LONDON — Gemalto, a French-Dutch digital security company, said on Friday that it was investigating a possible hacking by United States and British intelligence agencies that may have given them access to worldwide mobile phone communications.
The investigation follows news reports on Thursday that the National Security Agency in the United States and the Government Communications Headquarters in Britain had hacked Gemalto’s networks to steal SIM card encryption codes.
–
Those affected included several high-profile figures, like Angela Merkel, the German chancellor; American intelligence agencies were suspected of monitoring her cellphone conversations.
“The news that U.S. and U.K. spy agencies hacked the network of a Dutch company to steal encryption keys for billions of SIM cards is truly shocking,” said Anne Jellema, chief executive of the World Wide Web Foundation, a nonprofit that campaigns for Internet freedom. “This is yet another worrying sign that these agencies think they are above the law.”
