About: NSA

US increasingly convinced Russia hacked French election

Hackers with connections to the Russian government played a role in an effort to damage centrist French politician Emmanuel Macron's presidential campaign by hacking and leaking emails and documents ahead of the election, according to two US intelligence officials.

Brazil unveils undersea cable link to Europe

Europe and Brazil will be linked by an undersea fibre optic cable by 2019. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the link symbolises the ties between the two continents. EURACTIV Spain reports.

German prosecutors studying CIA leaks over report of hacking base in Frankfurt

Germany's chief federal prosecutor's office said yesterday (8 March) it would review new documents from anti-secrecy group Wikileaks that suggest the CIA ran a hacking hub from the US consulate in Frankfurt, and launch a formal investigation if warranted.

German spying on EU states to be made illegal

The German government has agreed that political espionage against EU countries and institutions by German intelligence services should be banned. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Irish court orders investigation of Facebook data transfers to US

Ireland's High Court on Tuesday (20 October) ordered an investigation into Facebook's transfer of European Union users' data to the United States, to make sure personal privacy was properly protected. 

EU-US Safe Harbour and forced data localisation: lessons from Russia

Forced data localisation would undermine European fundamental rights as well as damaging the EU’s competitiveness, argues Matthias Bauer.

German intelligence service allegedly spied on US and European targets

The German intelligence service (BND) spied on other EU member states, as well as the US, according to media reports in the country. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Europe’s data authorities step into post-Safe Harbour spotlight

Data protection officials are assuming increasing prominence following Tuesday's (6 October) ECJ decision to outlaw Safe Harbour, which called them to take on a bigger role in Europe's privacy debacles.

US slams ECJ advisor’s Safe Harbour opinion

The US government has reacted sharply to the ECJ advocate general's recent opinion on the EU-US data sharing agreement Safe Harbour, criticising its “numerous inaccurate assertions about intelligence practices of the United States”.

EU legal advisor brands Safe Harbour data sharing with US illegal

An ECJ advocate general issued an opinion this morning (23 September) calling the EU-US Safe Harbour data sharing agreement legally invalid.

Parliament calls for stricter controls over surveillance tech exports

The European Parliament gave the green light on Tuesday (8 September) to a non-binding resolution calling for safeguards to ensure technology isn't implicated in human rights abuse, especially when it's exported outside of Europe for surveillance or censorship purposes. A European Commission proposal is expected next year.

Germany to set up ‘Bundescloud’

New German rules for government cloud computing means official data can only be processed in Germany. The restrictions are a strike against US-based cloud providers such as Amazon and Google.

Wikileaks: NSA spied on three French presidents

WikiLeaks said on Tuesday (23 June) that the National Security Agency spied on French presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, citing secret intelligence reports.

Germany toughens up on data retention

German policymakers have moved to strengthen data retention laws, insisting that information will only be stored in Germany, and for much shorter periods, after the European Court of Justice struck down EU legislation that required data storage for longer periods.

German government denies deceit in NSA scandal

Chancellor Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert rejected accusations of a govenment cover-up in the mushrooming NSA scandal. EURACTIV Germany reports.

France plays down German spying accusations

Paris opted for discretion to try and deflect criticism from France's new Intelligence Bill, ahead of the law’s adoption in parliament on Tuesday (5 May). EURACTIV France reports. 

BND spying affair divides German coalition

Angela Merkel defended cooperation between Germany’s intelligence service, the BND, and its US counterpart, the NSA, amid fresh accusations of illegal spying operations. EURACTIV Germany reports.

BND scandal: Bundestag committee issues ultimatum

The Bundestag's NSA investigation committee has demanded lists of search terms Germany's intelligence service, the BND, allegedly spied on for Washington.

German prosecutors launch investigation of spying charges

Germany's top public prosecutor will look into accusations that the country's BND foreign intelligence agency violated laws by helping the United States spy on officials and firms in Europe, including Airbus group, the federal prosecutors office said.

Juncker: ‘I don’t know if German agents are active here’

“One day I said at a College meeting that we should have a secret service, because agents are here,” European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker jokingly said, after allegations by the German press that Germany's national intelligence agency spied on top French officials and the EU's headquarters on behalf of US intelligence.

Juncker on Germany’s BND scandal: ‘It is very difficult to keep secret services under control’

Germany's intelligence agency, the BND, spied on French officials and the EU's headquarters on behalf of US intelligence, German media reported Thursday (30 April). Asked to comment, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that it is very difficult to keep secret services under control.

Personal data protection is a ‘fundamental right’ in Europe

Europe's data protection authorities have laid down their guiding principles for the use of European citizens' personal data, in a joint statement that describes data protection as a fundamental right. EURACTIV France reports. 

One million cyber attacks a day on Deutsche Telekom network

Nine out of ten companies in Germany are targeted by hacker attacks, driving loud calls for a “cyber-EU” that is also able to "deter" terrorists. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Turkey calls German spying ‘completely unacceptable’

The latest leaked spying records reveal that Germany’s BND intelligence agency considers Turkey a target, complicating relations between Ankara and Berlin at a time when the German government is considering arming Iraq’s Kurdish minority. EURACTIV Germany reports.