Gemalto, the company targeted by the spy agencies, produces 2bn sim cards per year for clients including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. The Netherlands company operates in 85 countries around the world and provides cards to some 450 wireless network providers globally.
According to recently released documents by NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden, The breach, revealed in documents provided to The Intercept, gave the agencies the power to secretly monitor a very large portion of the world’s cellular communications through Sim Cards, which experts said violated international laws. Gemalto, is a multinational firm incorporated in the Netherlands that makes the chips used in mobile phones and next-generation credit cards. Among its clients are AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and some 450 wireless network providers around the world. The company operates in 85 countries and has more than 40 manufacturing facilities. One of its three global headquarters is in Austin, Texas and it has a large factory in Pennsylvania.
The stolen encryption keys have allowed intelligence agencies NSA GCHQ to monitor mobile communications without the approval or knowledge of telecom companies and even foreign governments.
Revealing the further details, the hack was perpetrated by a joint unit consisting of operatives from the NSA and its British counterpart Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ. The breach, detailed in a secret 2010 GCHQ document, gave the surveillance agencies the potential to secretly monitor a large portion of the world’s cellular communications, including both voice and data. The stolen encryption keys would allow intelligence agencies to monitor mobile communications without the approval or knowledge of telecom companies and even foreign governments.
Recently revealed reports from Russian Cyber Security Firm Kaspersky Labs revealed mass surveillance and spyware software installation from U.S. NSA came preinstalled within the Hard drive of the computers of many Second and Third world countries including, Russia, Iran and Pakistan. These spyware softwares were an attempt to spy on the every people on every segment of the life in these countries.
Read More: NSA might have infected millions of Hard Drives with Pre Installed Spywares.
The U.S. and British intelligence agencies pulled off the encryption key heist in great stealth, giving them the ability to intercept and decrypt communications without alerting the wireless network provider, the foreign government or the individual user that they have been targeted
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