Slashdot Mirror
Dutch Police Seize Encrypted Communication Network With 19,000 Users (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Dutch police have seized and shut down Ennetcom, an encrypted communications network with 19,000 users, according to Reuters. The network's 36-year-old owner, Danny Manupassa, has also been arrested, and faces charges of money laundering and illegal weapons possession, while the information obtained in the seizure may also be used for other criminal prosecutions. "Police and prosecutors believe that they have captured the largest encrypted network used by organized crime in the Netherlands," prosecutors said in a statement.
"Although using encrypted communications is legal," Reuters reports, "many of the network's users are believed to have been engaged in 'serious criminal activity,' said spokesman Wim de Bruin of the national prosecutor's office, which noted that the company's modified phones have repeatedly turned up in cases involving drugs, criminal motorcycle gangs, and gangland killings.
A spokesman for the National Prosecutor's office "declined to comment on whether and how police would be able to decrypt information kept on the servers."
"Although using encrypted communications is legal," Reuters reports, "many of the network's users are believed to have been engaged in 'serious criminal activity,' said spokesman Wim de Bruin of the national prosecutor's office, which noted that the company's modified phones have repeatedly turned up in cases involving drugs, criminal motorcycle gangs, and gangland killings.
A spokesman for the National Prosecutor's office "declined to comment on whether and how police would be able to decrypt information kept on the servers."
Sounds good.
What your slashdot password?
WHAT ARE YOU HIDING? WHAT DID YOU DO? After all, according to your first-grade simplistic thought "if you have nothing to hide" you don't need any encryption...
This is why utter morons are against encryption and the rest of us have to sigh and roll our eyes.
E
Actually Dutch motorcycle gangs aren't funny, or even very nice:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The Hells Angels control much of the drug trade in the Netherlands, and are also involved in prostitution.[6] The Dutch police have stated that the Hells Angels smuggle cocaine into the country through terrorist organizations and drug cartels in Curaçao and Colombia, and also deal in ecstasy and illegal firearms.[175]
In October 2005, the Dutch police raided Hells Angels' clubhouses in Amsterdam, Haarlem, IJmuiden, Harlingen, Kampen and Rotterdam as well as a number of houses. Belgian police also raided two locations over the border. Police seized a grenade launcher, a flame thrower, hand grenades, 20 hand guns, a machine pistol and €70,000 (US$103,285) in cash. A number of Hells Angels members were later imprisoned on charges of international trafficking of cocaine and ecstasy, the production and distribution of marijuana, money laundering and murder, after an investigation that lasted over a year.[176]
In 2006 two Dutch newspapers reported that the Amsterdam brothel Yab Yum had long been controlled by the Dutch Hells Angels, who had taken over after a campaign of threats and blackmailing.[177] The city council of Amsterdam revoked the license of Yab Yum in December 2007. During a subsequent trial the city's attorney repeated these allegations and the brothel's attorney denied them.[178] The brothel was closed in January 2008.[179]
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
AT&T switches seized because known criminals were using it to communicate with one another. Also, all Postal Service trucks will be ordered off the roads as criminals are using them to mail illegal goods.
That is why it is being investigated by Canadian authorities.
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
Aldous Huxley
Accurate summary: "The cops siezed a network and other assets used by alleged criminals to facilitate crime. Oh and by the way it used encryption though despite that the cops we able to get what they needed to legally justify intervening without breaking the encyption."
Instead that scary "encryption" is right up front, though it was irrelevant. They might as well have said "computers" or "electrons"
Actually Dutch motorcycle gangs aren't funny, or even very nice:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The Hells Angels control much of the drug trade in the Netherlands, and are also involved in prostitution.[6]
The first statement is suspicious because the Netherlands has thousands of people involved in drugs and even more in prostitution, and it's unlikely one bike gang would be so prominent. Checking the references, that statement simply comes from a reporter for a low-circulation newspaper (which I've never heard of, and I lived there). The Hells Angles aren't as influential or powerful as the article claims.
(||) Nehmo (||)
Hells Angels is a major player in drugs and prostitution through out western Europe, they have competition yes (another bike gang, Bandidos is among them) since no once ever have 100% of a market as big as this but they are major players. Remember that we are not talking about the selling to end customers here, that is handled by the thousands of low life people that you refer to, we are talking about the smuggling and human trafficking part of it. There are not thousands of people in the Netherlands that smuggle huge amounts of cocain over the borders.
The whole point of this article is to associate using encryption with criminal activities. I bet the suspects under arrest also drank coffee and drove cars. Can we safely say that terrorists and criminals drink coffee and drive cars? We should treat anyone who drinks coffee and drives as suspects.
Also note that they were arrested despite using encryption, drinking coffee, and driving cars.
This "war on encryption" is stupid to the core.
When I want to message my colleagues, mostly ISIS members but also some Taliban, I use paper, pens, and send the missives to my minions via the United State Postal Service.
Encryption, pfeh! There is nothing that can feasibly beat OTPs (one-time pads). And the USPS is Constitutionally mandated by the US Government to exist.
Maybe the government should surveil itself!
PS — WARNING to NSA, FBI, and other idiots: Sarcasm is above.