NSA targeted Chinese tech giant Huawei, reports say

Associated Press

BERLIN

U.S. intelligence agencies hacked into the email servers of Chinese tech giant Huawei five years ago, about the time concerns were growing in Washington that the telecommunications-equipment manufacturer was a threat to U.S. national security, two newspapers reported Saturday.

The National Security Agency began targeting Huawei in early 2009 and quickly succeeded in gaining access to the company’s client lists and email archive, German weekly Der Spiegel reported, citing secret U.S. intelligence documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The New York Times also published a report Saturday about the documents.

Huawei objects to activities that threaten network security, said William B. Plummer, the company’s vice president of external affairs.

“Huawei has declared its willingness to work with governments, industry stakeholders and customers in an open and transparent manner, to jointly address the global challenges of network security and data integrity,” Plummer said in an email. “The information presented in Der Spiegel and the New York Times article reaffirms the need for all companies to be vigilant at all times.”

Among the people whose emails the NSA was able to read were Huawei president Ren Zhengfei, Der Spiegel said.