(Telecompaper) The NSA has successfully tapped the Sea-Me-We-4 underwater cable system connecting Europe, North Africa and Middle East as well as the Far East, according to German magazine Der Spiegel citing a top- secret document leaked by Edward Snowden. Among the companies that hold stakes in the cable system are Orange and Telecom Italia Sparkle. The document claims that the NSA's cyber-warfare intelligence-gathering unit TAO (Tailored Access Operations) successfully collected network management information for the cable system on 13 February. Using a "website masquerade operation" the agency was able to "gain access to the consortium's management website and collected Layer 2 network information that shows the circuit mapping for significant portions of the network." The document also says that "more operations are planned in the future to collect more information about this and other cable systems".