Intelligence agencies hack SIM cards, threaten phone security
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028653
Ars Technica : In April 2010 two major surveillance agencies, the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK Government Communications Headquarters, hacked into and stole encryption keys from the world’s largest manufacturer of SIM cards , according to confidential documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Based in the Netherlands but with a global reach, Gemalto supplies some 2 billion SIM cards per year to such major wireless network providers as AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint. With the stolen keys, the agencies can secretly monitor mobile communications all over the world. The theft of the database of keys “is pretty much game over for cellular encryption,” says Matthew Green of the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute.
