The NSA and its allies stole the keys to your phone’s security
It’s some real Ocean’s Eleven s***
By T.C. Sottek
TheVerge.com
February 19, 2015
A new report by The Intercept details a stunning heist made by US and UK spies that has given intelligence agencies the ability to break through the privacy of smartphone communications. The report claims that the NSA and GCHQ successfully hacked the network of Gemalto, a major manufacturer of SIM cards, and obtained the secret keys that unlock phone data. In short, it’s a massive security breach that means your phone could be vulnerable to the whims of the world’s most powerful spy agencies.
We still don’t know how many people may be affected, but it’s safe to say that the number could be significant; all four major US carriers are customers of Gemalto, and The Intercept reports that the company produces around 2 billion SIM cards each year. We have asked the big carriers — AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint — to comment on the story. Gemalto told The Intercept that it was completely unaware of the security breach until now.
THE BREACH IS DISASTROUS FOR MOBILE SECURITY
The Rest…HERE
