Secret documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden demonstrate that the New Zealand GCSB, with ongoing NSA cooperation, implemented a mass surveillance program code-named “SPEARGUN” at some point in 2012 or early 2013. SPEARGUN involved the covert installation of “cable access” equipment, which appears to refer to surveillance of the country’s main undersea cable link, the Southern Cross cable. This cable carries the vast majority of internet traffic between New Zealand and the rest of the world, and mass collection from it would mark the greatest expansion of GCSB spying activities in decades.