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In a press release late Tuesday night ( http://www.gemalto.com/press/Pages/Gemalto-presents-the-findings-of-its-investigations-into-the-alleged-hacking-of-SIM-card-encryption-keys.aspx ), Gemalto, one of the world’s largest SIM manufacturers, denied recent allegations that the company had a vast number of sensitive SIM encryption keys stolen by the National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain’s General Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
The company's statement addressed a number of confidential documents from 2010 which were leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and published last week by The Intercept. The documents indicated that a task force organized by the NSA and GCHQ broke into Gemalto employee e-mails and found ways to steal the encryption keys corresponding to the SIMs that Gemalto manufactured and sent to mobile carriers. Such a hack would allow state-sponsored spies to decrypt traffic coming to a fake cell tower and thereby watch voice, data, and text messages without a wiretap.
But Gemalto says that after a “thorough investigation,” it concluded that although the company did experience hacks in 2010, it suffered none that could have resulted in the loss of the vast number of SIM encryption keys that The Intercept article referenced. And, the company continued, if some keys had been stolen, then technology pertaining to the 3G and 4G networks that Gemalto builds SIMs for would have prevented substantial hacking. The company believed 2G networks were the only ones that would have truly suffered under such a hack.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Gravis on Thursday February 26 2015, @05:05PM
it doesnt matter what Gemalto reports because the truth is simple, the NSA and GCHQ got what they wanted, the ability to spy on all cell phones with their SIM cards. it's simple logic: would the NSA/GCHQ hack in, fail and then give up forever? no of course not, that is silly. they either got what the keys they wanted from hacking Gemalto directly or they got access indirectly like at the manufacturing plant. if Gemalto found out they got hacked and the keys are in the hands of the NSA/GCHQ would they admit to it and commit business suicide? no, they would lie about it because business is about money, not the truth.