Due to the fear that they may be spied upon by US secret services, the
German Foreign Office and the German army want to seal all security
gaps, according to the current edition of the news magazine Der
Spiegel.
The German army will no longer use any Microsoft software in
computers that are used in sensitive areas. According to findings by
German security authorities, the US National Security Agency (NSA) has
access to all pertinent Microsoft source code and can thus read even
encrypted data.
To protect secrets, the German Ministry of Defense now
uses encryption technology from the German firms Siemens and Telekom.
Germany’s Foreign Office has also postponed plans to introduce video
conferences with its foreign representatives. During a Telekom
presentation in Berlin at the start of March, State Secretary Gunter
Pleuger found out that, for technical reasons, all satellite
transmissions travel by way of the American city Denver, in Colorado.
This detour through the USA was too uncertain for Pleuger. “We may as
well just hold our conferences in Langley,” joked one of Pleuger’s
co-workers. Langley, Va.,is the home of the American secret
service, the CIA.