The US National Security Agency (NSA) has reportedly penetrated into servers of Chinese telecommunications and internet company Huawei, gaining sensitive data and listening in on the communications of top executives.
The US, which once considered Huawei as security threat and even blocked it from US trade deals over fears that it would create ‘back doors’ in its equipment that would leak corporate and government secrets to Chinese military or hackers, had been reportedly been working its way into Huawei’s networks.
The New York Times and Der Spiegel disclosed leaked NSA document by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden that noted: "Many of our targets communicate over Huawei-produced products."
"We want to make sure that we know how to exploit these products," it added, to "gain access to networks of interest" around the world, the report added.
"We have access to so much data that we don’t know what to do with it."
Defending its independence the Chinese telecom and internet firm noted that it would condemn any infiltration of its servers by the US agency if reports of such activities by the NSA were factual.
Huawei global cyber security officer John Suffolk told Reuters if the actions in the report are true, Huawei condemns such activities that invaded and infiltrated into its internal corporate network and monitored its communications.
"Corporate networks are under constant probe and attack from different sources – such is the status quo in today’s digital age," Suffolk added.
