The US National Security Agency tapped phone calls involving German chancellor Angela Merkel and her closest advisers for years and spied on the staff of her predecessors.

A report released by the group suggested NSA spying on Merkel and her staff had gone on far longer and more widely than previously realised. WikiLeaks said the NSA targeted 125 phone numbers of top German officials for long-term surveillance. The release risks renewing tensions between Germany and the US a month after they sought to put a row over spying behind them, with Barack Obama declaring in Bavaria that the two nations were inseparable allies.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has fallen victim to hacking after a sophisticated computer virus was discovered on the USB drive of one of her aides. The Reign virus, which is believed to have been developed by US and British spying agencies, was detected after one of Mrs Merkel's employees plugged her personal drive into a work laptop. 

The woman, who works in close contact with Mrs Merkel, had loaded a speech she was editing on to the drive, took it home to continue working on it, before returning to the office. As she went to plug the drive back into her work computer she was sent a firewall alert saying a virus had been detected. 

Does the US lack cybersecurity manpower? Even if it adds thousands of security pros, can Washington stay ahead of the hackers? And how can the federal government compete for top talent with the likes of Facebook, Google, and Twitter?

Michael Daniel has been on a recruitment drive since becoming White House Cybersecurity Coordinator more than two years ago. He’s been on the hunt for more skilled security pros to join the government’s fight against criminal hackers, as well as championing the cause for an all-around more digitally vigilant workforce.

A leading ally of Angela Merkel has critically responded to the US government to provide adequate guarantees on its spying tactics. The expectations of making some progress in the bilateral talks have been set to the next month as the German leader visits Washington.

According to the classified information, provided last October by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, US intelligence agents were able "to bug” Ms. Merkel’s mobile phone from a listening post on the US Embassy roof. This caused outrage in Germany, where any surveillance actions are particularly sensitive because of the link to the East German Stasi secret police and the Nazis. 

World media is getting rich on spy sensations - Edward Snowden keeps on leaking classified files. The former U.S. intelligence officer informed Der Spiegel and The Intercept about NSA’s surveillance program that targeted political leaders of the world.

The program codenamed Nymrod was developed to intercept various telecommunications channels, with a main focus on internet and voice services. The information was collected automatically and added into the "Target Knowledge Database". According to the documents, there were about 300 reports listed in a secret dossier on the German Chancellor Angela Merkel alone.

President Barack Obama was told about monitoring of German Chancellor in 2010 and allowed it to continue, says German newspaper. President Barack Obama was dragged into the trans-Atlantic spying row after it was claimed he personally authorised the monitoring of Angela Merkel’s phone three years ago.

The president allegedly allowed US intelligence to listen to calls from the German Chancellor’s mobile phone after he was briefed on the operation by Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, in 2010.