Signal, EncroChat or Telegram, these private communication media are popular, especially with crime. Deemed to be inviolable, these couriers have the advantage of “present an end-to-end encryption system , which implies that no one can intercept the messages sent between the sender and the recipient“, explains Jérôme Sink, doctoral student at the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of Namur.
As we have known for a few years, the messaging services used by everyone such as Facebook, WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) or Slack are platforms regularly monitored by American and European intelligence. “SIf the CIA notices that a flood of messages exchanged on WhatsApp contains certain key terms, the authorities are alerted and can easily trace the phones or servers used. However, on Signal or Telegram for example, the clear advantage for thugs lies in the fact that it leaves no trace.“, adds Jérôme Sink.
According to information disclosed by the federal prosecutor’s office, the private communications company Sky ECC was infiltrated by the police.
This company offers ultra-secure messaging services for its customers. Sky ECC allegedly provided these criminal networks with phones that could not be wiretapped, and whose information can be deleted remotely. These “cryptophones” therefore, coupled with applications like Telegram or Signal give to crime “almost impenetrable communication“according to Jérôme Sink.
But then, how the investigators were able to penetrate these underground couriers? According to the researcher, there are two hypotheses: “Either the police obtained access rights from the companies that own these applications, which host and store millions of messages, or police experts have recreated a similar application, and once downloaded by the criminals, all the information are available to them.”
Operations “very extensive“which could embolden the fight against cybercrime, which has become a major issue of defense policy on the web for many States, anxious to regulate cybercrime.
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