Article Headline:
'Mobile phones hacked: can the NSA and GCHQ listen to all our phone calls?'
Tagline Reads: 'Snowden leak reveals that the US and UK security services hacked into servers and stole the access keys to billions of sim cards around the world'
So what's apparently happened?
It has been argued that the largest manufacturer of sim cards in the world has been hacked into with the encryption keys stolen by the US NSA and the UK GCHQ. This raises the questions of - how was this done? What does it mean for us, the general public? And should we be worried?
It has been argued that the largest manufacturer of sim cards in the world has been hacked into with the encryption keys stolen by the US NSA and the UK GCHQ. This raises the questions of - how was this done? What does it mean for us, the general public? And should we be worried?
What the article tells us:
- What has been claimed? 'The US and UK security services can potentially listen in on any conversation across any network that uses the compromised Sim cards.'
- What does this enable hackers to do? Allows them to 'decrypt voice communications sent between a mobile phone and a mobile mast, which carries the call to the recipient. To pick up the call they can use an aerial placed in the vicinity of the caller. They will have to be relatively close to the mobile phone user' however.
- Is this legal? No. 'If the keys are used to listen into conversations, it is likely to be a violation of data protection laws in most countries.'
- So, are we affected? Yes. 'Gemalto (targeted company) supplies 2bn Sim cards annually to 450 mobile phone providers across 85 countries.' In the UK used by 'Vodafone, EE, O2 and Three, in the US by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.Most mobile phone providers will have used Gemalto sim cards at some point, meaning anyone with a Sim in their mobile phone could be affected'.
- What can be done? Not much. Little 'can be done to stop the US and UK security services using the encryption keys...That means someone could be listening in on any conversation had via the mobile phone network.' Using other services such as Chatsecure, Whatsapp or iMessage, are still safe from NSA and GCHQ hacking.
- On a large scale what does this mean? 'The encryption keys give the US and UK security agencies powers to circumvent resistance by other countries'. This allows these agencies to spy on important people without security forces knowing.
- What is being done about it? Investigating into the 'security implications', but 'there is little that can be done without replacing the affected sim cards, as the encryption keys are hardwired into the sim cards and cannot be changed. EE, O2, Three and Vodafone said that they were speaking to suppliers of Sim cards about the implications of the revelations.'
I think the issues of privacy and hacking by Government and security forces is fast becoming a potential technological panic. Breaches of privacy is a hot topic in the news recently, with a number of hacking stories becoming aware to the general public.
It's fair to say I'm not surprised that officials are listening and accessing our phone calls and this is because of other privacy stories in the press recently, such as Samsung's voice recordings from our homes being corresponded to third parties and the FBI pressuring Google for private information on its users. Even though I'm not surprised this doesn't mean I'm not angered by this. Another case of privacy invasion makes part of me less trustful and more suspicious of where I put my information, while the other part of me wonders if there is any point being cautious of what I do with my technology. Is there any point trying to protect my information? Is my information already in the hands of third parties? And even if it is, arguably there's little I can do, so should I just forget about it?
In reality, I do believe that even if officials are listening to my phone calls, personally it doesn't really matter. Phone calls to my friends about organising a girls night or talking to my sister on how my week of school has gone, is hardly desired information surely? Especially when you compare this to phone calls relating to organised crime etc. And even if everyone is aware their calls are being listened to, because this is on such a huge scale, people still feel a lack of proximity to the issue. What are the real chances this is affecting me after all?
However, the fact my calls will be listened to or not is not the point, and even this being a legal matter isn't the concern, instead I think the matter is an ethical one. The issue of power and its distribution is important; I accept my power is limited, but I still want my share of it, even if it is unequal. Protection of personal information should be determined and controlled by ourselves. Fundamentally, I believe that privacy is a human right everyone should be entitled to irrespective of their position in society. It's true that issues of privacy are becoming more and more abundant, leading to further feelings on uncertainty and frustration, which is only going to continue to going to rise. And what will happen when these feelings reach an optimum point? I'm not sure, but I fear one day we'll find out.