The Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), dedicated squad inside the Dutch National Police Agency aims to investigate advanced forms of cyber crimes, carried out investigation as well as establish that the telephone construct "PGPsafe" was selling customized BlackBerry as well as Android smartphones amongst the secure PGP-encrypted network to the "possible criminal goal users."
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is an opened upwardly rootage end-to-end encryption criterion that tin last used to cryptographically sign emails, documents, files, or entire disk partitions inwards club to protect them from beingness spied on.
Selling custom security-focused encrypted phones does non require whatever law-breaking itself, exactly Dutch constabulary bring discovered evidence, which indicates over the years such phones had been sold to organized criminals involved inwards assassinations, drug trafficking, coin laundering, armed robbery, as well as attempted murder.
Just concluding year, the Dutch constabulary arrested the possessor of Ennetcom, a companionship that was also suspected of selling customized encrypted Blackberry Phones to criminals.
At that time, the constabulary also seized Ennetcom servers based inwards the Netherlands as well as Canada, which comprise information of encrypted communications belong to a large release of criminals.
Later inwards March this year, the constabulary had fifty-fifty managed to decrypt a release of PGP-encrypted messages stored on the seized Ennetcom server as well as identified several criminals inwards an ongoing investigation.
In the latest case, the national Dutch constabulary forcefulness Politie announced this Midweek that it had arrested 4 suspects, including 3 men from Amsterdam as well as 1 from Almere, eastward of Amsterdam.
The Fiscal Information as well as Investigation Service (FIOD), a Dutch Anti-Fraud agency, along amongst the Public Prosecutor's Office, carried out raids at multiple places inwards the northern Dutch cities, including Amsterdam, Koggenland, Zandvoort as well as Zeewolde.
During raids, the constabulary seized a identify worth 600,000 Euros, a "mansion" amongst an estimated value of 1.6 1000000 Euros, around 2 Million Euros inwards cash, 13 vehicles, as well as hundreds of jail mobile telephone phones from telephone construct "PGPsafe."
PGPsafe claims to sell: "The offset PGP-provider which alone plant amongst products amongst the "Highest Grade Encryption" qualification. Therefore, nosotros guarantee the privacy that you lot expect."
On ninth May, all PGPsafe users received a message on their telephone from the Dutch constabulary maxim (translated version):
"This is the message from Dutch Police. Under the supervision from Ministery, Police bring started a large-scale criminal investigation into the providers of PGPSafe.net Blackberry as well as Android systems, also used past times you. The investigation also focuses on potential criminal goal users."According to the police, PGPsafe amongst over 40,000 registered customers sells PGP-encrypted Blackberry phones betwixt € 1,200 as well as € 1,500 each, as well as transactions generally took identify through cash payments on earth highway.
The Dutch constabulary promise to solve nearly 34 criminal investigations inwards as well as around the country, pending since 2014, past times decrypting PGP-encrypted messages stored on the servers of such PGP smartphone companies.
The Dutch government are keeping a closed sentinel on companies offering like encrypted smartphones those are beingness abused past times criminals as well as terrorists.
We bring reached out to PGPsafe for a comment as well as volition update this storey when nosotros listen back.
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