Report: Mobile of German investigator into NSA spying possibly hacked

Berlin (dpa) - The encrypted mobile phone of a legislator leading investigations of US electronic spying on German officials has possibly been hacked, according to a report in newspaper Die Welt.

According to the report, which appeared online Tuesday, Patrick Sensburg, chairman of a committee looking into questions of internet spying, noticed problems with his Blackberry Z30 in February and sent the device to Germanys Federal Office for Information Security for servicing.

When the phone emerged from its security packaging at the office in Bonn, it was clear that the special transporter had been opened while the phone was in transit and signs that the phone removed and replaced, raising fears that someone had accessed its data.

Officials at the legislature, or Bundestag, have demanded an investigation.

Sensburgs committee was created in 2014 as German grappled with the news that various officials and institutions, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, had been the target of spying by the US National Security Agency.

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Report: Mobile of German investigator into NSA spying possibly hacked