11–20 of 61 posts
I'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.
What are "thrashing robberies"? Is this an odd translation of some Dutch term?
"bUt EncRypTion is My rIGht/bIg sTATe/ITs jUST maths"
Encryption between groups without decryption available (on request) to outside 3rd parties is a poison chalice.
I'm in the EU, not in the US. I don't want any companies(esp. US companies) deciding how EU daily lives unfold.
Delighted so many scumbags will be off the streets.
If they had access earlier, more crimes could have been prevented.
Why would criminals use these kinds of apps rather than e.g. Signal?
How is is that supposedly "dumb," criminals can do this, and yet many of us are stretching our intellectual capacities to learn new technologies and maths, developing our nth stupid app, trying to achieve a fraction of the customer traction and revenue that street thugs manage to do every day. Are these people much smarter than average, or does it mean that if you sell something people actually want, literally nothing else matters about your intelligence, education, character, background, or anything at all. When I read these drug stories, it just reinforces for me that growth solves everything. You can succeed with a crew of violent, drug addicted idiots whose only reliable characteristic is short term thinking, and who spend half their time in prison if you have product market fit. What I'm beginning to think is that the "smarter," people are in a company, the less anyone will want their product. It's like the success of a venture is inversely proportional to the number of ostensible geniuses it employs.
So 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.
When I read this I see a a niche, super premium hardware company that managed to acquire tens of thousands of customers by word of mouth. Not only that, their customers are all in-effect self employed or small businesses with huge average revenue per employee. They manage global supply chains, intense competition, all while taking on and managing huge legal/compliance risk. How is is that supposedly "dumb," criminals…
> The messages "have given insight in an unprecedented large number of serious crimes, including [...] murders, thrashing robberies, extortions, robberies [...]" Dutch law enforcement said. What are "thrashing robberies"? Is this an odd translation of some Dutch term?
Why 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…
I doubt that provides significant value. Cameras aren't too hard to disable yourself, just use black tape. They probably didn't disable to microphones, which arguably provide at least more valuable information than a camera. They removed the GPS module, but you can probably get the same info with better accuracy by using wifi + cell phone signals. All in all, I think those "features" are just there to make criminals feel better.