KPN: no evidence of spying on the network by Brits or Americans

KPN has on its network, no evidence of spying by the Us or British intelligence services can find. Nevertheless, it is not to exclude, allows KPN. The whole network will then also be precisely ge lwa nspecteerd, promises the telecom provider.

KPN examined his network after it appeared that the Belgian telecom provider Belgacom was hacked, probably by the British secret service GCHQ or the American NSA. The telco investigated whether there is a clue could be found that essentially the same hack as that of Belgacom, but that were not found, writes the company in a security report.

That there are no traces of espionage have been found does not mean that the investigation stops, stresses KPN. The telecom provider is planning to make its entire network to be inspected. It is not only given to known points of reference, but also on servers that behave differently than expected, or events on the network, which may indicate still with the malware. However, it is virtually impossible to rule out that the NSA or any other intelligence agency access to its servers knows how to get. “But if they are inside, we will find them”, writes Johan Romkes of the security team of the provider.

Belgacom would have been hacked to bodies in Brussels, including the European Union, to be able to listen to them. Also would Belgacom International Carrier Services, a joint venture of Belgacom and two other telecommunications providers, are the targets. That subsidiary provides support services to other telco’s and is on that market one of the biggest players. The intelligence services would be interested in traffic in countries like Syria, Yemen and other ‘rogue’.

In addition, the provider no obvious backdoors in Huawei equipment, have found. KPN used network equipment from China’s Huawei and according to some, has the Chinese government backdoors in Huawei routers hidden. Among other things, the U.s. government concluded that. KPN was given for two weeks on location in China access to the source code of the equipment, but found no evidence for overheidsbackdoors. Were vulnerabilities found, including serious, but that with each manufacturer to expect, set Huawei.

“What the Snowden-files us have learned, is that every individual and company should be aware of eavesdropping, or penetration of its network,” writes Romkes of KPN. “At this time, the NSA, the bitten dog, but do not forget: each country spioneert and happens behind the scenes more than we know now”, says KPN, which emphasises that also other intelligence agencies behind the attacks.