Recently, Europol, the NCA, the French National Gendamerie and a joint investigation team formed with the participation of France and the Netherlands conducted a joint sting operation to compromise the EncroChat servers by "installing a technical device" on servers in France(1)to be able to "calculate and identify criminals by analyzing millions of messages and hundreds of thousands of images."(2)
Some time after the operation, EncroChat, upon detecting the intrusion, sent out a message to users advising them to "immediately turn off and dispose of your devices."
In the United Kingdom alone, 746 suspects were arrested, seized:
- Over £54 in cash
- 77 firearms, including AK47s, submachine guns, handguns, 4 grenades and over 1 rounds of ammunition.
- More than two tons of class A and B narcotic substances
- Over 28 million etizolam tablets (called "street diazepam")
- 55 expensive cars and 73 expensive watches.
EncroChat was a set of software and hardware (modified smartphones) for organizing communications with “guaranteed anonymity, end-to-end encryption, modified Android platform, dual operating system, “self-destructing messages”, “panic button”, data destruction on multiple incorrect password attempts, secure boot, disabled ADB and recovery mode"(3)
The EncroChat platform at the time of liquidation had tens of thousands of users (≈ 60) from different countries, including the Russian Federation. The modified smartphones cost £000 and the software cost £1000 for a six-month contract.
Source: linux.org.ru