endace

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  • Reuters/Kieran Doherty

    UK spies paid a New Zealand firm to help tap key internet lines

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    10.23.2016

    It's no longer a secret that the UK's GCHQ was expanding its mass surveillance in the years before Edward Snowden's leaks. However, it hasn't really been clear as to who was helping it upgrade its spying campaign... until today. The Intercept and Television New Zealand have obtained documents showing that GCHQ purchased large amounts of "data acquisition" systems and "probes" from Endace, a New Zealand company that specializes in network data recording. The agency wanted to step up its monitoring of high-speed internet cables from 87 10Gbps lines in 2009 to 800 by 2013, and buying loads of Endace technology helped it edge closer to that goal.