The National Security Agency (NSA), a US intelligence agency, has access to all Pakistani mobile phone operators that enables agency to access and monitor voice, SMS, location and data transactions of each and every Pakistani mobile phone user in Pakistan and abroad.
The new revelations came from the Intercept, an online publication dedicated to report on the documents provided by Edward Snowden, a US computer professional who leaked classified information from the NSA.
The NSA has spied on hundreds of companies and organizations internationally, including in countries closely allied to the United States, in an effort to find security weaknesses in cellphone technology that it can exploit for surveillance.
The US intelligence agency says that its interception efforts are targeted at terrorists, weapons proliferators and other foreign targets ,and not ordinary people but fact remains the same that they have the access to the entire communication people do on their cell phones, making them feel less secure.
The Intercept revealed that the NSA has ability to intercept 70 percent of cellphone networks worldwide — that is 701 of an estimated 985 networks — including five operators operating in Pakistan.
The report claims that the NSA manages to intercept cellular networks by exploiting security flaws in the networks and at times by planting flaws into the networks to later use them for its own benefit.
The NSA is reported to have information-sharing agreements with United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand; meaning that cellular data can be accessed by people by at least five countries.
