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Thread: The Great SIM Heist -- latest Snowden leak

  1. #1

    The Great SIM Heist -- latest Snowden leak

    https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2...eat-sim-heist/

    AMERICAN AND BRITISH spies hacked into the internal computer network of the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, stealing encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications across the globe, according to top-secret documents provided to The Intercept by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

    The hack was perpetrated by a joint unit consisting of operatives from the NSA and its British counterpart Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ. The breach, detailed in a secret 2010 GCHQ document, gave the surveillance agencies the potential to secretly monitor a large portion of the world’s cellular communications, including both voice and data.

    The company targeted by the intelligence agencies, Gemalto, is a multinational firm incorporated in the Netherlands that makes the chips used in mobile phones and next-generation credit cards. Among its clients are AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and some 450 wireless network providers around the world. The company operates in 85 countries and has more than 40 manufacturing facilities. One of its three global headquarters is in Austin, Texas and it has a large factory in Pennsylvania.

    In all, Gemalto produces some 2 billion SIM cards a year. Its motto is “Security to be Free.”

    With these stolen encryption keys, intelligence agencies can monitor mobile communications without seeking or receiving approval from telecom companies and foreign governments.
    Possessing the keys also sidesteps the need to get a warrant or a wiretap, while leaving no trace on the wireless provider’s network that the communications were intercepted. Bulk key theft additionally enables the intelligence agencies to unlock any previously encrypted communications they had already intercepted, but did not yet have the ability to decrypt.


    more at link above



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  3. #2

    Snowden docs reveal mass cell phone hack through ‘Great SIM Heist’

    Top secret documents previously provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have revealed that the US and Britain broke into the network of the world’s largest SIM card maker to compromise global communications.

    According to the documents obtained by The Intercept, the online news magazine founded by Snowden collaborator Glenn Greenwald, the US National Security Agency (NSA) and its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), stole the encryption keys used to secure voice calls and texts from Gemalto, the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world.

    Two billion SIM cards are made annually by Gemalto. They are used by 450 wireless network providers around the world, including AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint, subsequently effecting the bulk of the world’s telephonic communications. Gemalto has headquarters around the globe, including a US office in Texas, but is incorporated in the Netherlands and traded on the Eurolist.

    By compromising the company’s internal computer network and stealing valuable encryption keys, the NSA and GCHQ have been able to render as useless the security measures used to protect communications sent through hundreds of networks the world over.

    According to Jeremy Scahill and Josh Begley at The Intercept, classified files supplied by Snowden, including one GCHQ document from 2010 in particular, show how US and UK intelligence together conspired to compromise the SIM card maker.

    One slide contained in the document showed that the GCHQ got inside of the manufacturer’s network, then stealthily installed malware that is believed to have opened up access to the SIM card maker’s entire computer system.

    By possessing a copy of the encryption keys, US and UK intelligence agencies are believed to be able to crack into any affected communication, allowing authorities to eavesdrop internationally and on a mass scale without serving search warrants to local telecoms or requesting assistance from host countries.

    “Once you have the keys, decrypting traffic is trivial,” Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, told the magazine.

    Classified documents supplied by Snowden earlier revealed how the NSA compels American telecoms to hand over millions of call records through a secret court order, along with other offensive operations that have targeted the communications of foreign leaders and some state-owned energy companies, including Brazil’s Petrobras.

    ...

    Security experts say they are appalled to hear of what Scahill and Begley dubbed “The Great SIM Heist,” and Gemalto officials say they were completely unaware of the intrusion until tipped off by The Intercept.

    Security engineer Tony Arcieri wrote on Twitter that the revelation was “Bad news for anyone with a Gemalto SIM card” — which may be in the billions given the company’s output.

    Soghoian of the ACLU added that “The news of this key theft will send a shock wave through the security community,” and Paul Beverly, an executive vice president at Gemalto, told the website he is “disturbed” over the revelations.

    “The most important thing for me is to understand exactly how this was done, so we can take every measure to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, and also to make sure that there’s no impact on the telecom operators that we have served in a very trusted manner for many years. What I want to understand is what sort of ramifications it has, or could have, on any of our customers,” Beverly said.

    The Intercept journalists acknowledged that the revelations contrast heavily with remarks made by US President Barack Obama in 2014, well after the first Snowden disclosures concerning surveillance had already damaged America’s reputation.

    “The bottom line is that people around the world, regardless of their nationality, should know that the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don’t threaten our national security and that we take their privacy concerns into account in our policies and procedures,” Obama said at the time, the Intercept reported.
    http://rt.com/usa/233903-snowden-sim-card-hack/

  4. #3
    Well, isn't that precious.
    The proper concern of society is the preservation of individual freedom; the proper concern of the individual is the harmony of society.

    "Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow." - Byron

    "Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe." - Milton

  5. #4
    Think of all the children who have been saved.......

    All the terrorists thwarted....

  6. #5
    Um..... isn't this like pretty huge? Can't this company go after government officials in both the US and UK CRIMINALLY for a laundry list of federal and international crimes, not to mention the millions of people whose rights were violated by this theft??
    There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
    -Major General Smedley Butler, USMC,
    Two-Time Congressional Medal of Honor Winner
    Author of, War is a Racket!

    It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.
    - Diogenes of Sinope

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by jllundqu View Post
    Um..... isn't this like pretty huge? Can't this company go after government officials in both the US and UK CRIMINALLY for a laundry list of federal and international crimes, not to mention the millions of people whose rights were violated by this theft??
    Qualified immunity.......

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by jllundqu View Post
    Um..... isn't this like pretty huge? Can't this company go after government officials in both the US and UK CRIMINALLY for a laundry list of federal and international crimes, not to mention the millions of people whose rights were violated by this theft??
    It was for your own good./sarc

    In all, Gemalto produces some 2 billion SIM cards a year. Its motto is “Security to be Free.”

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by tod evans View Post
    Qualified immunity.......
    Qualified immunity only applies if the actions taken by the government were 'within scope' and legal. I would posit the actions here are most decidedly 'out of scope' and illegal/unconstitutional. The company definitely has legal standing, and they can't use the "state secrets" BS defense since the information is now in the public domain...

    But I get your point.
    There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
    -Major General Smedley Butler, USMC,
    Two-Time Congressional Medal of Honor Winner
    Author of, War is a Racket!

    It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.
    - Diogenes of Sinope



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  11. #9
    Very thankful for Snowden swiping the documents that he did. The revelations will create new jobs with a focus on new encryption and security that the NIST can no longer be apart of if a private company wants the trust of its consumers.

  12. #10

  13. #11

  14. #12
    I suppose that I'm glad I have a cdma phone. Not that it makes a difference in scope but they don't have sim cards at least.

  15. #13
    I just told my phone to go f**k itself.

  16. #14
    They can hold US accountable for EVERYTHING.
    Yet we cant hold THEM accountable for ANYTHING.

    Remember, youre not even allowed to Know The Laws!
    1776 > 1984

    The FAILURE of the United States Government to operate and maintain an
    Honest Money System , which frees the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, is the single largest contributing factor to the World's current Economic Crisis.

    The Elimination of Privacy is the Architecture of Genocide

    Belief, Money, and Violence are the three ways all people are controlled

    Quote Originally Posted by Zippyjuan View Post
    Our central bank is not privately owned.



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