According to documents from Edward Snowden's archive, American and British secret services had even put German telecommunications and Internet service providers under surveillance.
According to a publication of the German magazine Spiegel, the American NSA (National Security Agency) and its British counterpart, GCHQ (Government Communication Headquarter), had placed under surveillance at least three German telecommunications service providers.
More specifically, it concerns the companies Stellar, Cetel and IABG which provide specialized high‑speed wireless Internet services in remote areas. The clients of these companies include businesses, organizations, telecommunications companies, and even some government agencies (not only of Germany) and the German armed forces.
The peculiarity of the three companies lies in the fact that they provided communication services at sites such as oil drilling rigs, diamond mines, refugee camps, facilities of multinational corporations and international organizations.
Specifically, IABG, although a private interest today, started as a state aerospace testing company in the ’70s. Today it is involved in several high‑technology projects such as the tests of the German ultra‑high‑speed train Transrapid, the tests of the Airbus A380 aircraft, and the Ariane rocket, which is used for launching satellites into space and forms the heart of the European space program.
The ground satellite stations of the three companies are located on German soil and their networks are connected to the largest backbone networks of Europe, which offer an exceptionally high frequency bandwidth. Essentially, the servers of the three companies could be used to monitor data traffic, to and from various areas of interest, for the NSA and GCHQ.
Indeed, the leaked documents show that alongside monitoring the servers of Stellar, Cetel and IABG, employees of those companies were also placed under surveillance. Emphasis was placed on monitoring engineers.
Particularly in the case of Stellar, GCHQ is reported to have monitored the electronic addresses of 16 employees, including the CEO, Kristian Steven. Simultaneously, a list of the company's most important clients and suppliers was created.
It is worth noting that Spiegel had revealed, in October 2013, that the NSA had placed Chancellor Merkel's mobile phone under surveillance and that for this purpose the US embassy in Berlin was used as a listening point.
Source: naftemporiki.gr
