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Hundreds Face Justice Following Encrypted System Hack
European law and order struck information gold in 2020, prosecutions follow.
In a joint operation between Netherlands, French and British Police in 2019/20, the authorities were able to ‘break’ the EncroChat encrypted communications system, compromising the security and gaining access to the network’s traffic.
Police officers in all three countries have declined to give much information on how they achieved access to this secured traffic.
There were 60,000 users of the system. While some were undoubtedly innocent of any crime, there were European and probably other criminals using the system to discuss, plan and execute crimes. Users were involved in a range of criminal activity, including such offences as drug trafficking, money laundering, people smuggling and even assassinations.
Since mid-2020, when knowledge of the Police access to data from the system became common, there have been arrests and prosecutions, and there are certainly more to follow. Police probably have a new issue, which is working their way through what is likely millions of messages they were able to decrypt or intercepted to understand what they have.
