Documents leaked by Edward Snowden have showed that Britain's electronic spying agency, along with United States' National Security Agency, breached the networks of a Dutch company to "seamlessly eavesdrop" on mobile phones worldwide.
A story about the documents posted on the website, The Intercept, said that the targeted Dutch company, Netherlands-based Gemalto, makes "subscriber identity modules," or SIM cards, used in mobile phones and credit cards. One of the company's three global headquarters is located in Austin, Texas. Its clients include U.S. telcos AT and T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint, reported Stuff.co.nz.
However, it provided no details on how the intelligence agencies employed the eavesdropping capability or if they misused it to spy on people who weren't valid intelligence targets.
The story also offered no evidence of any eavesdropping against American customers of these service providers.
Experts have termed the breach "a major compromise of mobile phone security."
The secret operation against the world's largest mobile phone data chips manufacturer has stoked anger worldwide and has fuelled an impression that the NSA and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) will do whatever they deem necessary to further their surveillance prowess.
The Intercept said that the GCHQ successfully intercepted keys used by wireless network providers in Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, India, Serbia, Iceland and Tajikistan in 2010. However, the agency faced troubles breaking into Pakistani networks.
