SIM card manufacturer Gemalto says its products are secure following NSA hack

February 23, 2015

Digital security vendor Gemalto has announced that its products are "secure" following a report last week stating that the NSA and its UK counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), hacked into the vendor's SIM cards.

With a production run of over 2 billion SIM cards a year, Gemalto is the leading SIM card manufacturer in the world, and counts the four major US carriers among its clients. The leaked documents revealed that US and UK government agencies were able to gain encryption keys for Gemalto's SIM cards, allowing the agencies unfettered access to a user's call logs and messages. The hack also allowed them to monitor communications without filing a warrant.

Gemalto, however, says that initial investigation into its products found that they were secure:

Initial conclusions already indicate that Gemalto SIM products (as well as banking cards, passports and other products and platforms) are secure and the Company doesn't expect to endure a significant financial prejudice.

The company will reveal its detailed findings on Wednesday, which is when we'll get to know the full extent of the breach.

Source: Gemalto