The United States' National Security Agency reportedly intercepts laptops purchased online to insert bugs for further surveillance of phone and web activity by the government.
As part of its mass surveillance practice, the spy agency installed bugs in nearly 100,000 computers around the world under the programme code-named Quantum.
According to The Verge, three days before President Obama is expected to announce major changes to the alleged surveillance programmes, the revelations have been exposed by the nation's major news outlet, The New York Times.
The revelations indicated that the bugs aren't used inside the US but have been installed to spy on alleged Chinese and Russian military hacker groups, Mexican drug cartels, European "trade institutions," and alleged terrorists.
Sources said that the devices are mainly intended for defense and their first big test was as part of an attack to map out the inner workings of the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in Iran, the report added.
