Finland Times

Gemalto, the world’s largest SIM card manufacturer, on Wednesday confirmed that it had detected sophisticated intrusions in 2010 and 2011, which could be related to NSA and GCHQ operations.

However, Gemalto said the intrusions only affected the outer parts of its networks, adding that the SIM encryption keys and other customer data are not stored in these networks.
Gemalto said the security level was further enhanced with the inception of 3G and 4G technologies which have additional encryption.

In case of interception of encryption keys used in 3G and 4G SIMS, it would still be possible to connect to the networks and thus unable spying on communications.
Gemalto said most operators in the targeted countries were stills using 2G networks whose security level was already considered weak and outdated by 2010.

However, if the 2G SIM card encryption keys were to be intercepted, it would be   technically possible for intelligence services to spy on communications when the SIM card was in use.

The SIM card manufacturer said no breaches were found in the infrastructure or other parts of secure network which manages other products such as banking cards, ID cards or electronic passports.

All the Finnish mobile operators use Gemalto-made SIM cards.

Approximately 30-50 per cent of around three million Sonera customers use Gemalto cards while the number of customers of two other major cell-phone operators, Elisa and DNA, using Gemalto SIM could not be immediately verified.

Meanwhile, Minister of Education and Communications Krista Kiuru termed the confirmation of Gemalto hacking serious and regrettable from the point of view of citizens’ fundamental rights.
According to Kiuru, from the confidentiality of communications point of view, it is important that all breaches and violations of the secrecy of communications be investigated.

Kiuru also said pressing charges should also be considered.

Earlier, an online newspaper, The Intercept, in a report on February 20 said American and British spies hacked into the internal computer network of Gemalto and stolen encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cell-phone communications across the globe.

The newspaper published the report based on top-secret document provided by NSA’s whistleblower Edward Snowden, foreign intelligence services targeted Gimalto.