Europol on Tuesday introduced the takedown of an invite-only encrypted messaging service known as MATRIX that is created by criminals for legal functions.
The joint operation, carried out by French and Dutch authorities beneath the moniker Passionflower, comes within the aftermath of an investigation that was launched in 2021 after the messaging service was found on the cellphone of a legal convicted for the homicide of a Dutch journalist Peter R. de Vries.
This allowed authorities to intercept messages being despatched by way of the service for a interval of three months, amassing a complete of greater than 2.3 million messages in 33 languages. The messages, Europol stated, are related to critical crimes equivalent to worldwide drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and cash laundering.
It is value noting at this stage that MATRIX is completely different from the open-source, decentralized messaging app of the identical title (“matrix[.]org”). Additionally recognized by different names equivalent to Mactrix, Totalsec, X-quantum, and Q-safe, it had at the least 8,000 person accounts globally, who paid anyplace between $1,360 and $1,700 in cryptocurrency for a Google Pixel cellphone and a six-month subscription to the service put in on it.
In line with Dutch police officers, the communication service supplied a complete set of purposes, equivalent to the flexibility to make video calls, preserve observe of transactions, and browse the web anonymously.
The company stated the regulation enforcement motion was supplemented by follow-up operations that have been carried out by Italian, Lithuanian, and Spanish counterparts.
Describing the infrastructure as “technically extra advanced” than Sky ECC and EncroChat, Europol stated the service consisted of greater than 40 servers in a number of international locations, crucial of which have been positioned in France and Germany.
As a part of the coordinated effort that commenced on December 3, 2024, one suspect in France and two others in Spain have been arrested, with 13 homes searched throughout the 2 international locations and Lithuania. As well as, the primary servers in France and Germany have been seized.
The arrests embody the alleged proprietor and supervisor of the service, a 52-year-old man of Lithuanian nationality, per the Politie. Moreover, €145,000 ($152,000) in money and €500,000 ($525,000) in cryptocurrency, in addition to 4 automobiles and greater than 970 cellphones have been confiscated.
“The encrypted communication panorama has turn into extra fragmented following the takedown of a number of companies equivalent to Sky ECC, EncroChat, Exclu, and Ghost,” Europol stated.
“Criminals, in response to the disruptions of their messaging companies, have been turning to a wide range of less-established or custom-built communication instruments that supply various levels of safety and anonymity. Whereas the brand new fragmented panorama poses challenges for regulation enforcement, the takedown of established communication channels exhibits that authorities are on prime of the most recent applied sciences that criminals use.”
Germany Shuts Down Crimenetwork Market
The event comes as Germany’s Federal Felony Police Workplace (aka Bundeskriminalamt or BKA) stated it has taken down Crimenetwork, the most important German-speaking cybercrime platform for unlawful items and companies, and arrested considered one of its 29-year-old directors who goes by the alias Techmin.
At least 100,000 customers and over 100 sellers are estimated to have registered on the Crimenetwork. A majority of the shoppers are primarily based in German-speaking international locations.
The operators, who acquired fee funds within the vary of 1-5% on every sale, additionally charged the sellers a month-to-month charge for promoting and gross sales licenses. Between 2018 and 2024, transactions on the illicit service amounted to 1,000 Bitcoin and over 20,000 Monero (greater than $100 million mixed).
“‘Crimenetwork’ served as a market for unlawful items and companies, specifically for stolen knowledge, medication and solid paperwork,” the BKA stated. “The platform has existed since 2012 and has been one of many central buying and selling platforms of the German-speaking underground economic system for a few years.”
South Korea Arrests 6 for Including DDoS Characteristic to Satellite tv for pc Receivers
The takedowns additionally comply with a separate regulation enforcement train in South Korea that has led to the arrest of six folks related to an unnamed satellite tv for pc broadcasting receiver producer for equipping the gadgets with capabilities to conduct distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) assaults.
The malicious performance, the Nationwide Police Company stated, was distributed on the request of a buyer to 240,000 models both beneath the guise of firmware updates or preloaded on the time of product cargo.
