Indian Govt Spy Allegedly Hacks Emails of Official U.S. Commission; U.S. Orders Probe

Appended to the document are transcripts of what are said to be email exchanges among commission members.

"We are aware of these reports and have contacted relevant authorities to investigate the matter. We are unable to make further comments at this time," Jonathan Weston, a spokesman for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, said on Monday.

The document's authenticity could not be independently verified. But the U.S.-China commission is not denying the authenticity of the emails.

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Officials in India declined to comment on the document's content or authenticity. One India-based website quoted an unnamed army representative as denying that India used mobile companies to spy on the commission and calling the documents forged.

The purported memo says that India cut a technological agreement - the details are not clear - with mobile phone manufacturers "in exchange for the Indian market presence." It cites three: Research in Motion (RIM.TO), maker of the BlackBerry; Nokia (NOK1V.HE); and Apple (AAPL.O).

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said her company had not provided the Indian government with backdoor access to its products. A spokesman for RIM in India said the company does not typically comment on rumour or speculation. A spokesman for Nokia declined comment.

The U.S. Congress created the commission in 2000 to investigate and report on the national security implications of the economic relationship between the United States and China. The bipartisan, 12-member panel holds periodic hearings each year on China-related topics such as cyber security, weapons proliferation, energy, international trade compliance, and information policy.

The email breach, if confirmed, would be the latest in a series of cyber intrusions that have struck U.S. institutions ranging from the Pentagon and defense contractors to Google Inc (GOOG.O).

A group calling itself the Lords of Dharmaraja said in an internet post that it had uncovered the hacking. It said it had discovered the source codes of a dozen software companies in Indian Military Intelligence servers.

A U.S. government official, who asked not to be identified, said the matter is under investigation. The FBI has jurisdiction to investigate cyber-hacking inside the United States. An FBI spokesman declined to comment.

Many of the previous hacks have been blamed on China. In this case, it is unclear whether India might have been eavesdropping on the U.S.-China commission for itself or sought to pass any information collected to authorities in China.

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