Cyber espionage: Brazils holds US agencies accountable

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil will demand an explanation from the United States over report its citizens’ electronic communications have been under surveillance by US spy agencies for at least a decade, foreign minister Antonio Patriota said on Sunday.

Patriota’s remarks were in response to a report in the Globo daily newspaper on Sunday saying that the US National Security Agency has been monitoring the telephone and email activity of Brazilian companies and individuals as part of US espionage activities.

The report cited documents obtained from US fugitive Edward Snowden, a former NSA intelligence contractor.

Patriota also said his government plans to propose changes to international communications rules administered by the International Telecommunications Union to improve communications secrecy.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2013.