China’s Ministry of Public Security is preparing to look into NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's claims that US spooks hacked into IBM, Oracle and EMC products sold to the Asian nation's universities. The three American corporations could face a probe by Chinese police and government officials on the subject of “security issues”. The three American corporations could face a probe by Chinese police and government officials on the subject of “security issues”.

According to one unnamed source in the Reuters report: “At present, thanks to their technological superiority, many of our core information technology systems are basically dominated by foreign hardware and software firms, but the PRISM scandal implies security problems.”

Separately, meanwhile, industry group the Cloud Security Alliance last month warned that US companies are losing orders from foreigners alarmed about the NSA spooks ability to access their data and communications.