Update: Gemalto has said that initial investigations conclude its SIM cards are secure, and therefore no interception from the NSA or GCHQ took place. A new statement has been issued which says the following:
"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."
Gemalto will announce its final conclusions in a press statement on February 25.
Original story below...
Has your phone been spied on? A new report claims that British and US spies used the world's largest SIM manufacturer to potentially monitor a huge number of people through their phones.
With some 450 networks using the SIM cards made by Gemalto, the NSA and GCHQ may have gained access to a phenomenal number of people's communications data, both voice and data.
Gemalto has now come out and said that it is investigating The Intercept's report, which claimed that US and UK agencies used the technology to survey a large number of mobile phone communications without permission.
Panic stations
Gemalto said it had no idea that such activity was taking place. "We cannot at this early stage verify the findings of the publication and had no prior knowledge that these agencies were conducting this operation," it said in a statement.
It added: "We take this publication very seriously and will devote all resources necessary to fully investigate and understand the scope of such sophisticated techniques."
Neither GCHQ of America's National Security Agency have commented on allegations of the operation, which supposedly took place in 2010.
While this has potentially major ramifications, it's also not all that surprising. Over the past couple of years we've learned a lot about the NSA's behaviour and the lengths it is willing to go to for surveillance.
At this point, it would take something much bigger than this to shock us.
