FRANKFURT: The US National Security Agency (NSA) spied on the internal communications of France’s foreign ministry and diplomats and those of Al Jazeera, a German magazine said yesterday.
Der Spiegel reported that in 2010 the NSA monitored the internal computer network of France’s diplomats and that of the ministry itself by accessing so-called virtual private networks, a tool that generally offers a secure Internet connection to users.
The “top secret” NSA document seen by the magazine and dated June 2010 said French diplomatic offices in New York and Washington had bugs installed on the premises and that screenshots were taken from computer monitors in UN offices. Yesterday’s revelations are also believed to originate from Snowden.
Al Jazeera was another NSA target, the magazine said, with its internal communications system successfully hacked due to its “high potential as sources of intelligence,” according to a March 2006 NSA document seen by Der Spiegel. AFP
