[telecom] N.S.A. Breached Chinese Servers Seen as Security Threat

N.S.A. Breached Chinese Servers Seen as Security Threat

By DAVID E. SANGER and NICOLE PERLROTH MARCH 22, 2014

WASHINGTON - American officials have long considered Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, a security threat, blocking it from business deals in the United States for fear that the company would create "back doors" in its equipment that could allow the Chinese military or Beijing-backed hackers to steal corporate and government secrets.

But even as the United States made a public case about the dangers of buying from Huawei, classified documents show that the National Security Agency was creating its own back doors - directly into Huawei's networks.

The agency pried its way into the servers in Huawei's sealed headquarters in Shenzhen, China's industrial heart, according to N.S.A. documents provided by the former contractor Edward J. Snowden. It obtained information about the workings of the giant routers and complex digital switches that Huawei boasts connect a third of the world's population, and monitored communications of the company's top executives.

One of the goals of the operation, code-named "Shotgiant," was to find any links between Huawai and the People's Liberation Army, one

2010 document made clear. But the plans went further: to exploit Huawai's technology so that when the company sold equipment to other countries - including both allies and nations that avoid buying American products - the N.S.A. could roam through their computer and telephone networks to conduct surveillance and, if ordered by the president, offensive cyberoperations.

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