Documents leaked by Edward Snowden indicate the US National Security Agency (NSA) spied on Brazil's state-run oil company, the private computer networks of Google and a company that facilitates most of the world's international bank transfers, a Brazilian TV report says.
Globo TV, however, gave no information about what the NSA may have obtained from Petrobras, Google and the Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, an organisation better known as SWIFT that oversees international bank transfers thought to be secure transactions.
All three companies are included in an NSA training manual for new agents on how to target the private computer networks of big companies, the report said.
James Klapper, director of US national intelligence, said in a statement that "it is not a secret that the intelligence community collects information about economic and financial matters, and terrorist financing".
The NSA collects the information to provide "the United States and our allies early warning of international financial crises which could negatively impact the global economy," the statement said. "It also could provide insight into other countries' economic policy or behaviour which could affect global markets."
Globo TV, however, gave no information about what the NSA may have obtained from Petrobras, Google and the Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, an organisation better known as SWIFT that oversees international bank transfers thought to be secure transactions.
All three companies are included in an NSA training manual for new agents on how to target the private computer networks of big companies, the report said.
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Earlier reports based on Snowden's documents revealed the existence of the NSA's PRISM programme, which gives the agency comprehensive access to customer data from companies like Google and Facebook. Separate reports last week in the Guardian, New York Times and ProPublica, also based on Snowden's leak, said the NSA and its British counterpart had developed "new access opportunities" into Google's computers by 2012, but the documents didn't indicate how extensive the project was or what kind of data it could access.
James Klapper, director of US national intelligence, said in a statement that "it is not a secret that the intelligence community collects information about economic and financial matters, and terrorist financing".
The NSA collects the information to provide "the United States and our allies early warning of international financial crises which could negatively impact the global economy," the statement said. "It also could provide insight into other countries' economic policy or behaviour which could affect global markets."