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One password for the course of the investigation against the "Pirate of the Unknown".
U.S. law enforcement agencies have begun using data obtained from the hacking of Sky's encrypted telephone network to investigate cases related to international crime. This is reported by 404 Media based on an analysis of US court materials.
The hack, which took place in 2021, allowed European agencies to access millions of messages, despite the fact that the Sky service was advertised as secure using end-to-end encryption. The data collected became the basis for numerous investigations and arrests in Europe, and now its influence has spread to the United States.
According to declassified documents, the data played a key role in the case of Miloš Radonžić, known by the nickname "Pirate of the Unknown". Radonžić and his co-conspirators used commercial container ships to transport large shipments of banned substances from South America to the United States and Europe. Radonžić was arrested in October 2023 in Italy and extradited to the United States in July 2024.
The charges against Radonzic are based, among other things, on information obtained from Sky reports. In particular, Radonžić and his accomplices used Sky ECC, Signal, iMessage and Facetime messengers to coordinate the process of loading goods onto ships. U.S. authorities have received reports from European counterparts, although the documents do not indicate whether the U.S. has access to the entire Sky database.
Sky messages contain detailed information about the ships, geodata, and other key evidence. Also in the correspondence there is information that directly connects Radonzic with the Sky device itself: photos of receipts with his name and even mentions of the birthdays of his family members.
During the investigation, several mobile phones were seized from Radonjic, including an iPhone 14 and two Samsung devices. Radonžić voluntarily provided the iPhone password to the Italian authorities, but said he did not remember the passwords of other devices. This raised suspicions among investigators, as such behavior is typical of international criminals who try to make it difficult to access compromising data.
The Radonžić case is not the only case in the U.S. that uses Sky data. In 2023, European police detained three people in Belgrade, whom they call the "biggest" drug lords in the Balkans. The arrest was made possible thanks to the hacking of the encrypted messenger Sky ECC, which was used by criminals to hide their activities. Police also arrested 10 more cartel members in Belgium, Serbia, Peru and the Netherlands, for a total of 23 people.
It is worth recalling two other encrypted communication services - EncroChat and ANOM, which were also previously hacked and soon closed. Like Sky ECC, these paid communication apps have been popular among criminals to hide their illegal operations. Data from all three services was used by law enforcement as evidence for thousands of arrests.
Source
U.S. law enforcement agencies have begun using data obtained from the hacking of Sky's encrypted telephone network to investigate cases related to international crime. This is reported by 404 Media based on an analysis of US court materials.
The hack, which took place in 2021, allowed European agencies to access millions of messages, despite the fact that the Sky service was advertised as secure using end-to-end encryption. The data collected became the basis for numerous investigations and arrests in Europe, and now its influence has spread to the United States.
According to declassified documents, the data played a key role in the case of Miloš Radonžić, known by the nickname "Pirate of the Unknown". Radonžić and his co-conspirators used commercial container ships to transport large shipments of banned substances from South America to the United States and Europe. Radonžić was arrested in October 2023 in Italy and extradited to the United States in July 2024.
The charges against Radonzic are based, among other things, on information obtained from Sky reports. In particular, Radonžić and his accomplices used Sky ECC, Signal, iMessage and Facetime messengers to coordinate the process of loading goods onto ships. U.S. authorities have received reports from European counterparts, although the documents do not indicate whether the U.S. has access to the entire Sky database.
Sky messages contain detailed information about the ships, geodata, and other key evidence. Also in the correspondence there is information that directly connects Radonzic with the Sky device itself: photos of receipts with his name and even mentions of the birthdays of his family members.
During the investigation, several mobile phones were seized from Radonjic, including an iPhone 14 and two Samsung devices. Radonžić voluntarily provided the iPhone password to the Italian authorities, but said he did not remember the passwords of other devices. This raised suspicions among investigators, as such behavior is typical of international criminals who try to make it difficult to access compromising data.
The Radonžić case is not the only case in the U.S. that uses Sky data. In 2023, European police detained three people in Belgrade, whom they call the "biggest" drug lords in the Balkans. The arrest was made possible thanks to the hacking of the encrypted messenger Sky ECC, which was used by criminals to hide their activities. Police also arrested 10 more cartel members in Belgium, Serbia, Peru and the Netherlands, for a total of 23 people.
It is worth recalling two other encrypted communication services - EncroChat and ANOM, which were also previously hacked and soon closed. Like Sky ECC, these paid communication apps have been popular among criminals to hide their illegal operations. Data from all three services was used by law enforcement as evidence for thousands of arrests.
Source
