Police said Thursday they had shut down an encrypted phone network used as a key tool by organised crime groups across Europe to plot assassination attempts and major drug deals. French and Dutch police said they hacked the EncroChat network so they could read millions of messages "over the shoulders" of criminal suspects as they communicated, leading to more than 100 arrests. French authorities launched the investigation in 2017 after finding that EncroChat phones were "regularly" found in operations against criminal groups and that the company was operating from servers in France. The statement said the investigation "made it possible to intercept, share and analyse millions of messages that were exchanged between criminals to plan serious crimes. The French and Dutch authorities defended the decision to hack into the encrypted phone network, saying it was justified by evidence that it was mainly being used for criminal ends.

Source: Standard Digital July 02, 2020 13:31 UTC