Europeans are already jittery about possible
foreign surveillance of their communications; today, those worries have reached a fever pitch. Belgian government investigators now
suspect that a recently
discovered virus in the internal systems of Belgacom, the country's telecom giant, was planted as part of state-backed cyber espionage. The malware's sophistication, scale and strategic focus suggest an attacker with "significant financial and logistic means," according to prosecutors. Neither side has officially named a culprit. Local newspaper
De Standaard isn't quite so reticent, however -- it
alleges that the NSA has been spying on Belgacom's voice traffic for at least two years, and that the discovery was prompted by
Edward Snowden's leaks. Whether or not the NSA is involved, the damage may be limited. Belgacom scrubbed its systems clean this weekend, and it doesn't believe that the attack compromised customer data.
[Thanks, Joachim / image credit: Diluvienne,
Flickr]
Dan Cooper contributed to this report.Filed under:
Cellphones,
InternetCommentsVia: ReutersSource: De Standaard (translated),
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