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NSA Targeted a Canadian Bank and Telecom Company Reveals New Snowden Doc

According to a new report, the US security agency has been monitoring the private network traffic of Rogers and Royal Bank of Canada.
​Image: ​x_tine/Flickr

The US National Security Agency has been keeping tabs on two of Canada's biggest businesses: the Royal Bank of Canada and Rogers Communications Inc.

According to The Globe and Mail, a 2012 NSA presentation leaked by Edward Snowden and obtained by the n​ewspaper suggests that the US security agency has been monitoring the private network traffic of the two major Canadian companies. (Disclosure: Rogers is an investor in Vice Canada.)

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The companies' names appeared in a dropdown list on a presentation slide titled "Private Networks: Analysis, Contextualization and Setting the Vision," along with other companies that have names beginning with "R," such as Rolls Royce, The Globe and Mail reported.

When The Globe and Mail reached NSA for comment, a spokesperson was not able to comment on "specific, alleged" foreign spying programs. The presentation had markings indicating it was shared with Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canada's equivalent to the NSA, though a CSE spokesperson denied that "intelligence activities have been directed at any Canadian entity, company or individual."

Both internal corporate networks and virt​ual private networks that allow workers to access company systems remotely and securely have been a focal point for NSA decryption efforts. Documents published by Germa​n paper Der Spiegel in December of 2014 revealed that in 2010, NSA had already developed tools to monitor virtual private networks and extract communications.

A spokesperson for the Royal Bank told the paper that the bank has not granted NSA access to its private networks, and a Rogers representative said, "If such surveillance is taking place, we would find that very troubling."

CS​E is part of the Five Eyes international surveillance alliance which includes the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. CSE has appeared in several previous Snowden documents outlining surveillance programs such as EONB​LUE, which describes a network of 200 sensors that monitor internet traffic worldwide, and LEVI​ATHAN, which targeted users downloading files from filesharing sites.