The United States National Security Agency hacked into the United Nation’s video teleconferencing system and listened in on conversations of delegates to the global organization in its headquarters in New York.
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It was around this time, that former NSA security contractor Edward Snowden, leaked to the media that the European Union mission to the U.N. in New York and its delegation in Washington, D.C. were bugged by the NSA. The revelations prompted E.U. officials to demand an explanation from the American Government.
Snowden, who currently staying in Russia under temporary political asylum, also leaked the details of the NSA’s Prism clandestine mass electronic data mining effort which involved the agency demanding metadata from U.S.-based Internet and technology companies for the government’s anti-terrorism activities.
Reports which surfaced yesterday said that the NSA was able to gain access to computer networks of E.U. delegates by hacking into the virtual private network (VPN) linking the machines. The report said NSA technicians were able to do this repeatedly.
