Communications firm Digicel was last night staying tight-lipped on whether its phone SIM cards were supplied by a firm hacked by the UK and US security services.

The telecoms firm has not responded to questions on whether Dutch technology giant Gemalto — whose computer network was broken into to steal the keys used to encrypt voice, messaging and data traffic — supplies Digicel with its cards. CellOne says it does not use Gemalto cards.

Digicel Bermuda, part of a company that spans the Caribbean, did not respond to questions posed last Thursday or to follow-up e-mails.

And a follow-up e-mail to Digicel’s regional HQ, which, although it is a Bermuda-domiciled company, operates out of Jamaica, failed to answer the question.

Gemalto, one of the world’s largest suppliers of SIM cards, supplies 450 carriers around the world with SIM cards, including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint and makes around two billion of the cards every year.

The cards contain personal information, including customer phone numbers, billing information, contacts and text messages and are supposed to be protected by encryption keys to thwart hacking attempts.

But, according to website the Intercept, set up to explore the documents released by former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the NSA targeted the firm in 2010 to monitor wireless communications to bypass the need to gain permission for wiretapping.

The acquisition of encryption keys also allows UK and US spy agencies to unlock communications they had previously intercepted but had been unable to unlock, according to the Intercept.

The website said that GCHQ had planted malware on several of Gemalto’s computers and obtained access to communications between employees of the firm to help them hack into their systems.

Spy agencies also targeted unidentified cell phone companies to learn about customer and network maps and tapped into authentication servers that verify communication between and end user and the network operator.

Digicel was asked on Thursday if it used Gemalto products, but had not replied by press time yesterday.

CellOne said on Thursday: “We don’t procure SIM cards from them so this has no impact on us.”

An e-mail to the group public relations manager at Digicel Jamaica got a response — that she was in Haiti and had forwarded the request to the firm’s head of procurement.

There is, however, evidence of some links between Digicel and Gemalto.

Digicel, phone manufacturers and Gemalto teamed up in 2010 to donate $2 million worth of phones and SIM cards to non-Government and non-profit organisations in the wake of a massive earthquake in Haiti.

A UK tribunal this month ruled that British spy agencies’ mass collection of internet and phone data had been, until late last year, illegal.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal said the data-sharing agreement with US agencies contravened privacy and free speech provisions in the European Convention on Human Rights.

GCHQ — as is standard — refused to comment on intelligence matters.

But a statement from Gemalto, which said it could not verify the Intercept report, said: “The publication indicates the target was not Gemalto per se — it was an attempt to reach as many mobile phones as possible, with the aim to monitor mobile communications without network operators’ and users’ consent.”