Spy Balloon Sent Data to China on US Internet Link: Officials

A surveillance balloon that crossed the nation early this year tapped a US company's internet connection to send data back to China, current and former officials said. The communications chiefly concerned navigation, NBC News reports. The balloon was able to transmit high-bandwidth collections of data in short bursts using the internet service provider's connection, US intelligence agencies found. Intelligence officials said the balloon did not send intelligence, per CNN. The connection helped the US track the location of the balloon, which the US shot down off the coast of South Carolina.

China again said that the craft was just a weather balloon. "As we had made it clear before, the airship, used for meteorological research, unintentionally drifted into US because of the westerlies and its limited self-steering capability," a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington told NBC News. Chinese intelligence agencies have covertly connected to internet service providers in other countries before, US officials said, sometimes as a backup. Often, they use networks that are encrypted or otherwise have strong security protocols to protect communications. (More spy balloon stories.)