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Police Decrypt 258,000 Messages After Breaking Pricey IronChat Crypto App (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Police in the Netherlands said they decrypted more than 258,000 messages sent using IronChat, an app billed as providing end-to-end encryption that was endorsed by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. In a statement published Tuesday, Dutch police said officers achieved a "breakthrough in the interception and decryption of encrypted communication" in an investigation into money laundering. The encrypted messages, according to the statement, were sent by IronChat, an app that runs on a device that cost thousands of dollars and could send only text messages.
"Criminals thought they could safely communicate with so-called crypto phones which used the application IronChat," Tuesday's statement said. "Police experts in the east of the Netherlands have succeeded in gaining access to this communication. As a result, the police have been able to watch live the communication between criminals for some time." Blackbox-security.com, the site selling IronChat and IronPhone, quoted Snowden as saying: "I use PGP to say hi and hello, i use IronChat (OTR) to have a serious conversation," according to Web archives. Whether the endorsement was authentic or not wasn't immediately known. The site has been seized by Dutch police.
"Criminals thought they could safely communicate with so-called crypto phones which used the application IronChat," Tuesday's statement said. "Police experts in the east of the Netherlands have succeeded in gaining access to this communication. As a result, the police have been able to watch live the communication between criminals for some time." Blackbox-security.com, the site selling IronChat and IronPhone, quoted Snowden as saying: "I use PGP to say hi and hello, i use IronChat (OTR) to have a serious conversation," according to Web archives. Whether the endorsement was authentic or not wasn't immediately known. The site has been seized by Dutch police.
This is likely just a fairly amateurish security protocol implementation sold at inflated prices to people flush with cash.
Its really not all that hard to do secure communications... if actual criminals used something called "ironchat" they deserve what they got.
A trojaned version of the app is also a good possibility. They could have quietly taken control of the site, changed the app to push the keys back to them, etc. Sure that's beyond a typical police department but with any agency help it's totally doable.
You don't have to be incompetent to get a gag order and have your stuff compromised like that.
You apparently don't understand the underworld.. They would have been killed, not beaten up.. I'm no longer a criminal but I still despise rats. If you do a crime and get caught for it shut the fuck up and do your time don't rat someone else out that was smart enough to not get caught because you're a fuck up. The rats deserve to die. I've seen police let violent offenders who have ratted go free and lock up the drug dealer(weed) for years because the violent person turned state.