Intelligence agencies are seeking to map the entire internet, including end-user devices.
According to Spiegel, in pursuing that goal, they have broken into networks belonging to Deutsche Telekom. It said that “Treasure Map” is the mandate for a massive raid on the digital world. It aims to map the Internet, and not just the large traffic channels, such as telecommunications cables. It also seeks to identify the devices across which our data flows, so-called routers.
It said that every single end device that is connected to the internet somewhere in the world – and the mission described in a Treasure Map released by Edward Snowden instructs analysts to “map the entire Internet — Any device, anywhere, all the time.” Treasure Map allows for the creation of an “interactive map of the global Internet” in “near real-time,” the document notes, and allows employees of the so-called “FiveEyes” intelligence agencies to install and use the program on their own computers.