快猫短视频

European countries should set up a joint encryption system to guard against a global satellite eavesdropping network, says the European Parliament.

The spy network, dubbed Echelon, is led by the US, with help from the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It was set up in the aftermath of the Second World War, although its primary task is to intercept private and commercial communications, according to a report from a European Union committee.

The US officially denies the existence of Echelon. In May, members of the committee travelled to Washington DC to investigate, but members of the CIA and National Security Agency thought to be responsible for running the network refused to meet with them.

鈥淭here were those who said we would not be able to find sound evidence,鈥� Carlos Coelho, chairman of the EU鈥檚 investigative committee told AP. 鈥淲e can say very clearly that Echelon does exist,鈥� he said.

Code of conduct

快猫短视频 reports last year triggered fears that the system was being used to gather trade secrets from European businesses, but the committee says no businesses came forward with evidence.

The European Union assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of adopting 44 recommendations on how to counter Echelon. Among these is the development of a Europe-wide encryption standard and intelligence-gathering system. Europe and the US should also work towards a code of conduct for surveillance.

Government Communication Headquarters in Cheltenham, UK, refuses to comment on the existence of Echelon. But a joint EU intelligence-gathering system was 鈥渦nrealistic鈥�, it said in a statement.