The U.S. is stealing Chinese cell phone data, according to whistle-blower Edward Snowden(a former CIA agent)
U.S. had snooped on targets in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, including the prestigious Tsinghua University. The university, which is home to the mainland’s six major backbone networks from where internet data from millions of Chinese citizens can be gathered, was breached as recently as January, Snowden said.
The NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cell phone companies to steal all of your SMS data,’
Snowden also said the U.S. and UK had technology which gave them unauthorized access to Blackberry phones of delegates at two G20 summits in London in 2009.
Chinese government data shows that text message is by far the most popular mode of communication in China, with 900 billion text messages exchanged in 2012, up 2.1 per cent from the year before.
China Mobile is the world’s largest mobile network carrier, with 735 million subscribers, and China Unicom, the second largest, has 258 million users. China Telecom is third in the world with 172 million users.
The paper says that Chinese telecommunications companies have begun quietly replacing foreign-made equipment for fear of surveillance.
I – Word Understanding
Snooped – to looked into someone private affairs.
Unathorized – without official permission.
Fear of surveillance – unpleasant feeling from being closely observed.
II – Have your say
1. Most likely what are the probable damages that would take place after exposing the NSA activity to the world?
2. President Obama says the NSA is not listening in on phone calls or reading emails unless legal requirements have been satisfied.
3. For years, cyber-security experts, Telecommunications have been concerned that telecommunications equipment was vulnerable to hacking by foreign powers, taking advantage of foreign-made components.
131 U.S. has stolen millions of text messages from Chinese phones
