Russia's Gift to G20 Delegates Found to Include "Trojan Horse" Spy Devices

Published by Julie Kent 

Thanks to Edward Snowden and his leaks of NSA secrets, much of the world has been focused on the United States' spying activities. But as it turns out, the U.S. isn't the only superpower seeking to sniff out state secrets of its allies and enemies. At the G20 conference held in St. Petersburg, Russia, last month where President Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin appeared to patch up their differences, Russian operatives gave goodie bags to world powers at the summit which included USB drives and phone charges that were secretly "Trojan Horses" designed to download information and send it back to Russia.

The Russian spy ploy was first reported on Tuesday by Italian media. Apparently, European Union President Herman Van Rompuy was the first to become suspicious of the gifts, which sported the red-and-blue "Russia G20" logo, and asked technical experts in Belgium and Germany to look into them.

German intelligence sources determined that the three-pronged mobile phone charges were able to tap into e-mails, text messages and phone calls, and just like the USB thumb drives Russia handed out, they were a "poisoned gift" from Putin.

A warning has since supposedly been sent out to all G-20 members about the dangerous devices, which Italian media says went out to all "delegates" at the September 5-6 gathering. It was not clear if any world leaders were given the gifts directly.

Source: http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/21736