Chancellor Angela Merkel's office has known since 2008 of US economic espionage targeting European companies such as Airbus but did not react, Bild said Monday, citing intelligence agency documents.
Federal prosecutors have asked for access on files from the Bundestag (German parliament) inquiry into mass surveillance, after news that German spies helped the US eavesdrop on European leaders and businesses.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald reported on Thursday that the USA told the German government it would cut off intelligence sharing if the country offered NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum.
Patrick Sensburg, chairman of the Bundestag (German parliament) inquiry into spying by the US National Security Agency (NSA), asked security experts to examine his phone after suspecting he might have been hacked – only for it to be tampered with in the post.
British spies have warned the government they may cut off ties with their German counterparts over a parliamentary inquiry into spying by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) collects 220 million pieces of information about foreign phone calls and SMS every day, Zeit Online reported on Friday.
A documentary to be broadcast on Monday based on documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden shows that Germany is caught up in an inescapable digital arms race.
The IT security team at the Chancellery in Berlin say that an employee was the target of an espionage attack through a computer virus that is associated with British and American spy agencies, it was revealed on Monday.
IT experts led by Berlin-based Karsten Nohl said on Thursday they had discovered security flaws in the mobile phone networks that would allow attackers to read users' messages.
American journalist Glenn Greenwald, who was the first to report Edward Snowden's revelations of mass surveillance by US intelligence services, received a prize in memory of the anti-Nazi resistance on Monday.
The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence service, spied on some citizens living abroad, a former lawyer for the spies told MPs on Thursday.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden accepted the Stuttgart Peace Prize and called on the public to keep fighting for peace in a speech via video uplink on Sunday.
Update: Germany's foreign intelligence agency plans to spend millions to penetrate the secure connection technologies used by social networks, banks and online shops.
Foreign intelligence agencies and private companies collecting personal data online are the greatest threats to freedom in Germany, according to an annual poll.
An alleged CIA double agent secured his laptop so well that German secret services have failed to crack it since he was arrested in July, according to reports.
The US National Security Agency and British intelligence services are able to secretly access data from telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom and several other German operators, according to Der Spiegel magazine.
Germans want more independence from the United States in security and diplomacy affairs, according to a major survey released on Wednesday, which showed negative attitudes towards the USA have hardened.
Berlin has asked all foreign diplomatic missions to provide names of secret service agents working in Germany, according to a media report on Friday, amid a rift with Washington over allegations of US spying.
German typewriter manufacturers are enjoying a boom in sales following the NSA spying scandal. A German defence manufacturer switched to typewriters last year, while last week a leading politician called for the government to use the old technology.
UPDATE: The CIA station chief in Germany left the country on Thursday after Berlin's shock decision last week to demand his expulsion, the US and German governments said.
