servers in the headquarters of Chinese
telecommunications and Internet giant Huawei
Technologies Co, obtaining sensitive information
and monitoring the communications of top
executives, the New York Times reported.
The newspaper said its report on the operation,
code-named “Shotgiant,” was based on NSA
documents provided by Edward Snowden, the
former agency contractor who since last year has
leaked data revealing sweeping US surveillance
activities.
One of the goals of the operation where Kenya is
a key target was to find any connections between
Huawei and the Chinese People’s Liberation
Army, according to a 2010 document cited by the
paper.
But the newspaper said the operation also
sought to exploit Huawei’s technology. It
reported that the NSA aimed to conduct
surveillance through computer and telephone
networks Huawei sold to other nations. If
ordered by the US president, the NSA also
planned to unleash offensive cyber operations, it
said.
Tracked
The newspaper said the NSA secured access to
the servers in Huawei’s sealed headquarters in
the city of Shenzhen and got information about
the workings of the giant routers and complex
digital switches the company says connect a
third of the world’s people.
The NSA also tracked communications of
Huawei’s top executives, the Times reported.
Der Spiegel reported that the NSA breached
Huawei’s computer network and copied a list of
more than 1,400 clients and internal training
documents for engineers.
“We have access to so much data that we don’t
know what to do with it,” the magazine cited an
NSA document as saying.
The magazine said the NSA also is pursuing a
digital offensive against the Chinese political
leadership. It named the government targets as
former Chinese president Hu Jintao and the
Chinese trade and foreign ministries.
“Many of our targets communicate over Huawei-
produced products. We want to make sure that
we know how to exploit these products,” the
Times quoted an NSA document as saying, to
“gain access to networks of interest” around the
world.
“If we can determine the company’s plans and
intentions,” an analyst wrote in the 2010
document, “we hope that this will lead us back
to the plans and intentions” of the Chinese
government.
The Times also reported that as Huawei invested
in new technology and laid undersea cables to
connect its $40 billion-a-year networking
operation, the NSA was interested in getting
information on into key Chinese customers
including “high priority targets — Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, Cuba.”
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