Your Friend and Neighbor

 

VIENNA/BERLIN (Own report) – The United Nations is protesting against the surveillance of its Vienna-based institutions conducted for years by the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND). The Vienna International Center (“UNO City”) “expects” that member states “respect the organization’s independence as well as the inviolability of its premises.” According to recent reports, from 1999 to 2006, the BND had monitored at least 2000 communication lines in Austria including those of the Vienna Chancellery and 128 telecommunication lines of the United Nations. The BND’s espionage in Austria has been known since 2015, but never clarified, because the competent German authorities, including the German Chancellery, refused to render Vienna the necessary assistance. The BND is accused of repeatedly refusing to tell the intelligence service monitors their reasons for spying, for example, on a “public body” of an EU member state. At the time of the large-scale spying in Austria, the current German President bore the highest responsibility for BND activities.

The New German Arrogance (II)

Germany knows controlling the flow of information is key, therefore it is now capturing the cyber realm. This, plus taking steps towards an EU Army, forcing further integration of EU member states and turning them into vassal states (i.e. Cyprus) are all key actions/characteristics of a nation striving to be a world superpower. Germany is now directly competing against the United States. The Fourth Reich has (almost) landed.

 

BERLIN/WASHINGTON/VIENNA (Own report) – In cooperation with NSA, a US military intelligence service, the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has massively intercepted and stored emails from Austria, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic. This became evident through an internal email from an employee of the Deutsche Telekom AG, responsible for cooperation with the intelligence service and police. According to the email, published by the Austrian parliamentarian Peter Pilz, Telekom, already in early February 2005, had given a green light to the BND having access to a fiber optic cable for internet communication connecting Luxembourg to Austria and numerous other countries. At the time, Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD), as Head of the Federal Chancellery, bore the highest responsibility for the activities of the BND. According to reports, Austria’s domestic intelligence was also being tapped. Whoever is cognizant of this communication, knows “almost everything about the Republic’s political life,” summarized Pilz. The governments concerned have raised no serious protests, in the Germany-dominated EU. The German government is continuing the BND’s technological upgrading, aimed ultimately toward raising German espionage “to an equal footing” with the NSA – also in internet spying.

Stealthy spy software snooping for years: Symantec

The malicious software, dubbed Regin, has a rare level of sophistication and has been targeting government agencies, telecoms, utilities, airlines, research facilities, private individuals and others since at least 2008, according to Symantec Corporation.

Attacks on telecom firms appeared aimed at getting access to calls being routed through networks.

“Regin is a highly complex threat which has been used in systematic data collection or intelligence gathering campaigns,” the Silicon Valley-based computer security firm said in a paper detailing the threat.