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Germany

German Spy Agency Wants To Buy Zero-Day Vulnerabilities In Order To Undermine SSL Security

posted onNovember 13, 2014
by l33tdawg

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.

Obama, Merkel say they're still working on surveillance understanding

posted onMay 2, 2014
by l33tdawg

The U.S. and German governments remain far from an agreement on the appropriate level of surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency on German residents, leaders of both countries said Friday.

The two countries still have “differences of opinion to overcome” on the appropriate use of surveillance, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a joint press conference with U.S. President Barack Obama. The two leaders met in Washington, D.C., this week to discuss political unrest in Ukraine and other issues.

Angela Merkel proposes European communications network to improve data protection

posted onFebruary 17, 2014
by l33tdawg

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested that European countries should develop a communications network as part of an effort to improve data protection.

The plans would form part of a strategy to counter the mass surveillance conducted by the US National Security Agency (NSA), GCHQ and other nations' security services.

Dangerous Ruling In Germany Makes Domain Registrar Liable For Copyright Infringement On Website It Registered

posted onFebruary 14, 2014
by l33tdawg

We already find the concept of "secondary liability" when it comes to copyright troubling enough. It's worrisome when a third party who had no direct involvement in the actual infringement can be blamed for it. Yet, in the legacy entertainment industry's insane infatuation with stopping all infringement, they keep going further up the chain, past secondary liability into tertiary or possibly even quaternary liability -- blaming those further and further removed from the actual infringement.

Germany warns against Windows 8 security

posted onAugust 23, 2013
by l33tdawg

 A German government infosec agency has warned that using Windows 8 in conjunction with the Trusted Computing security platform could lead to loss of control over IT solutions for users.

The advice comes from the federal Bundesamt for Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik IT security agency, which issued a German-language document stating that new Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chips built into computers working in conjunction Windows 8 put the devices under Microsoft's control, with users having no control over what can and cannot be installed on them.