At least one Irish man has been arrested after European police forces hacked into a highly secure communications network and intercepted millions of messages concerning organised criminal activity. The Encrochat service is used by thousands of organised criminals across Europe, including members of the Kinahan crime gang, dissident republicans and other Irish criminal groups. The service was considered so secure that criminals used it to discuss murder plots, drug purchases and weapons smuggling in great detail. However, given the widespread use of Encrochat by Irish criminals, this is expected to change. However, given the secretive nature of Garda intelligence operations, The Irish Times could not establish if any of these are related to the Encrochat hack.

Source: The Irish Times July 03, 2020 00:00 UTC