The U.S.National Security Agency has the ability to eavesdrop on most of the world’s computers by hiding spy software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers. They figured out how to lodge malicious software in the obscure code called firmware that launches every time a computer is turned on.

Personal computers in 30 countries were found infected with one or more spying programs. Most of the infected computers were in Iran, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and Syria.  The owners of the computers were government agents, military institutions, telecommunication companies, banks, energy companies, nuclear researchers, media, and Islamic activists.

Technical details of this research suggest there are spying programs that trace back to 2001.

The disclosure could hurt the NSA’s surveillance abilities, already damaged by massive leaks by former contractor Edward Snowden. Snowden’s revelations have upset some U.S. allies and slowed the sales of U.S. technology products abroad.

Western Digital, Seagate and Micron said they had no knowledge of these spying programs. Toshiba and Samsung declined to comment. IBM did not respond to requests for comment.

The NSA declined to comment on any allegations they claim the agency complies with the law and White House directives to protect the United States and its allies “from a wide array of serious threats.”

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