Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

In the name of national security, many foul deeds could be tolerated and carried out covertly. But once they are exposed, scandals happen. Although this might be the case for many countries, the US seems to encounter such awkwardness more frequently than others.

After series of revelations, the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has recently revealed another piece of sensational information that US and British intelligence agencies hacked into the world's largest maker of SIM cards, stealing encryption information. This gave the agencies the ability to secretly monitor a large portion of the world's cellular communications, including both voice and data. If Snowden's latest claim is true, it raises questions about the security of cellphone communications around the world.

This is another typical example of US double standards. The US often plays the role of victim, proclaiming it faces grave threats, and suffers from various cyber attacks. It turns out that the one who accuses others of spying is actually the most powerful spy in the world.

There are several facts we should put in mind. First, the US possesses superiority over other countries in the field of information technology, it ushered in the IT wave, and still stands on top of it. Second, the US has laid out systematic cyberspace and intelligence strategies and implementation plans from the national level to the tactical level, and is trying to establish code of conduct in cyberspace that serves US interest. Third, with large intelligence organizations acting as its backbone, such as NSA acting as its cyber operation commanding center, and with big pools of brilliant talents, the US is better positioned to get any information it wants. Fourth, the US intelligence budget is higher than most countries' total national defense budgets. If its power is used for ill purposes, it is a rogue elephant that no one else is able to stop.

Among those exposed cases, there are old ones such as ECHELON, a signal intelligence collection system that consolidated US and its allies' collection capabilities, and new ones revealed by Snowden, known as PRISM, XKeyscore, MUSCULAR, and LOVEINT and so on, and they do not limit data collection to national security issues. Even if it doesn't have anything to do with national security, they'll take that information, sometimes from the US' own allies, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Through these leaks, we can take a glimpse of the comprehensive US intelligence collection operations. Without these revelations, most of the people may never know so many covert intelligence operations have been carried out in such a systematic and massive scale, nor aware of that they are so close to every one of us.

Through its eavesdropping operations, the US has once again proved that US national security is for the US only. For the rest of the world, it becomes a potential threat, causing doubts, questions, countermeasures, and cut-throat competition, which may lead to misfires and conflicts, and eventually make the world feel less secure about the US. Maybe it's time for it to reflect on what has been done and really do something based on the principle of shared security to avoid the aforementioned dilemma.

The author is a freelancer based in Beijing. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn