Gemalto: NSA and GCHQ hack will not damage finances

Vendor hacked by NSA and GCHQ for access to billions of cellphones according to documents leaked to Snowden

The world's largest supplier of SIM cards, Gemalto, has said it "doesn't expect to endure a significant financial prejudice", following revelations that it was hacked by the NSA and GCHQ.

The news was revealed by The Interceptafter it received new documents from the NSA whistle-blower, Edward Snowden.

According to the site, the documents show that Gemalto's internal computer network was hacked by the intelligence agencies, giving them potential access to billions of cell phones around the world through encryption keys.

In a statement released last week, Gemalto said it "had no prior knowledge that these agencies were conducting this operation".

The Amsterdam-headquartered vendor released a statement today which said that the company doesn't expect the hack to substantially damage its financial prospects.

"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.

Gemalto has undertaken an investigation into the breach, and is going to announce the results of the investigation on Wednesday, at a press conference in Paris.

Founded in 2006, Gemalto provides software applications internationally; secure personal devices, as well as manufacturing SIM cards. It has annual revenues of €2.4bn (£1.76bn) and employes 12,000 people around the world.

Last month Gemalto was announced it had had acquired encryption and two-factor authentication vendor SafeNet for £589m.