Snowden says NSA hacked Pacnet, Chinese telcos

Former United States National Security Agency (NSA) employee turned whistleblower Edward Snowden has reportedly revealed attacks by his former employer on network operator Pacnet.

Edward Snowden

Speaking to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, Snowden said Pacnet's computers in Hong Kong were attacked by America but did not provide information as to the motive nor whether Pacnet suffered any damage in the now-closed hacking operation.

Pacnet has circuits, points of presence and data centres in Australia and New Zealand as well as throughout Asia.

Snowden also told the SCMP he had evidence of the NSA hacking Chinese mobile phone companies to steal customers' SMS data.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, which hosts the HK Internet Exchange (HKIX) internet connectivity and peering hub, has also been targeted by the US spy agency, Snowden said, along with networks at mainland China's top ranking Tsinghua University.

China has commenced a review of foreign-made telco equipment in the country's networks.

Snowed also recently claimed Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) had been tapping directly into subsea fibre-optic cables and sharing the intercepted voice and data traffic with the NSA.

Snowden has been formally charged by the United States with espionage and theft of government property and the Americans are seeking his extradition from Hong Kong.

Over the weekend he left Hong Kong on a Russian Aeroflot flight, potentially to seek asylum in Cuba, Ecuador, Venezuela or Iceland, according to a Reuters report.