Newly disclosed documents from former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden have revealed that Australian intelligence efforts against Indonesia do not just target suspected terrorists or key political figures but involve massive penetration of Indonesia’s phone networks and data collection on a huge scale.

Top secret documents reported by The New York Times have disclosed new details of cooperation between the US National Security Agency and the Australian Signals Directorate, and for the first time reveal the Australian electronic espionage agency's comprehensive access to Indonesian's national communications systems.

According to a 2012 National Security Agency document, the Australian Signals Directorate has accessed bulk call data from Indosat, Indonesia’s domestic satellite telecommunications provider including data on Indonesian officials in various government ministries.

Another 2013 document states that the Australian Signals Directorate obtained nearly 1.8 million encrypted master keys, which are used to protect private communications, from the Telkomsel mobile telephone network in Indonesia, and developed a way to decrypt almost all of them.

Australia’s relations with Indonesia have already been strained by revelations last November that the Australian and US embassies in Jakarta house covert electronic surveillance facilities, code-named "Stateroom”, and that the Australian Signals Directorate intercepted the mobile phones of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and many of his closest political associates.