Virus developed by the US intercepted at Merkel’s office

Regin, a computer virus widely believed to have been developed by US intelligence, has been intercepted during an attempted computer intrusion at Chancellor Angela Merkel's office, according to Berlin sources.

A Merkel spokeswoman declined to confirm the attack on Monday.

"I do not want to comment on a possible actual incident," Christiane Wirtz told reporters after the mass-circulation newspaper Bild was first to report on an alleged bid to smuggle in the virus via a Merkel staffer's thumb drive.

"I cannot confirm this mode of attack," said Wirtz, adding, "The information technology system of the chancellery has not been infected."

Sources told DPA the incident happened in the first half of this year and cautioned that there was nothing to link such a Trojan attack with the United States, since anyone could have copied the virus and utilized it.

Regin's existence became public last month, when virus-hunters surmised that it had been devised by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and its British counterpart GCHQ. They called it a very difficult snooping virus to detect.

Merkel personally phoned US President Barack Obama in October 2013 to protest at revelations that US intelligence had monitored her mobile phone. Senior US officials say it is legitimate to spy on friends.

Washington-Berlin relations warmed up again this year after the chill.

Bild said a mid-level official in the European policy section of the chancellery had taken home a document on her USB flash drive to read on her private laptop computer. When she reattached the USB drive to her chancellery computer, an anti-virus alert came up.

Merkel's staff are not supposed to use their private computers for
work.