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US and UK spies reportedly hacked the world's largest SIM card manufacturer

2015-02-23 09:55 by
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Recent documents released by the NSA-contractor Edward Snowden, have revealed that the U.S. NSA and British GCHQ security agencies had teamed up to hack into the the world's largest SIM card manufacturer - Gemalto's network and steal important encryption keys. Those keys were used to protect the privacy of mobile communications between billions of people.

Having the encryption keys would allow the agencies to secretly monitor data and voice calls as well as to monitor chunks of cellular data across the world which infringes international laws.

Despite the revelations, Gemalto claims its products are secure.

"We cannot at this early stage verify the findings of the publication and had no prior knowledge that these agencies were conducting this operation," the company said in a statement. "Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, is especially vigilant against malicious hackers, and has detected, logged and mitigated many types of attempts over the years. At present we cannot prove a link between those past attempts and what was reported yesterday."

Gemalto products are used in mobile phones, bank cards and electronic identity authentication cards. 450 mobile network providers across the world have been using the company's SIM cards and therefore may have been target of the spy agencies' reported efforts.

Read more -here-

 

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