NZ firm linked to suspect spy row
Technology developed at Waikato University and commercialised with more than $6 million in government grants may be part of Britain's top-secret Tempora spy project, disclosed last week by US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. Tempora, secretly set up to intercept and record all network traffic into the United Kingdom, uses probes installed on 200 fibre-optic cables as they come ashore, according to information leaked by Snowden. Kiwi-based company Endace is one of few developing such probes - though the company itself remains coy about its involvement, saying only that it does do business with "friendly governments". Until recently, technology constraints limited interception to targeted communications, or taps. However, new systems developed by companies such as Auckland-based Endace now allow intelligence agencies to intercept and record everything on a network, including phone calls, emails, instant messages and social media traffic. Endace's core technology is a new kind of network probe, originally developed at Waikato University, that leaves no trace on communications and does not interfere with network performance.
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