China Takes Stance Over NSA Hacking Revelations

China is concerned over recent reports of US and British intelligence stealing encryption key codes from the world's largest SIM cards producer Gemalto, a Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesman said Wednesday.

BEIJING (Sputnik) – Last week, The Intercept, citing documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, reported that the UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the US National Security Agency (NSA) had hacked into Gemalto's networks and stolen its encryption keys.

The breach would give the agencies the potential to secretly monitor a large portion of the world"s cellular communications, including voice and text data.

"We are opposed to any country attempting to conduct intelligence gathering in cyberspace using its information technology superiority or IT products vulnerabilities," Hong Lei said at a press briefing.

Gemalto produces about 2 billion SIM cards per year. As of 2010, Chinese customers accounted for 45 percent of the chipmaker's SIM card sales, according to a ResearchInChina study.

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden exposed the NSA practice of degrading private technology and communications companies' hardware to gain access to private data in a series of high-profile leaks beginning in 2013.