Egypt tries to tackle NSA

The privately-owned daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported that “sovereign authorities” met with representatives from the Ministry of Communications and the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority to discuss the impact of American spy programs on Egypt. 

“Sovereign authorities” is a common allusion to the General Security Service. 

The meeting also covered how to prevent further penetration into Egypt. The minister of telecommunications told reporters at a ministry conference that Egyptian phone calls are “completely secured” from foreign espionage operations. 

Atef Helmy, according to the Turkish News Agency Anadolu, said that the government “dealt professionally” with attempts to penetrate Egyptian communications networks after detecting them months ago. 

According to reports based on the widely-publicized leaks by Edward Snowden to the British newspaper The Guardian, Egypt is the fourth most surveyed country in the world after Iran, Pakistan and Jordan. 

One report from The Guardian said that 7.6 billion pieces of intelligence, including telephone calls and emails were gathered by the American National Security Agency in March 2013 alone.

Al-Masry Al-Youm reported that the authorities have ruled out a lawsuit against the US.