US and UK have secret access to German telecoms data, report claims

The US National Security Agency and British intelligence services are able to secretly access data from telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom and several other German operators, according to Der Spiegel weekly.

An NSA programme called "Treasure Map" gave the US agency and Britain's electronic eavesdropping GCHQ almost instant information about the operators' networks, right through to end users on computers, smartphones or tablets, Der Spiegel said in a report in yesterday's edition.

It is the latest in a string of revelations based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The article said the tracking programme, which it dubbed "the Google Earth of the internet", could be used to plan cyberattacks.

The magazine said it did not receive any immediate comment from the spy agencies in response to the claims.

Satellite ground station operator Stellar, which according to Der Spiegel was among the German firms targeted, responded angrily to the revelation.

"A cyberattack of this kind clearly violates German law," said Stellar boss Christian Steffen, after the weekly presented it with a British document said to contain passwords of clients.

In response to the report, Deutsche Telekom and regional operator Netcologne said they had not identified any data breaches.

But Deutsche Telekom's security head Thomas Tschersich said: "The access of foreign secret services to our network would be totally unacceptable.

"We are looking into any indication of a possible manipulation. We have also alerted the authorities."

The Snowden leaks, which began last year and have revealed massive surveillance by the United States, have provoked outrage in Germany and damaged ties with Washington following disclosures that the NSA tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.