This
Reuters photo taken on December 17, 2013 shows a National Security
Agency (NSA) data gathering facility in Bluffdale, about 25 miles (40
kms) south of Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States.
The
US National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software
deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and
other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the
majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and
former operatives.
That long-sought and closely guarded ability
was part of a cluster of spying programmes discovered by Kaspersky Lab,
the Moscow-based security software maker that has exposed a series of
Western cyberespionage operations.
Kaspersky said it found
personal computers in 30 countries infected with one or more of the
spying programmes, with the most infections seen in Iran, followed by
Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria.
The targets included government and military institutions,
telecommunication companies, banks, energy companies, nuclear
researchers, media, and Islamic activists, Kaspersky said.
