IP: US spy satellites sniff German companies' email, phone calls

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>
>From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
>
>X-URL: Politech is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/
>
>Or, another reason why the NSA doesn't want Germans to use strong crypto.
>--Declan
>
>*****
>
>From: Blohm@concentric.net
>Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 12:35:36 -0400 (EDT)
>To:
>declan@well.com
>
>
>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=001545599564784&rtmo=kJAY3x3p&atmo=ooooolsb
>&pg=/et/99/4/11/wspy11.html
>
>   Electronic Telegraph International News
>   Sunday 11 April 1999
>   
>   US spy satellites 'raiding German firms' secrets'
>   By Tony Paterson in Berlin
>  
>   SECURITY experts in Germany have uncovered new evidence of a big
>   American industrial espionage operation in Europe using satellite
>   listening posts in Britain and Germany.
>   
>   German business is thought to suffer annual losses of at least £7
>   billion through stolen inventions and development projects. With
>   Europe already locked in a trade war with its American ally over
>   bananas, Germany's high-tech industry wants its government to back a
>   counter-offensive.
>   
>   The main centres used for satellite tapping of millions of
>   confidential company telephone calls, fax and e-mail messages are
>   believed to be terrestrial listening posts run by the American
>   National Security Agency (NSA) at Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, North
>   Yorkshire, and Bad Aibling, Bavaria, with the backing of the American
>   government.
>   
>   "Industrial espionage is becoming increasingly aggressive. Secrets are
>   being siphoned off to an extent never experienced until now," said
>   Horst Teltschik, a senior BMW board member and a former security
>   adviser to Helmut Kohl. He is trying to co-ordinate a German business
>   response to the spying problem.
>   
>   The practice of lifting industrial secrets via satellite listening
>   posts has grown steadily in central Europe since the decline in
>   political espionage that followed the collapse of communism. But it
>   has been further encouraged by advances in communications technology.
>   
>   Victims have included such German firms as the wind generator
>   manufacturer Enercon. Last year it developed what it thought was a
>   secret invention enabling it to generate electricity from wind power
>   at a far cheaper rate than before.
>
>   [...]
>
>
>
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