The UN announced it will “keep in touch” with the US government over the latest reports on the NSA hacking into the international body’s communications system, decrypting almost 500 internal teleconference calls.
“We’re aware of the reports and we intend to be in touch with
the relevant authorities on this,” UN spokesman Farhan Haq
told the press on Monday.
According to the documents leaked by Edward Snowden, Washington
gained access to the internal UN video conferencing system last
year.
Haq stated that international law should protect the diplomatic
core, citing the 1961 Vienna Convention that in theory protects
international organizations from espionage.
“Therefore member states are expected to act accordingly to
protect the inviolability of diplomatic missions,” Haq said.
The UN however has yet to issue an official response.
Meanwhile, Jens Stomber, spokesman for the German Pirate Party,
told RT that a logical move for the UN could be to introduce a
“resolution about surveillance” that would protect
“diplomats or ambassadors of other nations.”
Moreover, Stomber believes the UN could also pass a resolution
“protecting international whistleblowers.”
“If people blow their whistle on an international scale, the UN
should take care of those people, like Edward Snowden and protect
them,” he told RT.
The recent scandal emerged when Der Spiegel reported on Sunday
that the US deployed a bugging program in some 80 diplomatic
missions worldwide called the “Special Collection Service.”
Der Spiegel also wrote that the summer of 2012, the NSA hacked
into the UN video conferencing system by cracking its coding
system.
“The data traffic gives us internal video teleconferences of
the United Nations (yay!),” Der Spiegel quoted one document
as saying. The publication also says that within three
weeks of hacking, the number of decoded communications reached
almost 500.
“The surveillance is intensive and well organized and has
little or nothing to do with warding off terrorists,” wrote
Der Spiegel.
The leaked NSA files shows that the agency spied on an EU
delegation in New York in autumn 2012.
The internal NSA documents, leaked by Snowden also suggests that
the International Atomic Energy Agency, was targeted by the NSA,
according to the report.