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The worlds mobile phone carriers have failed to implement technology fixes available since 2008 that would have thwarted the National Security Agencys ability to eavesdrop on many mobile phone calls, a cyber security expert says. Karsten Nohl, chief scientist with Berlins Security Research Labs, told Reuters ahead of a highly anticipated talk at a conference in Germany that his firm discovered the issue while reviewing security measures implemented by mobile operators around the world. Nohl also told Reuters that the carriers had failed to fully address vulnerabilities that would allow hackers to clone and remotely gain control of certain SIM cards. I think it is individual laziness and priority on network speed and network coverage and not security. A spokeswoman for the GSM Association, which represents about 800 mobile operators worldwide, said she could not comment on Nohls criticism before seeing his presentation on the topic at the Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg, Europes biggest annual conference on hacking, security and privacy issues.