Rights organizations on Friday called for urgent steps to be taken to protect private calls and online communications after allegations that US and British agencies hacked into the networks of a major SIM card maker.
The World Wide Web Foundation, founded by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, said the alleged hacking by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), was “another worrying sign that these agencies think they are above the law.”
The claims of the hack into Netherlands-based company Gemalto came from documents given to journalists by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
A story about the documents posted on Thursday on the Web site The Intercept said the agencies hacked into Gemalto’s networks to steal codes that allow both governments to seamlessly eavesdrop on mobile phones worldwide.
In an e-mail to The Associated Press on Friday, GCHQ said it does not comment on intelligence matters.
However, it said all of its work was legal and its “interception regime” fully complies with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Privacy International, which recently won an unprecedented court victory against GCHQ in the wake of the Snowden revelations, said that the electronic eavesdropping agency had lost its way.
“In stealing the SIM card encryption keys of millions of mobile phone users they have shown there are few lines they aren’t willing to cross,” Privacy International deputy director Eric King said in a statement.
“Hacking into law-abiding companies, spying on their employees and stealing their data should never be considered ‘fair game,’” he added. “Their actions have undermined the security of us all.”
Yet hacking into law-abiding companies and inducing foreigners to commit treason by spilling secrets are standard practices of spy agencies throughout the world. The US and Britain happen to be more proficient than most. There is no international treaty laying out the rules of espionage, cyber or otherwise.
The NSA hacks into companies in friendly nations for all sorts of reasons, say former intelligence officials who declined to be quoted discussing classified operations. The CIA, and its Russian, Chinese, French and British counterparts, pay foreigners to supply information in violation of the laws of their countries.
One question being raised by some of the Snowden leaks is whether the public in the US and Europe are willing to rein in their digital spying services if it means rendering them less effective. Another question is whether the benefits of a particular surveillance method are worth the fallout in the event it is disclosed.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he could not comment on the contents of the documents disclosed by Snowden. However, when asked whether the technology industry could trust the US government, Earnest said government and the industry can cooperate in a way that finds a balance between civil liberties and security.
“There are certainly steps that the United States has taken in the name of national security that some members of private industry haven’t agreed with, but I do think that there is common ground,” Earnest said. “It is hard for me to imagine that there are a lot of technology executives that are out there that are in a position of saying that they hope that people who wish harm to this country will be able to use their technology to do so.”
In Germany, opposition lawmakers have called for a parliamentary hearing on the reported hacking. An aide to Green Party lawmaker Konstantin von Notz said the hearing would likely take place on Wednesday and could call on witnesses from the domestic and foreign intelligence agencies to testify.
Germany is the only country that has launched a parliamentary inquiry into the activities of the NSA and GCHQ in the wake of the Snowden revelations.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion