Belgium suspects foreign state of cyber spying

BRUSSELS: Belgium says it is investigating suspected foreign state espionage against its main telecoms company, which is the top carrier of voice traffic in Africa and the Middle East, and a newspaper has pointed a finger at the US.

Federal prosecutors said the former state telecoms monopoly Belgacom had filed a complaint in July about the hacking of several servers and computers.

“The inquiry has shown the hacking was possible only by an intruder with significant financial and logistic means,” they said. “This, combined with the technical complexity of the hacking and the scale on which it occurred, points to international state-sponsored espionage.”

The prosecutors declined to say which foreign state they suspected.

Papers leaked by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden have revealed a US National Security Agency surveillance program that has tracked vast quantities of Americans and foreigners’ e-mail and phone data.

Brazilian television network Globo alleged this month that the agency had tapped into the computer systems of companies, including Google, the Brazilian state oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro, France’s foreign ministry and the international banking co-operative SWIFT, which is based in Belgium and handles international financial transactions.

Belgian daily De Standaard said the agency had been monitoring international telephone traffic through Belgacom for two years. – Reuters