The Week-end Stock Pot Watch, Thursday, November 28th-December 1st. Holiday Edition!

[Demeter]

97. Apple repealed: German politicians to use encrypted phones to block NSA spying

http://rt.com/news/german-politicians-encrypted-phones-132/

Members of the German government will use encrypted phones as part of ‘urgent’ guidelines to protect against NSA snooping. The encryption software is not compatible with Apple, so Germany will phase out the use of iPhones at government level.

Germany’s two main political parties - the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) – have agreed on new guidelines to ensure ministers are protected from having their communications intercepted by spy agencies. As part of the new regulations, politicians and high-ranking officials will be required to make calls on encrypted phones.

Software approved by Germany’s Bonn Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) will be used to protect phones from outside meddling. The program itself is incompatible with Apple technology, so German ministers will be forbidden from using iPhones for official communications, reports newspaper The Local.

“Our conversations and communication structure have to be safer,” the government report said in the wake of the spy scandal that revealed Chancellor Angela Merkel’s communications had been monitored by the NSA...MORE