Saturday, 21 February 2015, LONDON - The New York Times today reports that the French-Dutch chip maker Gemalto yesterday announced that it was commencing an investigation into a report that (in what would have seemed a shocking impossibility a decade ago but today seems just yet another rank stinking truth about the once allegedly law-abiding N.S.A. and its Brit spook GCHQ partner in crime) hacked into the chip maker and stole the encryption codes used by the world's largest SIM card maker potentially enabling them to snoop on worldwide mobile phone communications. The information reportedly first appeared publicly on the website The Intercept with link in the New York Times article below based on information from documents from 2010 made public by former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden.
The N.S.A. and GCHQ are in recent times emerging as two of the world's largest criminal organizations operating under cover of apparent government protection paid by readers' hard-earned tax dollars to spy on them having previously reportedly tapped into the private phones of friendly world leaders and now under investigation for stealing encryption codes enabling them to snoop in on billions of voice and data transmissions including with the use of stolen codes for so-called "smart chips" embedded in persons' passports and credit cards with proprietary information stolen from private companies like common thieves allowing them to bypass cumbersome legal requirements imposed by having to deal with government officials and/or telecommunications providers.
Hardly surprisingly Gemalto announced it was launching its own investigation without seeking assistance of government law enforcement as it watched its shares plummet 7.5 per cent on Friday. Anne Jelema, chief of the World Wide Web Foundation, described as a "nonprofit that campaigns for Internet freedom", reportedly said '[t]hat this is another worrying sign that these agencies think they are above the law." The Ninth Amendment could hardly have thought of a weaker summation if it tried. At this point she might consider campaigning for a bit more than internet freedom if she cares to comment on criminal activities such as those alleged here of the N.S.A. and GCHQ.
Reportedly a GCHQ spokesman said that he could not comment on criminal activities in which the GCHQ currently was participating. At the N.S.A. "no one was available for comment" as all staff presumably were busy illegally snooping on global communications, practicing their pledges to uphold the Constitution as they personally misunderstood it, or going home early to leave teenage contractors to intimately monitor global events for the weekend.
UPDATE: Wednesday, 25 February 2015, PARIS - Gemalto the world's largest SIM card maker today announced the results of its preliminary investigation into reports first announced last week by the website The Intercept (link in both New York Times articles linked to below) that the N.S.A. and GCHQ may have hacked into the world's largest SIM card maker and stolen SIM card and "smart chip" encryption codes. Gemalto found that the two spy agencies most likely did hack into Gemalto's networks attempting to gain access to worldwide mobile phone communications for two years beginning in 2010 but would reportedly have met with limited success due to additional safeguards put in place by Gemalto by that time.
The Ninth Amendment below now links to a second New York Times article dated today which provides significantly more detail on Gemalto's announcement. Of particular interest is that the announcement seems to intimate that as the spy agencies also most likely attempted attacks on its communications networks in 2010 that their hacking probably extended as far as sending out fake "Gemalto employee" emails to its customers which include the world's largest cellphone carriers which fake emails contained malware.
In any case what limited SIM card encryption codes the N.S.A. and GCHQ probably stole reportedly would have been for more vulnerable less sophisticated 2G SIM cards which as luck would have it in 2010 were mainly only still used in a few "hot spots" of particular interest to the spy agencies including Afghanistan, Iran and Yemen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/21/world/europe/chip-maker-to-investigate-claims-of-hacking-by-nsa-and-british-spy-agencies.html?hpw&rref=technology&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/26/business/international/gemalto-says-nsa-tried-to-take-sim-encryption-codes.html?action=click&contentCollection=Technology®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article
Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved
The N.S.A. and GCHQ are in recent times emerging as two of the world's largest criminal organizations operating under cover of apparent government protection paid by readers' hard-earned tax dollars to spy on them having previously reportedly tapped into the private phones of friendly world leaders and now under investigation for stealing encryption codes enabling them to snoop in on billions of voice and data transmissions including with the use of stolen codes for so-called "smart chips" embedded in persons' passports and credit cards with proprietary information stolen from private companies like common thieves allowing them to bypass cumbersome legal requirements imposed by having to deal with government officials and/or telecommunications providers.
Hardly surprisingly Gemalto announced it was launching its own investigation without seeking assistance of government law enforcement as it watched its shares plummet 7.5 per cent on Friday. Anne Jelema, chief of the World Wide Web Foundation, described as a "nonprofit that campaigns for Internet freedom", reportedly said '[t]hat this is another worrying sign that these agencies think they are above the law." The Ninth Amendment could hardly have thought of a weaker summation if it tried. At this point she might consider campaigning for a bit more than internet freedom if she cares to comment on criminal activities such as those alleged here of the N.S.A. and GCHQ.
Reportedly a GCHQ spokesman said that he could not comment on criminal activities in which the GCHQ currently was participating. At the N.S.A. "no one was available for comment" as all staff presumably were busy illegally snooping on global communications, practicing their pledges to uphold the Constitution as they personally misunderstood it, or going home early to leave teenage contractors to intimately monitor global events for the weekend.
UPDATE: Wednesday, 25 February 2015, PARIS - Gemalto the world's largest SIM card maker today announced the results of its preliminary investigation into reports first announced last week by the website The Intercept (link in both New York Times articles linked to below) that the N.S.A. and GCHQ may have hacked into the world's largest SIM card maker and stolen SIM card and "smart chip" encryption codes. Gemalto found that the two spy agencies most likely did hack into Gemalto's networks attempting to gain access to worldwide mobile phone communications for two years beginning in 2010 but would reportedly have met with limited success due to additional safeguards put in place by Gemalto by that time.
The Ninth Amendment below now links to a second New York Times article dated today which provides significantly more detail on Gemalto's announcement. Of particular interest is that the announcement seems to intimate that as the spy agencies also most likely attempted attacks on its communications networks in 2010 that their hacking probably extended as far as sending out fake "Gemalto employee" emails to its customers which include the world's largest cellphone carriers which fake emails contained malware.
In any case what limited SIM card encryption codes the N.S.A. and GCHQ probably stole reportedly would have been for more vulnerable less sophisticated 2G SIM cards which as luck would have it in 2010 were mainly only still used in a few "hot spots" of particular interest to the spy agencies including Afghanistan, Iran and Yemen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/21/world/europe/chip-maker-to-investigate-claims-of-hacking-by-nsa-and-british-spy-agencies.html?hpw&rref=technology&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/26/business/international/gemalto-says-nsa-tried-to-take-sim-encryption-codes.html?action=click&contentCollection=Technology®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article
Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment