Police keep out down a wraithlike encrypted messaging app Monday that was allegedly used by organized crime frame to alleviate the transfer of drug , illicit cash , and small-arm throughout Europe . Then they arrest the citizenry who allegedly coded it .
Cops arrest 42 users , operators , and administrators of the Exclu cipher message armed service after carrying out dozens of raids in Belgium , Germany , and the Netherlands . The days - long , multi - nation investigating , which began in 2020 , reportedly led to the arrogation of millions of dollar bill deserving of cocain , cash , and weapon system .
What did police find on Exclu?
Dutch police werereportedlyable to break into Exclu ’s organisation , which granted them access to five - months - Charles Frederick Worth of messages passed between users prior to the raids . The eventual maraud unearthed at least two major drug labs and a cocaine processing adroitness . Combined , the fizzle uncover several kilo worth of drugs , an assortment of luxury goods and firearms , and $ 4.3 million in cash . Police means from France , Italy , Sweden , and Europol all diddle a paw in the investigation .
Exclu , the messaging app allegedly at the root of the drug cognitive operation , markets itself as deliver , “ the most sophisticated encryption protocols in the world . ” The service , according toThe Associated Press , only ever manage to attract around 3,000 users , with nearly a third of those based out of the Netherlands . Exclu betray the service as a smartphone app with a licensing monetary value of $ 860 for six months . Police say the suspected drug tradersusedthe app to exchange photos , note , vox memos , chaffer conversations and videos with each other .
In gain to terminate - to - end encoding , the company claimed it granted customers the ability to remotely pass over machine and return them to their factory default . The caller ’s mission , according to its internet site , is to “ cypher everything . ”
German customs agents shows a package containing confiscated cocaine at a press conference on 6 December 2024 in Hamburg, Germany.Photo: Joern Pollex (Getty Images)
“ Our mission is to advice [ sic ] the great unwashed how to securely encrypt all traffic and secure intimate data file and documents against sophisticated hacking attempts , ” Exclu compose .
The dramatic drug raids initially stemmed from two separate probe into the messaging Robert William Service , one conducted by Dutch police looking into the company ’s owners and managers , and a separate German probe examining the app ’s users . In both case , police suspected the Exclu handler and users were connected to organised offence .
“ The Exclu service has been pull down and the data point has been obtained by applying specialist knowledge and expertise in the field of engineering and cybercrime , and by using cut capabilities , ” Dutch police saidaccording tothe NL Times . “ In summation , the detectives also used traditional fact-finding method to successfully identify users of the app . ”
Regulators renewed scrutiny of encrypted messaging
The multi - nation drug raids come amid renewed concern by encryption advocates that European regulator , often see as booster of digital seclusion , may be ready to clamp down on certain message cock . Last summer , the European Commissionproposeda raw controversialregulationthat would require messaging apps to skim its users private messages for signs of youngster intimate abuse material or so - called “ grooming ” behavior . The rule , if passed , would potentially apply to small encrypted messaging apps as well as larger , more established encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger .
Critics of the regulation , like the Electronic Frontier Foundation , say itposes a direct threatto encrypted messaging because it would “ ask the infrastructure for detailed analytic thinking of user substance . ” The rule focuses specifically on CSAM relate mental object , but encryption advocates say there ’s a risk it and other encryption weakening tools could be expanded to other areas of interestingness as well .
“ Is fail encoding the only elbow room to tackle this job ? I can tell you , it ’s not , ” Proton CEO Andy Yen , whose company specializes in inscribe communications , said in a recentinterviewwith Wired hash out the regularization . “ We ask to always find the right residual . And for me , mandate that we undermine or soften or break encoding , that ’s not the correct proportionality . ”
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