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, these are the companies Stellar, Cetel and IABG that provide specialized high-speed wireless Internet services in remote areas. The clients of these companies include businesses, organizations, telecommunications companies and even some government departments (not only Germanys) and the German armed forces.
The specificity of the three companies lies in the fact that they provided communications services to points such as oil rigs, diamond mines, refugee camps, facilities of 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 technology 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 program.
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 worth noting that Spiegel had revealed, in October 2013, that the NSA had put under surveillance the mobile phone of Chancellor Merkel and that for this purpose the American embassy in Berlin had been used as a listening point.
