dependent onUS intelligence," says Schindler who notes that US

services as a practical matter would have little to

gain from a no-spy pact with Berlin. But with

public anger increasing not just abroad, but also in

the US, Washington may be ready to sign a deal to lower the political pressure.

"I could see how the German government would want access to the kind of information the so-called

Five Eyes countries had been able to develop with their massive spying on citizens of countries all over

the world," says Barry Eisler, a former CIA operative. He could imagine German admission to the

intelligence alliance as some sort of "quid pro quo, explicit or implicit for a public expression that we

are friends again."

However, Berlin's full membership into Five Eyes would not only require US approval, but also that of

Britain, Washington's key partner in the alliance. "I think it is unlikely that Washington, or London,

want to expand Five Eyes to fully include Germany (or France)," says Schindler.

Domestic battle

What's more, it would be politically very difficult for Berlin at this point to argue for accession to the

world's biggest spying club while condemning its surveillance practices at the same time. It is hardly a

coincidence that in all of their public statements German government officials have focused almost

exclusively on the US and ignored Five Eyes.

For Berlin a no-spy deal with the US is politically more palpable domestically and easier to pull off

quickly than with the full alliance, while reaping most of the benefits anyway. Once a pact with

Washington is done, full membership in Five Eyes could be a next step.

Still, any deal currently in the works with the US ultimately requires the approval not just of Merkel

and her party and a potential grand coalition, but of many other players and the German public.


29/46

Many Germans s trongly oppose reported US surveillance

measures

Date04.11.2013

AuthorMichael Knigge

Editor Rob Mudge


Feedback: Should Germany st rike a no-spy pact with the US?Send us an e-mail. Please include your name and country

in your reply.


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"So at the end of the day I think a lot depends

on how capable people are who truly care about

these things, including data protection

commissioners and the Lnder (Germany's

states - the ed.) including various privacy

advocates including politicians in the SPD

(Social Democrats - the ed.) and Green Party,

how successful they are at boxing Merkel in a

bit so that she is obliged to negotiate a stronger

position even if this isn't necessarily something

that accords with her own opinion," says

Farrell.

Nicole Goebel contributed to this report.

DW.DE

Germany admits Europe's spy agencies cooperate on surveillance

Germany's foreign intelligence agency has confirmed it swaps information with European counterparts that carry

out mass surveillance. However, it denied that it was working with the British to change and circumvent laws.

(02.11.2013)

The ever-widening NSA spying scandal

Documents disclosed by Edward Snowden continue to grab attention around the world. DW looks at the global

fallout created by the US National Security Agency's surveillance programs. (02.11.2013)

Calls for Snowden to testify in Germany met with skepticism

Members of Chancellor Merkels center-right Christian Democrats have expressed openness to receiving

testimony from Edward Snowden. But they are skeptical that the US whistle-blower can travel to Germany.

(02.11.2013)


30/46

James Clapper was reminded of the film Casablanca

NSA SCANDAL

Intelligence collusion and Europe's hypocrisy

The latest Snowden revelation - that Britain's GCHQ actively helped its European

counterparts to circumvent surveillance law - seems to have embarrassed governments

who previously professed outrage at NSA activities.

It's not often that senior security officials get to quote Hollywood movies before Congress, but the

opportunity must have seemed too good to miss. "Some of this reminds me of the classic movie

Casablanca: 'My God, there's gambling going on here,' " James Clapper, US director of national

intelligence,told Congress last Tuesday (29.10.2013), quoting the movie's French Captain Renault,

who conducts a raid on a gambling den that he is himself involved in.

Clapper was referring to the outrage expressed by certain European governments over revelations

about the US National Security Agency. Those governments, he said, knew perfectly well that

eavesdropping on the conversations of foreign leaders, even allies, was a basic tenet of tradecraft -

indeed, it was one of the first things he had learned during his training in the 1960s.

Four days later, Clapper was vindicatedby yet

another revelation culled from the Edward

Snowden leaks - albeit one related to a different

aspect of intelligence work: the mass

surveillance of ordinary citizens by their own

intelligence agencies.

Working together

On Saturday, the UK's Guardian newspaper

revealed a Government Communications

Headquarters document, which it said amounted to "a school report" on its counterparts in Germany,

France, Spain, Italy, and Sweden. The document detailed the extent of GCHQ's cooperation with those

agencies, and revealed working relationships that seemed to function much better than the one

between diplomats of those countries.


TOP STORIES / WORLD


31/46

GCHQ helped their colleagues circumvent surveillance laws

It also showed that Britain's GCHQ was the NSA's primary partner in Europe, partly because the UK's

geographic position made it the gateway to the transatlantic data flow.

Though it is unsurprising that allied intelligence agencies cooperate and share information, the

document did reveal a new facet of

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