NSA used malware to infiltrate more than 50,000 networks - Snowden

US National Security Agency accused of spreading malware in latest disclosures from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden

The US National Security Agency (NSA) propagated malware around the world in a bid to infiltrate and compromise more than 50,000 networks.

The claim is the latest in the Edward Snowden disclosures and published in the German newspaper Handelsblatt. The malware network is part of the NSA's electronic information gathering capabilities that touch virtually every corner of the world.

"The malware can be controlled remotely and be turned on and off at will. The ‘implants' act as digital ‘sleeper cells' that can be activated with a single push of a button," claims Handelsblatt.

According to the reports, the NSA employs more than 1,000 hackers to hack computer systems and networks worldwide, in a programme started in 1998 - well before the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, which are frequently used to justify such large-scale and pervasive internet monitoring and hacking.

In mid-2008, the Washington Post estimated that the NSA had compromised some 20,000 networks. In mid-2012, according to the latest documents, that number had increased to more than 50,000. And by the end of 2013, the NSA had targeted some 85,000 networks, according to the disclosures.

The latest leaks from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden also show that the NSA has "covert, clandestine or cooperative large access" to fibre-optic networks in the US itself - which could be against US law.

The leaks also raise questions over security companies' complicity in the NSA's campaigns of internet surveillance, monitoring and hacking.

A joint letter from a group of online privacy organisations, including Privacy International, Big Brother Watch and the Dutch group Bits of Freedom, questioning security software companies' involvement with the NSA was ignored by almost all of the companies.