According to documents, from his file Edward Snowden, US and British secret services (NSA and GCHQ) had even monitored German telecoms and Internet service providers.
According to a report by the German magazine Spiegel, the US NSA (National Security Agency) and its British Correspondent, GCHQ (Government Communication Headquarter), have monitored at least three German telecoms companies.
In more detail, it is about the companies Stellar, Cetel και IABG οι οποίες παρέχουν εξειδικευμένες υπηρεσίες παροχής wirelessy high-speed Internet in remote areas. The clients of these companies include businesses, organizations, telecommunications companies and even some government agencies (not only Germany) and the German armed forces.
The peculiarity of the three companies lies in the fact that they provided communications services at points such as oil extraction platforms, diamond mines, refugee camps, multinational companies and international organizations.
IABG in particular, although privately owned today, began as a state-owned aerospace testing company in the 70s. Today he is involved in some high technologyς projects such as the tests of the German Transrapid super-high-speed train, the tests of the Airbus A380 aircraft and the Ariane rocket, which is used to launch satellites into space and is the heart of the European space programme.
The terrestrial satellite stations of the three companies are on German territory and their networks are connected to the largest backbone networks in Europe, which offer an extremely high frequency range. Essentially, the three companies' servers could be used to track data traffic from and to different areas of interest for NSAs and GCHQs.
Indeed, in leaked documents it appears that alongside the Stellar, Cetel and IABG servers, they were also monitored by employees of these companies. Emphasis was placed on engineering tracking.
Especially in the case of Stellar, GCHQ reportedly watched the 16 employee e-mail addresses, including the CEO, Cristian Steffen. At the same time, a list of the most important customers and suppliers of the company was created.
It is noteworthy that Spiegel had revealed in October of 2013 that the NSA had monitored the cell phone of Chancellor Merkel and that the US embassy in Berlin had been used as a listening point for this purpose.
