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EncroChat

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If anyone is interested, the BBC made a podcast about EncroChat - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p09dj358

Was covered a little on Darknet Diaries too: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/105/

Huh, I didn't know encrochat was a legit encrypted chat at first.

Someone told me once it was created as a ruse by the European police, made from the start as a way to take down criminal organisations.

Guess I shouldn't believe everything I'm told! TIL

They may have confused it with ANOM, which was a government honeypot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANOM

Ah yeah they did, I recall that calculator app thing from their tale as well.

That's a pretty well made honeypot I must say!

Something tells me that criminal organizations are going to start retaining IT teams specifically to vet platforms like this. Organized crime probably already has significant IT; I seem to recall South American drug cartels using mainframes in like the 90s.

Forget mainframes, how about their own parallel telecom network with over 500 miles of coverage:

https://www.npr.org/2011/12/09/143442365/mexico-busts-drug-c...

And that was over 10 years ago..

They've done a lot of interesting stuff over the years. My personal favourite is the submarine:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narco-submarine

there was one called SKY ECC in Europe that, similarly to ANOM, was a honeypot from the get go.

In Sweden, the EncroChat infiltration led to more than 1000 years of prison sentences.

Features heavily on this double episode of 24rs In Police Custody

https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/the-home-county-cartel-part-...

> He was identified from a photo he had sent via Encrochat showing his hands holding a block of Blue Stilton. Police were able to identify him via his fingerprints in the photo.

Nice.

Also relevant: https://grapheneos.org/

This comes to mind : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tMXFsWBgB4&ab_channel=Chann...

A British tv series about the police and here they come across a criminal organization which uses Encro to smuggle drugs into the country.

Well worth a watch ; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13433048/

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