Well with very little fanfare or comment Germany decided to follow the same path last year when they learned that the Obama Administration had been tapping phone calls and emails of Angela Merkle.
If the National Security Agency can get access to any computer it likes, then maybe it’s time to stop using computers to store state secrets. That seems to be the logic behind last week’s admission by German politician Patrick Sensburg that Germany has contemplated using typewriters to compose sensitive documents in the wake of the revelations by Edward Snowden last year.
During a July 14 interview on the Morgenmagazin TV show, Sensburg, who is leading the Bundestag’s parliamentary inquiry into NSA espionage in Germany, was asked whether he had considered using typewriters to foil international espionage efforts and replied, “As a matter of fact, we have—and not electronic models either.”
“Really?” asked the interviewer. Sensburg confirmed: “Yes, no joke.”
And why should it be a joke? I’ve long believed that the safest place to store a secret is in a notebook in a locked box under your bed. There’s something to be said for taking the most sensitive and secret information as far offline as you can.
For all that it may seem ludicrous to imagine high-level government operatives tapping away at mechanical machines from the 1920s, they could do worse. In fact, Germany is not the first country to consider such a step backward in time—a Russian security agency purchased about $13,000 worth of electric typewriters soon after Snowden’s initial leaks.
Typewriters potentially serve two purposes for governments concerned about the Snowden leaks. For one, the old-fashioned machines that Grandma wrote on back before word processors render the high-tech interception and espionage techniques detailed in the leaked documents entirely useless. But typewritten documents can also help governments guard against their own internal leaks because each machine has a distinct typing pattern, or signature, that makes it possible to identify which device any document was written on. In other words, a leaked memo composed on a typewriter could be traced back to a specific machine, potentially making it easier to identify its source.
Of course, typewriting—or even handwriting—secrets does not preclude espionage. Countries were spying on one another back when secret messages were written on papyrus, and while a return to older technology cuts off some modes of access that can be exploited by spies, those quaint manual Olivettis have their own vulnerabilities. The NSA’s sophisticated man-in-the-middle attacks may be useless when it comes to intercepting typewritten documents, but physical printed pages mean that real live men in the middle—people delivering the messages—may be able to catch a glimpse of any secrets.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technolog ... pying.html
So this is the brave new world we are facing folks, instead of quietly being in the snooping business human nature caused people to boast to politicians to make them happy and get bigger budgets. Politicians who couldn't keep a secret if their own lives depended on it let word get out. Mr. Snowden heard the rumors, believed them, and spread proof supporting the rumors far and wide.
I can't blame any one person for this mess, every step came from human nature. Lots of people snoop on their neighbors or eavesdrop on conversations in public places. Lots of people gossip what they hear from doing it. High power expensive technology allows the NSA to read this as soon as I post it. The problem comes because presumably adult national leaders also like to gossip and as a result the extent of our snooping became embarrassing public knowledge.
