German spooks deploy spyware against Afghan ministry?

An interesting news story broke this weekend in Germany.  According to reports in Der Spiegel, the BND – Germany’s foreign intelligence service – used spyware to monitor the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in Afghanistan.

Confidential documents, passwords and email communications are said to have been compromised by German spies, and sent to the BND’s headquarters in Pullach, Germany.

The news follows revelations last week that the BND had intercepted emails between Spiegel journalist Susanne Koelbl and Afghanistan’s Commerce Minister Amin Farhang.

Understandably, a diplomatic row has erupted between the two countries as a result of these revelations.

Of course, there have been rumours…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.