SIM card giant Gemalto says NSA/GCHQ attacks probable

Gemalto – the SIM card vendor that supplies literally billions of mobile phone cards, as well as services, to such operators as Verizon and Vodafone – confessed that it was likely hacked into by cyber spies thought to be from GCHQ, as well as NSA in the US.

The France-based firm, which is  registered in Holland, has begun an investigation of press reports published about the hacks, which date back over four years. It claims to have found two advanced attacks that gave it cause to believe a GCHQ or NSA operation is probable.

Gemalto said that the cyber criminals were attempting to acquire encryption keys for its SIM card products.

It claims, however, that the hackers could only have accessed office networks, going on to explain that no huge theft of encryption keys could have taken place.

News site The Intercept first revealed news of the hacks, which was sourced from documents provided by Edward Snowden. The documents stated that NSA and GCHQ launched the attacks in order to listen in on phone calls that were made through operators in Tajikistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Iceland, Iran, Serbia, India, Yemen and Afghanistan.

Cyber crime has been a thorn in the side of many businesses, both large and small, in the last few years. It only highlights the need to recruit members of staff who know how to deal with any outside attempts to access secure data. Cyber security jobs will likely be on the rise in the near future – certainly if businesses know what is good for them.