German officials have begun an inquiry into a new case concerning allegations of suspected spying linked to the US National Security Agency.
The probe revolves around a personal laptop of a department boss in the chancellery, the agency which assists the Chancellor in coordinating the activities of government.
A spying virus, known as “Regin”, is alleged to have been installed into the laptop last year, according to Der Spiegel, a weekly news magazine.
A “Trojan horse” virus such as this would help surveillance of all data on the computer and can transfer it to whomever installed it, Der Spiegel said.
"We can confirm that there is an inquiry" relating to "malicious software" called Regin, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecution service told news agency AFP, declining to confirm other details from the Spiegel report.
The magazine, citing specialists, said there "is no doubt" that Regin can be linked to the NSA or Britain's GCHQ eavesdropping agency.
In June an investigation was dropped into earlier claims of alleged spying on Chancellor Merkel’s mobile phone due to insufficient proof.
Those revelations came from mass US surveillance information released by Edward Snowden in 2013. Although the disclosures touched on many areas in the world, anger in Germany was swift because of the country’s strong privacy laws which resulted from years of state spying by the Stasi secret police in East Germany.
The documents also demonstrated the GCHQ worked closely with NSA, including in intercepting German phone calls and emails.
