zCat on Nostr: Europol Dismantles Criminal Messaging Service MATRIX in Major Global Takedown Europol ...
Europol Dismantles Criminal Messaging Service MATRIX in Major Global Takedown
Europol on Tuesday announced the takedown of an invite-only encrypted messaging service called MATRIX that's created by criminals for criminal purposes.
The joint operation, conducted by French and Dutch authorities under the moniker Passionflower, comes in the aftermath of an investigation that was launched in 2021 after the messaging service was discovered on the phone of a criminal convicted for the murder of a Dutch journalist Peter R. de Vries.
This allowed authorities to intercept messages being sent via the service for a period of three months, amassing a total of more than 2.3 million messages in 33 languages. The messages, Europol said, are associated with serious crimes such as international drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and money laundering.
It's worth noting at this stage that MATRIX is different from the open-source, decentralized messaging app of the same name ("matrix[.]org"). Also known by other names such as Mactrix, Totalsec, X-quantum, and Q-safe, it had at least 8,000 user accounts globally, who paid anywhere between $1,360 and $1,700 in cryptocurrency for a Google Pixel phone and a six-month subscription to the service installed on it.
See more: https://thehackernews.com/2024/12/europol-dismantles-criminal-messaging.html
#cybersecurity #matrix
Europol on Tuesday announced the takedown of an invite-only encrypted messaging service called MATRIX that's created by criminals for criminal purposes.
The joint operation, conducted by French and Dutch authorities under the moniker Passionflower, comes in the aftermath of an investigation that was launched in 2021 after the messaging service was discovered on the phone of a criminal convicted for the murder of a Dutch journalist Peter R. de Vries.
This allowed authorities to intercept messages being sent via the service for a period of three months, amassing a total of more than 2.3 million messages in 33 languages. The messages, Europol said, are associated with serious crimes such as international drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and money laundering.
It's worth noting at this stage that MATRIX is different from the open-source, decentralized messaging app of the same name ("matrix[.]org"). Also known by other names such as Mactrix, Totalsec, X-quantum, and Q-safe, it had at least 8,000 user accounts globally, who paid anywhere between $1,360 and $1,700 in cryptocurrency for a Google Pixel phone and a six-month subscription to the service installed on it.
See more: https://thehackernews.com/2024/12/europol-dismantles-criminal-messaging.html
#cybersecurity #matrix