Gemalto officials say that while they are still in the process of investigating whether the company was compromised by the NSA and GCHQ to access the encryption keys for its SIM cards, they say they believe their products and platforms are secure.
In a statement issued Monday, Gemalto officials said they are still trying to understand the full details of the alleged attack and the techniques that were used to compromise the company’s network.
“Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, is devoting the necessary resources to investigate and understand the scope of such sophisticated techniques. Initial conclusions already indicate that Gemalto SIM products (as well as banking cards, passports and other products and platforms) are secure and the Company doesn’t expect to endure a significant financial prejudice,” the statement said.
It’s unclear what evidence Gemalto officials have that supports the assertion that their products and platforms are secure. The claims come a few days after a story in The Intercept, based on documents stolen from the NSA by Edward Snowden, said that a team of attackers comprising NSA and GCHQ employees hacked Gemalto’s network in order to gain access to machines that house the encryption keys for the SIM cards the company manufacturers for mobile devices. The company’s customers includes Verizon, AT&T and Sprint and many others.
The document on which the report is based on a slide from an internal NSA presentation that says the agency had essentially full access to Gemalto’s network.
“Gemalto–successfully implanted several machines and believe we have their entire network…”, the document says.
Company officials said that they plan to announce the results of their investigation into the attack on Wednesday.
