Head of Austria's domestic intelligence calls for stronger monitoring of cellphones
DSN chief sees himself at disadvantage in fight against extremists, criminals, other intelligence agencies, local media reports
GENEVA
The head of Austria's domestic intelligence agency DSN has called for better ways to access content from messenger services on cellphones.
While there is "no need for full access to a device" or so-called Trojans, only access to certain apps is needed, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner said in an interview with Der Standard, an Austrian daily, on Monday.
Haijawi-Pircher argued in the interview that almost no one uses normal voice telephony today, saying that religious extremists, right-wing extremists, criminals and other intelligence agencies use encrypted messengers such as Telegram, Signal or Whatsapp, he said.
"We don't have any more options there to listen in on these communications," he said.
According to the head of the intelligence agency, the other side always uses the current technical possibilities. "We have to be on par there. We are at the level of 2008," he added.
Haijawi-Pirchner is also concerned about the state-of-the-art weapons being used in the Ukraine war.
These weapons, when the war "hopefully will be over at some point," very likely end up in the wrong hands, namely those of organized crime and terrorism, he said.
Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.