from the the-cold-war-has-started-again dept.
Gaaark writes:
"Germany plans to beef up its counterintelligence tactics against allied countries in response to revelations of widespread US spying, Der Spiegel magazine reported Sunday.
In the wake of the leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the German government is considering deploying its own agents to keep tabs on Western secret services and embassies on German soil, including those of the United States and Britain.
They'll deploy two spies, and they'll deploy two spies, and so on, and so on... Read about it here, at Security Week"
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So, as I write this, day one has officially come to an end. I'm still somewhat in shock over it. Last night when I was editing the database to change over hostnames and such, I was thinking, man, it would be great if we got 100 regular users by tomorrow. Turns out I was wrong. By a factor of ten. Holy cow, people. I'm still in a state of disbelief, partially due to the epic turnout, but also because our very modest server hardware hasn't soiled itself from the influx (the numbers are, well, "impressive" is a way to put it). Anyway, I wanted to do a bit of a writeup of where we stand now, what works, and what doesn't. Check it out (and some raw numbers) after the break! Warning, it is a bit lengthy.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by sea on Sunday February 16 2014, @10:17PM
This is not good for the citizens or for the global climate, since it might add tension and ultimately lead to more wars.
What they should do instead is pressure the USA to ramp down their spying.
Argh, the trend should be towards peace, and they're going the wrong way!
(Score: 1) by ticho on Sunday February 16 2014, @11:19PM
Indeed, isn't this how backstories for all the post-apocalyptic-war movies begin? Scary stuff.
(Score: 1) by omoc on Monday February 17 2014, @06:16AM
lead to more wars? Sorry but that's utter BS!
In Europe you currently have a lot of public pressure about NSA snooping so the politicians have to "act" on it. Merkel would indeed never push anything against the US, this is just a maneuver to silence some critics. She is still the major force pushing the free trade zone forward and just pushed a major critic (Hans-Peter Friedrich) in her own coalition to resign this week. If they were really interested in having the US listen to privacy concerns the free trade zone would be the card to play here.
(Score: 1) by bopal on Monday February 17 2014, @09:32AM
Friedrich was secretary of state in the last legislative period, where he announced the NSA-affair to be over last summer. After elections in september and the forming of a new government he was assigned to be head of the agricultural department. He had to resign because he was involved in tipping the target of a child-pornography investigation.
Also, isn't all this spying mostly used for business intelligence anyway?
(Score: 1) by omoc on Monday February 17 2014, @01:00PM
Oh very good, you're reading the news like a brainwashed citizen. He opposed the free trade zone very hard because of food standard concerns. He did *NOT* want to resign over the pornography investigation, but Merkel pushed him to do so. Read up on your sources please and then come back.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Monday February 17 2014, @12:38AM
For certain values of allies
(Score: 3, Funny) by crutchy on Monday February 17 2014, @07:49AM
kinda seems odd that a country would need to protect itself from its allies... "allies"... "all lies"... hmm
(Score: 3, Funny) by combatserver on Monday February 17 2014, @01:02AM
"Germany Beefing Up Spy Defense Against Allies "
Isn't that what they did before WWI and WWII?
I hope I can change this later...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @03:37AM
Sometimes I think Germany has actually lost more sovereignty after unification.