Snowden claims US & UK routinely hack banking, medical & email records
Fugitive US whistlebower Edward Snowden has made a fresh round of disclosures following his temporary asylum in Russia, alleging that both the US and UK governments have cracked internet encryption technology used to protect banking, medical and email records.
Snowden stated that both the US National Security Agency and the UK’s GCHQ used these techniques to routinely access data; circumventing the encryption techniques of the likes of Google, Facebook and Yahoo.
Documents published by the Guardian contended that the top secret program has been code named Bullrun in America and Edgehill in Britain; in reference to key battles from both countries civil wars.
The technique is said to be focussed on the use of giant supercomputers to target the type of encryption employed by 4G smartphones to protect email, online shopping transactions and remote business communication networks.
Other means of gaining access to such data include ‘technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion.’