The UN spies on itself.

U.N.’s New Phone Network Vulnerable to Surveillance

ipsnews.net

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 26 2013 (IPS) - The U.S. National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance and telephone data collection programme has come under heavy fire for violating privacy laws, even as the U.N.’s new telephone network appears vulnerable to hackers and eavesdroppers. A five-year, 2.1-billion-dollar refurbishment of the U.N. headquarters building was aimed at modernising the 39-storey infrastructure, making it more energy efficient and technologically advanced in order to keep pace with the global digital revolution.

“As part of this process, however, the 63-year-old Secretariat has also been equipped with a sophisticated telephone network by Cisco Systems, which apparently has the capacity to collect phone data and track all incoming and outgoing calls made by staffers as well as diplomats, if they access U.N. phones in the delegates’ lounge or elsewhere in the building. (my emphasis)

“If and when the U.N. administration wants to intercept communications, it will now have the capacity to do so in violation of one’s privacy,” a U.N. source familiar with the new network told IPS.”