6/12/13 NSA hacks China, NSA leaker Snowden claims - CNN.com You've selected the U.S. Edition. Would you like to make this your default edition? Yes | No Close SET EDITION: U.S. INTERNATIONAL MÉXICO ARABIC Sign up Log in TV: CNN CNNi CNN en Español HLN Home TV & Video CNN Trends U.S. World Politics Justice Entertainment Tech Health Living Travel Opinion iReport Money Sports NSA hacks China, NSA leaker Snowden SHARE THIS Print claims Email By Jethro Mullen and Michael Pearson, CNN More sharing Recommend 1.6k updated 4:05 PM EDT, Wed June 12, 2013 Former intelligence worker Edward Snowden revealed himself as the source of documents outlining a massive effort by the NSA to track cell phone calls and monitor the e- mail and Internet traffic of virtually all Americans. Snowden, 29, fled to Hong Kong after copying the last set of documents. He says he just wanted the public to know what the government was doing. "Even if you're not doing anything wrong you're being watched and recorded," he said. The Justice Department has begun a preliminary investigation into what it called "the unauthorized disclosure of Part of complete cov erage on classified information by an Data mining & privacy individual with authorized access." HIDE CAPTION Notable leakers and whistle-blowers Who is Edward Snowden? updated 9:32 AM EDT, Mon June 10, 2013 He's a high school dropout << < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 > >> w ho w orked his w ay into the most secretive computers in U.S. intelligence as a defense STORY HIGHLIGHTS Hong Kong (CNN) -- U.S. intelligence agents have been hacking contractor -- only to blow computer networks around the world for years, apparently targeting those secrets w ide open by U.S. hacks computers in China, spilling details of classified NSA leaker Edw ard Snow den fat data pipes that push immense amounts of data around the surveillance programs. tells paper Internet, NSA leaker Edward Snowden claimed Wednesday to the Snow den claims U.S. intelligence South China Morning Post newspaper. taps into major Internet lines Opinion Why NSA spying scares the world South China Morning Post says it Among some 61,000 reported targets of the National Security updated 2:54 PM EDT, Wed June 12, 2013 has seen documents but been Agency, Snowden said, are thousands of computers in China -- unable to verify claims In 2011, I w as on a panel, which U.S. officials have increasingly criticized as the source of organized by the security Snow den revealed details of company RSA, w ith tw o retired secret U.S. surveillance thousands of attacks on U.S. military and commercial networks. National Security Agency programs China has denied such attacks. directors, Michael Hayden and Kenneth Minihan. During the course of our debate, I raised The Morning Post said it had seen documents but was unable to concerns, as the only non- verify allegations of U.S. hacking of networks in Hong Kong and American on the panel, that mainland China since 2009. their plans and preferences for having the NSA secure cyberspace for the rest of us Snowden told the paper that some of the targets included the w ere not exactly reassuring. Chinese University of Hong Kong, public officials and students. The To this, Minihan replied that I should not describe myself as documents also "point to hacking activity by the NSA against "Canadian" but rather "North mainland targets," the newspaper reported. American." In the Morning Post interview -- published one week after the British NSA snooping triggers lawsuits newspaper The Guardian revealed the first leaks attributed to updated 9:09 AM EDT, Wed June 12, 2013 Snowden -- he claimed the agency he once worked for as a Initial legal challenges to the government's sw eeping contractor typically targets high-bandwith data lines that connect electronic surveillance Internet nodes located around the world. programs began to emerge w ith one couple alleging they w ere singled out for monitoring "We hack network backbones -- like huge Internet routers, basically because they criticized the www.cnn.com/2013/06/12/politics/nsa-leak/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 1/10 6/12/13 NSA hacks China, NSA leaker Snowden claims - CNN.com -- that give us access to the communications of hundreds U.S. military. of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one," the newspaper quoted him as saying. NSA leaker's girlfriend says she's 'lost at sea' A "backbone" is part of the inner workings of a computer updated 7:53 AM EDT, Wed June 12, 2013 network that links together different parts of that network. The girlfriend of self-avow ed Manhunt under w ay for NSA leaker National Security Agency It is used to deliver data from one part of the network to leaker Edw ard Snow den w rote another and, as such, could expose data from multiple that she w as "adrift in a sea of computers if hacked. chaos" after he spilled government secrets and decamped to Hong Kong. 'Trying to bully' Tough questions about secret Snowden, 29, worked for the Booz Allen Hamilton surveillance programs computer consulting firm until Monday when he was fired Ron Paul on Snow den: It's a heroic effort updated 9:13 AM EDT, Wed June 12, 2013 after documents he provided to journalists revealed the House members from both existence of secret programs to collect records of political parties raised domestic telephone calls in the United States and the concerns and tough questions for administration officials w ho Internet activity of overseas residents. briefed the entire chamber on the government's recently revealed top secret While he has not been charged, the FBI is conducting an surveillance programs. investigation into the leaks, and he has told The Guardian Snow den's life before leak that he expects the United States will try to prosecute him. Privacy? Forget it, we're all celebrities Snowden told the Morning Post that he felt U.S. officials online now updated 3:10 PM EDT, Wed June 12, 2013 were pressuring his family and also accused them of The controversy over National "trying to bully" Hong Kong into extraditing him to prevent Security Agency data mining the release of more damaging information. has spaw ned columns featuring ominous references to Orw ell and Kafka, He vowed to resist extradition efforts if it comes to that, reassurances from politicians Obama open to NSA changes saying he "would rather stay and fight the United States and jokes (made on the Internet, of course) about the government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong government peeking through Kong's rule of law." the blinds. "My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to Intercepts called critical in terror decide my fate," the South China Morning Post quoted Snowden as investigations saying. "I have been given no reason to doubt your system.'' updated 10:24 AM EDT, Tue June 11, 2013 As arguments rage about the proper balance betw een civil But Hong Kong lawmaker Regina Ip, a former secretary of security liberties and national security, a for the territory, said Tuesday that while any extradition process survey of recent terror cases could take months, Snowden isn't necessarily beyond the reach of show s that intercepted communications have often the United States. provided investigators w ith vital clues. "If he thought there was a legal vacuum in Hong Kong which renders him safe from U.S. jurisdiction, that is unlikely to be the case," she Julian Assange: 'Go to Latin America' said. updated 7:46 AM EDT, Tue June 11, 2013 Julian Assange, the founder of The newspaper said Snowden has been hiding in undisclosed WikiLeaks, know s something about secrets and w hat locations inside the semi-autonomous Chinese territory since happens w hen they're checking out of his hotel room Monday -- a day after he revealed his exposed. identity in an interview with The Guardian. Phone tracking acceptable? Snowden told the Morning Post he is not trying to evade U.S. Fifty-six percent consider the authorities. government's tracking of phone records an "acceptable w ay" "People who think I made a mistake in picking Hong Kong as a to investigate terrorism, according to the new national location misunderstand my intentions," the newspaper quoted him survey released Monday by as saying. "I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal the Pew Research Center. criminality." Opinion: Your biggest secrets are up On the defensive for grabs updated 10:51 AM EDT, Tue June 11, 2013 The revelations have renewed debate over surveillance in the The great irony of the United States and overseas in the name of fighting terrorism, with government spying controversy is that even supporters saying the programs revealed by Snowden are legal and America's state-of-the-art spy have helped stop terror plots. Civil liberties advocates, however, call agency could not keep secret the fact that it might be spying the measures dangerous and unacceptable intrusions. on our secrets. Such criticisms have put President Barack Obama and his allies on the issue -- both Democrats and Republicans -- on the defensive NSA leaker ignites global debate: hero or traitor? www.cnn.com/2013/06/12/politics/nsa-leak/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 2/10 6/12/13 NSA hacks China, NSA leaker Snowden claims - CNN.com against mounting criticisms from a similarly bipartisan group of critics updated 2:14 PM EDT, Mon June 10, 2013 A 29-year-old w ho admitted demanding changes to rein in the programs.