Gemalto Shares Plummet $500Mln Amid Alleged US, UK Intelligence Hack

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Shares of the international digital security company Gemalto fell nearly 10 percent on Friday, plummeting about $500 million, according to companies stock charts, following media reports that the United States and United Kingdom intelligence agencies hacked Gemalto-manufactured SIM cards.

Gemalto’s own stock chart revealed that its shares traded at $74.45 on Friday, falling from the opening price of $79.65. By the end of Friday, shares slightly recovered, but were still down about 4 percent.

On Thursday, The Intercept online publication reported that in 2010 and 2011, a joint US National Security Agency (NSA) and UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) unit hacked SIM card encryption keys engraved in Gemalto, and possibly other SIM card vendors.

The details of the breach were discovered in a secret 2010 GCHQ document given to The Intercept by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Gemalto said it has experienced many hacking attempts against their systems in the past, but it was still not able to verify the NSA-GCHQ hack.

The Netherlands-based company also said it intends to conduct a thorough investigation of the reported incident.

Gemalto, who recorded $2.72 billion in revenue in 2013, has 450 mobile-network customers globally, according to the company’s website.