Google has expressed outrage following a report
that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has
hacked its data links.
An executive at Google said it was not aware of the
alleged activity, adding there was an "urgent need for
reform".
The comments follow a Washington Post report
based on leaks from Edward Snowden claiming that the
NSA hacked links connecting data centres operated by
Google and Yahoo.
The NSA's director said it had not had access to the
companies' computers.
Gen Keith Alexander told Bloomberg TV: "We are not
authorised to go into a US company's servers and take
data."
But correspondents say this is not a direct denial of the
latest claims.
'Extending encryption'
The revelations stem from documents leaked by ex-US
intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has been
granted temporary asylum in Russia and is wanted in
the US in connection with the unauthorised disclosures.
The documents say millions of records were gleaned
daily from the internet giants' internal networks.
They suggest that the NSA intercepted the data at
some point as it flowed through fibre-optic cables and
other network equipment connecting the companies'
data centres, rather than targeting the servers
themselves.
The data was intercepted outside the US, the
documents imply.
The data the agency obtained, which ranged from
"metadata' to text, audio and video, were then sifted by
an NSA programme called Muscular, operated with the
NSA's British counterpart, GCHQ, the documents say.
The NSA already has "front-door" access to Google and
Yahoo user accounts through a court-approved
programme known as Prism.
Google's chief legal officer David Drummond said
Google did not provide any government with access to
its systems.
"We have long been concerned about the possibility of
this kind of snooping, which is why we have continued
to extend encryption across more and more Google
services and links, especially the links in the slide,"
Drummond said in a statement.
"We are outraged at the lengths to which the
government seems to have gone to intercept data from
our private fibre networks, and it underscores the need
for urgent reform."
A spokesperson for Yahoo said the company had "strict
controls in place to protect the security of our data
centres, and we have not given access to our data
centres to the NSA or to any other government
agency".
An NSA spokesperson denied a suggestion in the
Washington Post article that the agency gathered "vast
quantities of US persons' data from this type of
collection".
The latest revelations came hours after a German
delegation of intelligence officials arrived in Washington
for talks at the White House following claims that the
US monitored Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile
phone.
Two of Mrs Merkel's most important advisers, foreign
policy adviser Christoph Heusgen, and intelligence
coordinator Guenter Heiss were sent to take part in the
talks - seen as a measure of how seriously Mrs Merkel
takes the matter.
Next week, the heads of Germany's spying agencies will
meet their opposite numbers in Washington.
'Inappropriate and unacceptable'
The head of US intelligence has defended the
monitoring of foreign leaders as a key goal of
operations but the US is facing growing anger over
reports it spied on its allies abroad.
It has also been reported that the NSA monitored
French diplomats in Washington and at the UN, and
that it conducted surveillance on millions of French
and Spanish telephone calls, among other operations
against US allies.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said that if Spain
had been a target of the NSA, this would be
"inappropriate and unacceptable between partners".
However, Gen Alexander has said "the assertions... that
NSA collected tens of millions of phone calls [in Europe]
are completely false".
On Wednesday, the agency denied Italian media reports
that it had targeted communications at the Vatican.
The UN said it had received assurances that its
communications "are not and will not be monitored"
by American intelligence agencies, but refused to clarify
whether they had been in the past.
On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper testified before the intelligence panel of the
House of Representatives that much of the data cited by
non-US news outlets was actually collected by
European intelligence services and later shared with the
NSA.
He said foreign allies spied on US officials and
intelligence agencies as a matter of routine.
that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has
hacked its data links.
An executive at Google said it was not aware of the
alleged activity, adding there was an "urgent need for
reform".
The comments follow a Washington Post report
based on leaks from Edward Snowden claiming that the
NSA hacked links connecting data centres operated by
Google and Yahoo.
The NSA's director said it had not had access to the
companies' computers.
Gen Keith Alexander told Bloomberg TV: "We are not
authorised to go into a US company's servers and take
data."
But correspondents say this is not a direct denial of the
latest claims.
'Extending encryption'
The revelations stem from documents leaked by ex-US
intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has been
granted temporary asylum in Russia and is wanted in
the US in connection with the unauthorised disclosures.
The documents say millions of records were gleaned
daily from the internet giants' internal networks.
They suggest that the NSA intercepted the data at
some point as it flowed through fibre-optic cables and
other network equipment connecting the companies'
data centres, rather than targeting the servers
themselves.
The data was intercepted outside the US, the
documents imply.
The data the agency obtained, which ranged from
"metadata' to text, audio and video, were then sifted by
an NSA programme called Muscular, operated with the
NSA's British counterpart, GCHQ, the documents say.
The NSA already has "front-door" access to Google and
Yahoo user accounts through a court-approved
programme known as Prism.
Google's chief legal officer David Drummond said
Google did not provide any government with access to
its systems.
"We have long been concerned about the possibility of
this kind of snooping, which is why we have continued
to extend encryption across more and more Google
services and links, especially the links in the slide,"
Drummond said in a statement.
"We are outraged at the lengths to which the
government seems to have gone to intercept data from
our private fibre networks, and it underscores the need
for urgent reform."
A spokesperson for Yahoo said the company had "strict
controls in place to protect the security of our data
centres, and we have not given access to our data
centres to the NSA or to any other government
agency".
An NSA spokesperson denied a suggestion in the
Washington Post article that the agency gathered "vast
quantities of US persons' data from this type of
collection".
The latest revelations came hours after a German
delegation of intelligence officials arrived in Washington
for talks at the White House following claims that the
US monitored Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile
phone.
Two of Mrs Merkel's most important advisers, foreign
policy adviser Christoph Heusgen, and intelligence
coordinator Guenter Heiss were sent to take part in the
talks - seen as a measure of how seriously Mrs Merkel
takes the matter.
Next week, the heads of Germany's spying agencies will
meet their opposite numbers in Washington.
'Inappropriate and unacceptable'
The head of US intelligence has defended the
monitoring of foreign leaders as a key goal of
operations but the US is facing growing anger over
reports it spied on its allies abroad.
It has also been reported that the NSA monitored
French diplomats in Washington and at the UN, and
that it conducted surveillance on millions of French
and Spanish telephone calls, among other operations
against US allies.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said that if Spain
had been a target of the NSA, this would be
"inappropriate and unacceptable between partners".
However, Gen Alexander has said "the assertions... that
NSA collected tens of millions of phone calls [in Europe]
are completely false".
On Wednesday, the agency denied Italian media reports
that it had targeted communications at the Vatican.
The UN said it had received assurances that its
communications "are not and will not be monitored"
by American intelligence agencies, but refused to clarify
whether they had been in the past.
On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper testified before the intelligence panel of the
House of Representatives that much of the data cited by
non-US news outlets was actually collected by
European intelligence services and later shared with the
NSA.
He said foreign allies spied on US officials and
intelligence agencies as a matter of routine.
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