German Spy Agency Wants To Buy Zero-Day Vulnerabilities In Order To Undermine SSL Security
The newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that the German spy agency BND will spend €28 million on what it calls its 'Strategic Technical Initiative' (SIT) next year, and that it has asked the German government for a further €300 million (original in German). The German edition of the English-language site "The Local" explains how the money will be used:
The aim of the programme is to penetrate foreign social networks and create an early warning system for cyber attacks.
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert confirmed to dpa on Monday that the BND had worked with French computer security firm Vupen, which is known to sell details of security holes to governments, in the past.
