The U.S. National Security Agency has been hiding spying software within the hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, claimed Moscow-based security software maker Kaspersky Lab. The software helps the agency eavesdrop on majority of the world’s computers.
As per Kaspersky estimates, personal computers in about 30 countries have been infected with one or more spying programs. However, the most infected computers can be found in Iran, followed by Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria. The targets include government and military institutions, telecommunication companies, nuclear researchers, media, energy companies and Islamic activists, Kaspersky further added.
The firm has not disclosed the name of the country behind the spying campaign; however, agreed that it is linked to Stuxnet, the NSA-led cyberweapon that was previously used to attack Iran’s Uranium enrichment facility. The NSA gathers electronic intelligence on behalf of the United States.
An ex-NSA employee told Reuters that Kaspersky’s analysis was all correct, and these spying programs are regarded as highly as Stuxnet.
Kaspersky published these details on Monday, which would help infected countries and institutions track down the spying programs, some of which trace back to 2001.
It’s assumed the disclosure would further hurt NSA’s surveillance abilities, already hurt by colossal leaks by former contractor Edward Snowden. Snowden’s revelations have put U.S. relations with some of its allies on a shaky terrain and also has slowed down the exports of its technology products.
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