The good old SIM card hacked for the first time, puts 750 million phones in snooping danger

Karsten Nohl, from the Security Research Labs in Berlin, is raising awareness about this vulnerability with GSMA, affected carriers and SIM makers, before the findings are presented at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.
Thankfully, the vulnerability applies to random batches of SIM cards that are using older standards, which still puts 750 million handsets potentially exposed, not to mention places like Africa, where mobile payments are proliferating for the lack of banking infrastructure. US carrier subscribers can sleep tight, though, as both AT&T and Verizon have confirmed to be using the newer encryption methods in their SIM cards that can't be hacked with the flaw discovered.
source: Forbes