NSA, British spy agency have secret access to five German telecom companies : Report

US and UK intelligence services have secret access points for German telecom companies’ internal networks, Der Spiegel reports, citing slides created in the NSA’s ‘Treasure Map’ program used to get near-real-time visualization of the global internet.

The latest scandal continues to evolve around the US’ NSA and the British GCHQ, both of which appear to be able to eavesdrop on German giants such as Deutsche Telekom, Netcologne, Stellar, Cetel and IABG network operators, according to Der Spiegel’s report based on material disclosed by Edward Snowden.

According to the report, the NSA and its British counterpart, GCHQ, “[aim] to map the Internet, and not just the large traffic channels, such as telecommunications cables. It also seeks to identify the devices across which our data flows, so-called routers.” The program “allows for the creation of an ‘interactive map of the global Internet’ in ‘near real-time,'” the report said.

This program, dubbed “Treasure Map,” was first revealed late last year by the NY Times. But at the time, intelligence officials apparently told the NY Times that Treasure Map “is not used for surveillance…but to understand computer networks.”

The companies affected have reacted furiously to the revelation of this information. “Such cyber-attacks are strictly prohibited by German law,” said the CEO of Stellar, Christian Steffe. “Any illegal access to our network is unacceptable,” said Thomas Tschersich, the head of security for Deutsche Telecom.

The NSA and the GCHQ have not yet responded to these allegations. In December 2013, Der Spiegel had also revealed that the NSA had hacked into the computer networks of sixteen companies to access data from submarine fiber optic cables connecting Europe to North Africa and Asia.