Pacnet launches security probe after Edward Snowden Hong Kong hacking claims

Pacnet, the operator of Asia's largest privately owned submarine cable network, is conducting a sweeping security audit across its operations after Edward Snowden's claim of a major security breach at the company.

Jim Fagan, president of Pacnet's managed services business, said the action was initiated after the Sunday Morning Post reported last month that computers at the company's Hong Kong headquarters were hacked by the US National Security Agency (NSA) in 2009.

"We started an investigation soon after seeing that report because the security of our network and our customers' data is paramount," Fagan said.

"When that security gets called into question, you want to go back and look at things."

He added: "We've never seen the documentation behind that report, so we really didn't have much to go on. From that perspective, I can't confirm or deny whether that [security breach] happened." Snowden, the fugitive former US intelligence contractor, alleged that hundreds of computers in the city and on the mainland were targeted by the NSA over a four-year period.

British newspaper The Guardian and The Washington Post also reported Snowden's claim that certain US mobile network operators helped the NSA collect the phone data of their customers.