WASHINGTON: It would be another powerful tool in the arsenal of US and British spy services: encryption keys for a large share of the SIM cards used for mobile phones.
A report by the investigative news website The Intercept, citing leaked documents from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, said the US and British agencies "hacked into" European manufacturer Gemalto to gain these keys.
The report, if accurate, could allow the NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ to secretly monitor a large portion of global communications over mobile devices without using a warrant or wiretap.
"This is a huge deal," said Bruce Schneier, a cryptographer who is chief technology officer at the security firm Resilient Systems, and a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center.
"The things that are the most egregious are when the NSA hacks everybody to get a few people," Schneier told AFP.
"They're getting encryption keys of everybody, including you and me. It's a scorched earth policy."
The report suggests the intelligence services could have access to a wider range of communications than has been previously reported. Other documents have indicated that the NSA can monitor email and traditional phone communications.
Schneier said the report is credible and probably indicates other SIM card makers were hacked as well.
"Do we think this is the only company? Odds are low," he said.
David Perry, threat strategist at the security firm F-Secure, called the revelations "the biggest story on mobile privacy we've seen so far."
The report is troubling, Perry said, because of the methods described.
"Intelligence services are hacking all the time," he said. "What concerns me is that they would go into a factory and spoil the security at the point of origination."
The NSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Gemalto said in a statement that it takes the matter "very seriously and will devote all resources necessary to fully investigate" the allegations.
It added that the intended target was "not Gemalto, per se -- it was an attempt to try and cast the widest net possible to reach as many mobile phones as possible."
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