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Germany Reportedly Seeks US Assistance After Hacking Breach (bloomberg.com)
German authorities sought help from the U.S. National Security Agency after discovering that hackers had released private data linked to Chancellor Angela Merkel and hundreds of other German politicians, Bild newspaper reported. From a report: Responding to the biggest data dump of its kind in the country, German investigators wanted the U.S. intelligence agency to lean on Twitter to shut down profiles with links to the data, Bild said, citing unidentified security officials. German authorities argued that U.S. citizens were among thousands of people exposed by the data dump. As investigators seek to find out how data including email addresses, mobile phone numbers and private chat protocols were exposed, politicians took aim at Germany's Federal Office for Information Security, known as BSI, for failing to respond after receiving initial indications in December.
She deserves to be given all the respect that she has given to the current administration.
You give what you get, at least when you decide on tit for tat, rather than trying to be the better person and helping regardless.
Germany never does a good thing with secret side deals. We should all trust what Germany says.
Well, probably because they turned a blind eye when the NSA was caught snooping on Merkel's private phone calls....
And "Bild" isn't exactly some reputable or unbiased source.
bickerdyke
Anonymous coward -- kind of says it all...
They are smart to go to the source of the hack. And ask nicely!
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
The crappiest crap press around here. I wouldn't take that seriously.
Germany never does a good thing with secret side deals. We should all trust what Germany says.
Part of why I'm not calling out anyone specifically. I'm not particularly thrilled with most parties involved in politics these days. Though my present level of annoyance means I'm not keeping up as much as I probably should on political activities if I want to comment clearly on anything.
Except mostly incompetently given that they are government workers.
Corporatism != Free Market
Our government allows the US to spy on us, because snooping on one's own people is frowned upon. This "asking for help" is just how German law enforcement circumvents the Fernmeldegeheimnis (privacy of telecommunications). They are not allowed to record everybody's internet traffic, but they can ask someone who does record everything.
Yes, they were. For example, they didn't make a stink when it turned out that the NSA is spying on its allies, including the highest levels of government.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
At least they didn't leak the new crime statistics now that Merkel let dangerous, unfiltered Islamic refugees into the country. Now THAT would be damaging.
After years of "stopping evil hackers in their tracks" by making possession of hacking tools illegal, and mostly by hoping for the best while furiously clicking in some Internet Explorer input mask, Germany finally wakes up to the real world. Well, not really yet, because Seehofer still hasn't stepped down over this, the BSI still hasn't been disbanded and restarted from scratch (this time with real people), and I guess Munich is still going ahead full steam towards a Windows only administration, because "some essential educational software package really, really requires it". Now they go crying to big Mommy USA, pleading for help, making even bigger fools of themselves in front of the general public (which doesn't really seem to care all that much anyway).
Hint to all Germans: if some right wing nutter can grab this much data from that many politicians across the political spectrum, without most of them even noticing, imagine what the Chinese/Russians/North Koreans are doing to you every day. And sorry, Seehofer, airtight surveillance of all your citizen's internet traffic will not fix that.
Hint to all other Europeans: quit laughing about the silly Germans already, you know you will be next in line if anyone ever cared about you.