Europe: Warning about SIM card information theft

(Baonghean) - On Wednesday, February 25, in response to the warnings published by The Intercept website on February 20 about the theft of customer information in the period 2010 - 2011 that took place on SIM cards of the Dutch company Gemalto, Gemalto spoke up to explain the incident. It is known that Gemalto is one of the world's leading providers in the field of digital security.

The Intercept website claims that British and American intelligence agencies are monitoring phone conversations on SIM cards of the company Gemalto. Photo: Reuters/Dado Ruvic

Based on secret documents from the National Security Agency (NSA), on February 20, The Intercept confirmed that British secret agents and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) stole customer information in 2010-2011 on SIM cards of Gemalto Company. Accordingly, GCHQ has encryption types that help establish a discreet surveillance on mobile phone SIM cards.

Gemalto issued an official response Wednesday to The Intercept’s revelations about the security of its chips. Gemalto said it did not want to confirm or deny The Intercept’s information. However, Gemalto’s security staff conducted multiple checks over the past week and found nothing unusual.

According to a specific report issued by Gemalto, in 2010, the hackers made two attempts to establish the specifications as described in the NSA document. In July 2010, the hackers continued the attack by using phishing emails containing a virus and sending them to Gemalto customers using the company's own email addresses. Around the same time, Gemalto's security staff discovered multiple external intrusions into the computers of company employees who had regular contact with customers. Gemalto said that at the time, the company could not identify the culprit, but now Gemalto thinks the above actions may be related to the activities of GCHQ and the NSA.

Gemalto said in its first statement on the incident on Monday, February 23, that the theft of encryption keys was a thing of the past. Gemalto reiterated that 2G versions of networks commonly used in 2010 were less secure than 3G and 4G versions.

Regarding the above incident, the authorities of France and the Netherlands have not yet made any comments or disclosures. However, some parliamentarians have requested a large-scale investigation to clarify the above incident. In an interview, Mr. Jan Philipp Albrecht - Vice Chairman of the French Committee on Democratic Freedoms and Freedoms revealed: "There is a big loophole in the European Union: a member state can do this because it wants to ensure national security. And this is a cold war right in the European Union itself."

Chu Thanh

According to Le Monde 25/2