Leaders of the Group of 8 (G-8) nations were supposed to be talking about economic growth and trade deals at their meeting in Northern Ireland. But events in Syria and the continuous string of leaks from Edward Snowden have derailed that agenda.
Read more at http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/06/17/Syria-Snowden-Threaten-to-Derail-G-8-Talks.aspx#sVFpRgtrhMq3MoKr.99
The Guardian cited more than half a dozen internal government documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden as the basis for its reporting on GCHQ's intelligence operations, which it says involved, among other things, hacking into the South African foreign ministry's computer network, targeting the Turkish delegation at the 2009 Group of 20 summit in London and using the vast spying base at northern England's Menwith Hill to monitor the satellite communications of Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev.
http://www.thepublicopinion.com/news/associated_press/national/europe/article_9030a589-7ded-5532-80f5-e8c4080b74d1.html
One document cited by the Guardian _ but not posted to its website _ appeared to boast of GCHQ's tapping into smartphones. The Guardian quoted the document as saying that "capabilities against BlackBerry provided advance copies of G-20 briefings to ministers." It went on to say that "Diplomatic targets from all nations have an MO (a habit) of using smartphones," adding that spies "exploited this use at the G-20 meetings last year."
Another document cited _ but also not posted _ concerned GCHQ's use of a customized Internet cafe which was "able to extract key logging info, providing creds (credentials) for delegates, meaning we have sustained intelligence options against them even after conference has finished." No further details were given, but the reference to key logging suggested that computers at the cafe would have been pre-installed with malicious software designed to spy on key strokes, steal passwords and eavesdrop on emails.
Aldrich said that revelation stuck out as particularly ingenious.
"It's a bit `Mission Impossible,'" he said.
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