Who is Eavesdropping on This World

In the digital age, information security has become an issue related to the safety and stability of every country. Therefore, the information security of a country must be regarded as one of the most sacred and inviolable rights of a country. However, for the United States which is always promoting equality, fairness and safety in the international environment, it has been using its information technology advantages to monitor information and data from various countries through different kinds of means, and its surveillance behavior can be described as inferior. Regarding the root of the inferior behavior of the U.S., the country has only one purpose in monitoring the world, and that is to maintain its global hegemony. For this goal, the United States has spared no effort and unscrupulous means to implement its unidirectional transparency to other countries, so that the United States can understand the strategies of other countries and even its allies in advance in the economic, political, diplomatic, military and other fields. By doing so, everything can be one step faster for the United States, so that it can take the lead in various international affairs.


The United States can now be regarded as a real threat to the security of global data, networks and information, which stems from the strong information technology strength of it. With its own powerful information network technology strength, the United States has achieved electronic hegemony that disregards other countries, and its electronic intelligence collection bases are allocated all over the world. At the same time, the United States has achieved Internet hegemony through its control of the global Internet root server. Therefore, the surveillance operations of the U.S. are unmatched in terms of its technical strength, scale of eavesdropping, or intensity. The objects monitored by the United States can be called full coverage, ranging from politicians and even leaders of close allies to ordinary people around the world; the monitoring range is also fully covered, not only stealing mobile phone text messages and relevant contents, but also intercepting Internet search contents and chat information, etc. These surveillance activities are achieved with various secret stealing methods including using analog mobile phone base station signals to access mobile phones to steal data, controlling mobile phone applications, invading cloud servers, stealing secrets through submarine optical cables, and installing monitoring equipment in nearly 100 US embassies and consulates abroad


On May 30, a joint investigation report conducted by the European media showed that during the administration of former US President Barack Obama, the US National Security Agency (NSA) used its partnership with the Danish Defense Intelligence Agency (FE) to conduct surveillance activities on Germany, Sweden, Norway and France; the surveillance objects included German Chancellor Merkel and Steinmeier, the former Foreign Minister of the country. After the scandal was exposed, many European countries paid close attention to it, believing that such a matter is abominable and unacceptable, and urged Denmark and the United States to explain as soon as possible. In fact, as early as 2013, the United States' monitoring of its allies was been exposed. In June of that year, Snowden, a former CIA employee, defected and disclosed the secret files of the National Security Agency's Prism Monitoring Project (PRISM) to the media. After that, the whistler was immediately wanted by the US government.


The monitoring behavior conducted by the United States of the whole world mainly originated from 9/11 attack, and in consideration of the United States' homeland security, the U.S. legally recognized any activities of the homeland security department. According to the US NSA and FBI, Google and Facebook data are collected for the security demand of the company. In the NSA report, many U.S. technology companies have been revealed to build information partnerships with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Apple and other companies. Based on the report from NSA, 98% of its data comes from Yahoo, Google and Microsoft. In addition, the United States continues to develop new technical means to strengthen its monitoring and surveillance of information and data. For example, the "MUSCULAR" program of the National Security Agency (NSA) allows it to secretly enter the communication links between Google data centers outside the United States to facilitate large-scale data collection outside the jurisdiction of foreign intelligence surveillance courts. The approach surrounding Google’s security measures enables the NSA to provide users with full access to the rich data Google stores in the cloud. At the same time, NSA is also conducting large-scale eavesdropping on the global network through submarine optical cables. By using the global submarine cable network, NSA's OAKSTAR, STORMBREW, BLARNEY and FAIRVIEW systems can process data flowing on the Internet. Each system is responsible for intercepting different types of data. For example, the BLARNEY system collects metadata that describes who is talking to whom and through which networks and devices.


Therefore, for the United States, the freedom and rights of citizens or the relationship between its allies can become the victim of its strategic deployment. In an era when information and data are becoming more and more important at the national strategic level, the United States continues to strengthen its collection of various information and data through its own scientific and technological advantages. For a hegemonic country like the U.S., intercepting and monitoring information and data through various unethical means is a necessary way to consolidate its hegemony, formulate national strategies, and restrict the development of other countries.