Bill Goodwin

Computer Weekly reveals for the first time how French cyber spies hacked EncroChat phones used by organised crime groups

Former Spanish police chief, on trial for drug trafficking, claims UK and Colombian police assisted in creating fictitious intelligence reports to hide use of intercept from encrypted phone networks Sky ECC and Anom

NCA director general Graeme Biggar says that technology had helped criminals get smarter, faster and more connected, boosting case for National Police Serivce

Intercepted communications data used to prosecute drug crime gangs is unreliable and does not conform to international standards of evidence, according to an expert report presented to a court in Antwerp

Prosecutors have been told they cannot rely on intercept evidence from the Sky ECC encrypted phone network in the absence of other evidence, unless they disclose the raw intercept data to defendants in decision that could have a significant impact on future prosecutions

The UK and Europe are ramping up opposition to encryption and stepping up surveillance of private communications. Here is what to expect this year

A transatlantic row between the UK and the Trump administration erupted after the UK attempted to force Apple to break its advanced encryption. That was just one of a series of stories reporting on the tension between state surveillance and privacy this year

Defence lawyers ask court to adjourn after unexplained changes found in evidence files containing intercepted messages from Sky ECC encrypted phone network infiltrated by French and Dutch police

A decision by the French supreme court may pave the way for defendants to challenge the lawfulness of France’s hacking of the EncroChat and Sky ECC cryptophone networks used by organised crime groups

Canadian businessman accused of distributing Sky ECC encrypted phones has been released on bail after over four years in custody without a trial

History shows that law enforcement can bring successful prosecutions without the need for the Home Office to introduce ‘backdoors’ into end-to-end encryption

Computer Weekly speaks to Julie Kawai Herdman, daughter of Thomas Herdman, the only person in custody for distributing Sky ECC encrypted phones

Canadian businessman Thomas Herdman has been held in pre-trial detention without trial for nearly four years – he has once again been refused bail

alexskopje - stock.adobe.com alexskopje - stock.adobe.com By France is proposing a law to require encrypted messaging applications, including Signal and WhatsApp, and encrypted email services such as Proton Mail to provide law enforcement with…

Police have arrested three men and one woman over their alleged role in distributing Sky ECC encrypted phones used by organised crime groups across multiple countries. The Dutch public prosecutors’ office confirmed that the suspects were involved in the distribution of encrypted phones supplied by Canadian technology company, Sky Global, to organised crime groups. Police have also seized €1.4 million in cryptocurrency and property. The suspects, who have not been named by Dutch prosecutors, are accused of running a criminal organisation and laundering the proceeds of crime by taking money from criminal organisations to supply encrypted phones. French, Belgian and Dutch police infiltrated services belonging to Sky ECC, the world’s largest cryptophone network, and decrypted millions of messages between June 2019 and March 2021, leading to the arrests of drug gangs in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Dutch police have used decrypted messages harvested from Sky ECC phones to bring hundreds of criminal cases in the Netherlands against people accused of drugs and arms trafficking, money laundering and violent crime.

The Berlin Regional Court has found that evidence obtained by a joint French and Dutch operation to hack the EncroChat encrypted mobile phone network is legally inadmissible, raising questions about its use in other European countries.

Revelations of covert and unlawful monitoring of journalists and their confidential sources by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Metropolitan Police attracted a huge amount of attention this year.

Canadian businessman Thomas Herdman, who was arrested by French police despite agreeing a deal to cooperate with US investigators, has been denied bail after 42 months in pre-trial detention.

Lawyers for former heavy weight boxer Goran Gogic argue that US prosecutors’ reliance on messages obtained by a European police hacking operation into the SKY ECC encrypted phone network breaches the US constitution.

Christian Horz - stock.adobe.com Christian Horz - stock.adobe.com By Police could lawfully use bulk surveillance techniques to access messages from encrypted communications platforms such as WhatsApp and Signal following a ruling by the UK’s…