The US National Security Agency (NSA) has means to hide spy programs on hard drives manufactured by Western Digital company, Seagate, Toshiba and other major computer manufacturers, allowing access to most computers around the world, say researchers and former employees of the NSA.
This secret ability of the NSA is part of a set of spy programs discovered by company Kaspersky Lab security software, which has exhibited a series Western cyberespionagem of operations.
Based Moscow, Kaspersky found infected computers by one or more of these spy software in over 30 countries. Most occurrences were recorded in Iran, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria.
Among the targets of the NSA were military institutions, telecommunications companies, energy, banks, centers of nuclear research, press and radical Islamists, said Kaspersky.
The Russian firm did not mention which country was behind the espionage campaign, but said the unit would be linked to Stuxnet cyber weapon NSA used in the virtual attack on a uranium enrichment plant in Iran.
The NSA is the US agency responsible for collecting electronic intelligence and was recently the center of a scandal after allegations made by
Edward Snowden on espionage illegal practices worldwide.
A spokesman for the NSA, Vanee Vines, said the agency is aware of the Kaspersky report, but would not comment. She said the NSA obeys the laws and guidelines of the White House and the US protection and its allies “of a wide range of threats.”
RC / RTR / dw
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