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Germany, Seeking Independence From US, Pushes Cyber Security Research (reuters.com)

Germany announced a new agency earlier this week to fund research on cyber security and to end its reliance on digital technologies from the United States, China and other countries. From a report: Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told reporters that Germany needed new tools to become a top player in cyber security and shore up European security and independence. "It is our joint goal for Germany to take a leading role in cyber security on an international level," Seehofer told a news conference with Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen. "We have to acknowledge we're lagging behind, and when one is lagging, one needs completely new approaches."

14 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe Germany should start with its legislation. by Sique · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Germany outlawed the ownership of "hacking tools" (202c StGB, "Acts preparatory to data espionage and phishing") , and all of a sudden, Internet security research in Germany is lagging.

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  2. Re:They could hire the Israelis by Sique · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why the Subjunctive? Checkpoint Firewall for instance is widely deployed in Germany and is made in Israel.

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    .sig: Sique *sigh*
  3. Re:"Cyber security" by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's Seehofer. Germany's version of a deep-south republican senator.

    To be honest, we're happy he can talk in a way that conveys what he means. When I think of the infamous "Transrapid" speech of his predecessor... Even as a German native speaker you were left wondering what the fuck he was talking about.

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  4. 70% of the budget by grungeman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    will be spent on GDPR compliance. The remaining budget will be spent on foreign consultants, because using "hacking tools" is a crime in Germany, so no one knows how to use them.

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    Signature deleted by lameness filter.
  5. Not surprising... by ph1ll · · Score: 5, Interesting
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    --- "We've always been at war with Eastasia."
    1. Re:Not surprising... by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Interesting

      ... after Obama wiretapped the German leader's 'phone.

      Well, let's not forget that Merkel and co are not overwhelmed by Trump either and see him as a threat to global peace.

      That's two presidents in a row that Germany has had legitimate grievances with, and they came from either side of the political spectrum. It is perfectly understandable why Germany might not see the US as a very reliable ally.

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      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Not surprising... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

      Do you rip your "allies" off in trade? Germany is a security free-rider that exploits American generosity to run a massive trade surplus. For a country flush with cash and a large budget surplus, it should be able to spend 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense. NATO is a *mutual* defense alliance, do you refuse to carry your share of the burden? To have a military alliance, you must have a military. Germany doesn't really have one. Moreover Germany has a horribly hypocritical stance towards Russia.

      What's Merkel doing about the situation in Africa? She's been world leader for over a year and things are just as bad as ever. What's Merkel doing about the oppression of Uighurs in China? Those are world leader jobs.

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      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  6. Re:"Cyber security" by gweihir · · Score: 2

    To be fair, this basically just makes the stupid easier to see.

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  7. Re:"When one is lagging, one needs new approaches" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Given the raise of insular behaviour among the big countries recently, and considering that the same trends have been reacted to already in the HPC area, with the idea of an European HPC chips, the independence in all things economically and militarily necessary is increasingly prudent. If the big countries are gunning for a conflict among themselves, EU area might not want to be left in an increasingly impossible situation as the trading stops and missiles start flying.

    There is still a long way to an emergency socialization of the strategic companies and technologies, and the mass employment to build, say, a Europe wide quantum information network.

  8. Re:You an North Korea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Germany doesn't have the intellectual base in computing? It's like you've been raised on American "news" channels, son.

    It's always fun to see an American bragging about "American innovation". Have you ever looked at research papers from the large American universities? You may notice that overwhelmingly, the authors are foreign guest researchers. Do you know just how much of America's technology sector is carried by first generation immigrants, both naturalized citizens and H1B visa holders?

    The reality is that your country's tech sector and "innovation" is the work of foreigners, and among them Germany is well represented, and when it comes to "intellectual base in computing", no country is farther behind for its socioeconomic size and population than America.

    Your popular culture and educational institutes is literally shitting out nothing but ignorant twats. You USED to be a smart people, but now you're dumbed down by TV, gossip and eating, and foreigners have to carry you.

  9. Re:Independence Day by houghi · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is not OR/OR it is AND/AND.

    The US has hacked Germany (and other allies) before. It is like fucking your best mates wife. There are things you should not do, even if it is legal. And if you do, you must not be upset if suddenly he does not trust you anymore and does not want to be your best mate anymore.

    So why SHOULD Germany trust the USofA? The USofA does not trust its allies (and I am not even asking that they should.), so what is good for the goose is good for the other black pot.

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    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  10. Re:"When one is lagging, one needs new approaches" by stealth_finger · · Score: 2

    The German economy was lagging behind in the 30s and history shows how well the "completely new approach" worked.

    Hmmmm, I wonder what earlier event could have been responsible for that. And the "completely new approach" wasn't new at all and is basically the exact one Trump is using to great effect right now.

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  11. Re:"When one is lagging, one needs new approaches" by postbigbang · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Face it, the US cyber intelligence community (an oxymoron) is in total disarray. Its weapons have been exposed and re-weaponized for organized crime, it can't keep a cybersecurity "czar" in office, and it has a half-dozen competing agencies snooping and sniffing and still are unable to be of much use when an actual disaster happens.

    Were I a German policy maker, I'd say: cut the meager tether and spend the money to protect myself and EU interests. I'm not sure the US is going to do that much longer, and in many areas, has already stopped cold.

    And I'm sincerely hoping that the missiles don't fly.

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    ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  12. Re:"When one is lagging, one needs new approaches" by postbigbang · · Score: 2

    You lump many conservative arguments into your reply, too many to disambiguate within the confines of /.

    The reshuffling is both random, and pushing nations towards covering their own butts. Allies? Nope. Common cause? Nope. Humanitarian needs? Nope. The US can't even prevent post-disaster holocausts on their own soil.

    Were it I, I wouldn't trust my data on foreign soil, but then, I don't even trust my next-door neighbor with my data. A government? The US or Germany? No.

    I don't blame Germany, even if their own surveillance mechanisms have access to it. But encrypt on the wire, and in place. Anyone with sufficient interest knows who I am; slashdot is not immune from the NSA, and a myriad of intelligence services that kiss but don't tell... except each other.

    What good is the sovereignty of a nation? Not so much these days. NAFTA changes will be bent and broken and reformed. History as a guide, the businesses fund the campaign contributions that make public policy, and when the contributions change their shape, so will the government.

    Somewhere in the middle are methods to help starving countries, refugees, and the other trash of corporate welfare. The attempt to sequester data is Pyrrhic at best, and Quixote-ish when it's revealed that it was all for the votes and little else.

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    ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.