NSA's Auroragold Mining Operation

The United States National Security Agency, which is known for monitoring landline, Web and cellphone communications worldwide, also targets wireless carriers, The Intercept reported last week.

Documents released by whistle-blower Edward Snowden show the NSA has monitored more than 1,200 email accounts associated with major cellphone network operators worldwide since 2010, in a covert operation named "Auroragold," according to the report.

Those intercepted communications help the NSA hack into phone networks.

The agency also plans to secretly introduce backdoors into new communications systems.

The GSM Association, whose members are mobile operators and related companies, and which releases standards for GSM phones, is a particular target.

"The mission of the NSA is to gather data," said Jonathan Sander, strategy and research officer at Stealthbits Technologies.

"They will do so in whatever way they can, so long as there aren't explicit legal limits put on them," he told TechNewsWorld.

The NSA's Wireless Portfolio Management Office defines and carries out the agency's strategy for exploiting wireless communications, and its Target Technology Trends Center monitors the development of new communications technology to ensure the NSA remains on top of innovation, The Intercept said. The existence of both has not been publicly disclosed.

As of May 2012, the NSA apparently had collected information from about 70 percent of cellphone networks worldwide -- 702 out of about 985.

Data collected reportedly is sent to NSA "signals development" teams that infiltrate communications networks. The data is shared with other U.S. intelligence agencies and with NSA's counterparts in the so-called Five Eyes alliance.

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NSA's Auroragold Mining Operation