How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
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Re: How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
#2I'm very curious as to which legal basis French authorities have had for this coordinated state-level hack. It's mentioned that they had one, but nothing more specific, even in French media I've looked up.
Re: How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
#3The title makes it sound as though it was the police who were taking over a global phone network in order to facilitate organized crime.
Perhaps they meant to say: "How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network that was used for Organized Crime"
Re: How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
#4Yeah, the title could be better
Re: How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
#5Why would criminals use these kinds of apps rather than e.g. Signal?
Re: How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
#6Why would criminals use these kinds of apps rather than e.g. Signal?
It wasn’t just an app, Encrochat sold a modified android phone that had its camera and GPS physically removed and its custom app pre-installed.
Based on the article, Encrochat didn’t sound like a fully legitimate company and may have been run by criminals as well. The part I found interesting is how these vendors often block competitor apps and services from working on their phones, essentially requiring everyone to use the same type of modified phone. This made life a lot easier for investigators once the network was penetrated.
Re: How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
#7So everyone moves to a new platform/vendor... what exactly is significant about this particular bust aside from “we did it” signaling of law enforcement? Things like this happen all the time... Silk Road and many other examples come to mind.
I just hope this doesn’t become yet another incident used as an example to slowly erode the freedom and idea of privacy. The current anti-encryption sentiment and reactionary nature of legislation doesn’t inspire much confidence.
On a side note for anyone wanting a truly secure device, you’d have to source the raw materials, create the hardware, software, distribution and oversee the entire process. The old school Ford assembly line for the brave new world. And this assumes you didn’t leave any security holes in the process. Which humans tend to do.
Re: How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
#8Sounds like poor OpSec to me
Re: How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
#9So everyone moves to a new platform/vendor... what exactly is significant about this particular bust aside from “we did it” signaling of law enforcement? Things like this happen all the time... Silk Road and many other examples come to mind. I just hope this doesn’t become yet another incident used as an example to slowly erode the freedom and idea of privacy. The current anti-encryption sentiment and reactionary nat…
It has huge implications. What is “exactly significant about this” bust is the prevention of multiple assassinations, kidnappings with planned torture, and multiple large coke smuggling operations being intercepted. Plus it’s all evidence. Previous encryption breaking busts like this by the Dutch national police have led to lifelong convictions of multiple murder squads.
Re: How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
#10So everyone moves to a new platform/vendor... what exactly is significant about this particular bust aside from “we did it” signaling of law enforcement? Things like this happen all the time... Silk Road and many other examples come to mind. I just hope this doesn’t become yet another incident used as an example to slowly erode the freedom and idea of privacy. The current anti-encryption sentiment and reactionary nat…
It is peculiar that this was my first thought too. Surveillance has caused indescribable damage to western nations and they still continue their insanity.
Aside from that I think most hardware is actually still safe. I don't know of hardware backdoors that were actually implemented. I think self preservation keeps most companies in line.