German Committee May Use Typewriters to Combat American Espionage

As the U.S.-German spy scandal
continues to unfold, the German committee that was allegedly being
spied on is actively seeking ways to keep its work hidden from
American informants. One option they’re looking at is good,
old-fashioned typewriters.

The Guardian
reports:

Asked “Are you considering typewriters” by the interviewer on
Monday night, the Christian Democrat politican Patrick Sensburg
said: “As a matter of fact, we have – and not electronic models
either”. “Really?”, the surprised interviewer checked. “Yes, no
joke”, Sensburg responded. …

“Unlike other inquiry committees, we are investigating an
ongoing situation. Intelligence activities are still going on, they
are happening,” said Sensburg. …

According to German media, revelations about digital
surveillance have triggered a fundamental rethink about how the
government conducts its communications. “Above all, people are
trying to stay away from technology whenever they can”, wrote
Die Welt.

The spied-on committee was, interestingly enough, a task force
for investigating National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance on
the German public.

Of course, Germany cannot rely exclusively on typewriters to
keep its secrets safe. From
Ars Technica:

In addition to the typewriting initiative, [Sensburg] announced
publicly that he was going to have a security audit performed on
his smartphone. “I’m going to ask the other chairmen and
committee members to have their phones checked at once,” Sensburg
said.

That declaration came just one day after German
media reported (Google
Translate) that two members of the German parliament—including a
former member of the intelligence committee—had their phones
compromised.

“We have to try to keep our internal communication sure to send
encrypted e-mails, use crypto phones and other things, and other
things that I won’t mention, of course,” Sensburg noted.

The alleged spy who has provoked this, identified only as Markus
R., apparently worked for Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service,
and sold 218 documents to the CIA for a
modest $34,000. 

This isn’t the first time a country has turned to typewriters in
light of NSA snooping. Just about a year ago, following the Edward
Snowden deluge, Reason
noted that one Russian federal agency bought 20
typewriters for spy-proof internal communication.