31/10/2013 10:19
Snowden leaks: NSA 'hacked Google and Yahoo data links'
The US National Security Agency (NSA) has been hacking data links connecting Yahoo and Google's data centres, according to leaks by Edward Snowden.
According to the BBC, millions of records were gleaned daily from the internet giants' internal networks, documents published by the Washington Post indicate.
The agency's director said it had not had access to the companies' computers.
Gen Keith Alexander told Bloomberg TV: "We are not authorised to go into a US company's servers and take data."
But correspondents say this is not a direct denial of the latest claims.
The documents cited in the latest Snowden leaks suggest that the NSA intercepted the data at some point as it flowed through fibre-optic cables and other network equipment connecting the companies' data centres, rather than targeting the servers themselves.
The data the agency obtained, which ranged from "metadata' to text, audio and video, were then sifted by an NSA programme called Muscular, operated with the NSA's British counterpart, GCHQ, the documents say.
The NSA already has "front-door" access to Google and Yahoo user accounts through a court-approved programme known as Prism.
The revelations stem from documents leaked by fugitive ex-US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who now lives in Russia and is wanted in the US in connection with the unauthorised disclosures.