Cybercriminals hit by Australian authorities supply chain sting
Australian police hacked into criminal communications platform
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The Australian police have pulled off a successful supply chain attack which resulted in the shutdown of a criminalcommunications network, the arrest of dozens of alleged criminals, and the seizure of illegal weapons and drugs.
Roughly nine years ago, a 32-year-old unnamed cybercriminal made a mobile app named Ghost. According to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the app was “a dedicated encrypted communication platform built solely for the criminal underworld”.
The criminal installed the app on modified smartphones, which they later sold to select individuals. Thephonecost around $1,600, and apparently, more than 300 were active in Australia alone, at the time of the law enforcement operation. The criminal also maintained the app, pushing regular updates. At one point, the police managed to infiltrate the developer’s infrastructure and taint an upcoming update.
Batch processing woes
When the update was installed on the devices, it granted the police access to the content found there. The content was evidence enough to kick off Operation Kraken, during which the police executed 71 search warrants, arrested 38 people, seized 25 illicit weapons, and confiscated 200 kilograms of drugs. Furthermore, the police said it thwarted 50 threatened acts of violence, or murder.
Besides Australia, law enforcement operations are being undertaken in Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and Canada, it was said.
“We allege hundreds of criminals, including Italian Organized Crime, outlaw motorcycle gang members, Middle Eastern Organized Crime and Korean Organized Crime have used Ghost in Australia and overseas to import illicit drugs and order killings,” AFP deputy commissioner Ian McCartney was cited saying.
This is not the first time the police broke into a communications platform run by criminals. In one such instance, EUROPOL seized the infrastructure of Sky Global, an app that was allegedly used by some of the biggest drug smugglers in Europe.
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ViaThe Register
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Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.
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