Tech

The Criminal Phone Service Hacked by Cops

EncroChat was supposed to protect criminals and their communications from the police, but then it got hacked.
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It’s a scenario straight out of a hacking thriller: Drug dealers, extortionists, traffickers, and hit men all freely using an encrypted phone network to openly talk about their illicit trades. The phone service, called EncroChat was supposedly so secure, the criminals who used it talked openly and in great detail about their crimes, trading names of buyers, of victims, and the locations of their stash houses.

Then, like the magical and oft-made fun of hacks of a CSI Cyber episode, the cops somehow gained access to the network and went on the offensive busting major drug traffickers across Europe and even raiding a torture chamber in Holland.

In one of his wildest stories to date Motherboard reporter Joseph Cox is on the show this week to tell us all about his scoop.