NSA Fallout: Berlin Moves to Increase Mobile Phone Security
DPA
German Chancellor Angela Merkel still uses the mobile phone that was the target of NSA spying.
After learning that Angela
Merkel's phone was spied on, the agency responsible for information
security is checking the mobile phones used by government officials.
Some are already using new devices that supposedly haven't been cracked
by foreign intelligence.
In response to the NSA eavesdropping scandal, German government
authorities are currently reviewing the security of mobile
communications in Berlin. Only a few days after SPIEGEL reported on
efforts to spy on Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone, officials at
the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) released an advisory
on how text messages, emails and conversations might be spied on.
BSI officials requested that the Chancellery and government ministries
switch to newly developed crypto mobile phones that have only been
approved for use by officials in Berlin since September. So far, no
foreign intelligence agency has succeeded in breaking the encryption on
the phones, the German Interior Ministry claims.
Although other departments have been slower to respond, the Economics
Ministry has already taken the step. Two months ago, the office, headed
by outgoing Economics Minister Philipp Rösler of the business-friendly
Free Democratic Party (FDP), began using 15 of the new BlackBerry Z10
smart phones for test purposes. The phones have been modified so that
they house two strictly separated units. One can be used for private
communication and the other encrypts both voice calls and emails.
Ministry officials have since decided to purchase 110 of the devices.
BSI is also working to authorize a special tablet computer that makes
it possible to encrypt both emails and Internet surfing. "A growing
number of government officials are turning up at meetings with their
classified documents on tablets rather than in binders," said BSI
spokesman Matthias Gärtner.
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