Dutch law enforcement decrypted over 258,000 messages sent within the IronChat application, a method sold as an end-to-end encrypted message service and allegedly endorsed by Edward Snowden (he has since stated that he had never heard of the application). In their statement Dutch officials shared that they reached a “breakthrough in the interception and decryption of encrypted communication” during a money laundering investigation. “Criminals thought they could safely communicate with so-called crypto phones which used the application IronChat. Police experts in the east of the Netherlands have succeeded in gaining access to this communication. As a result, the police have been able to watch live the communication between criminals for some time.” The report did not specify how police were able to decrypt the application’s messages, researchers have suggested weaknesses in the app itself, rather than any special capabilities in decryption. “If encryption is properly applied, nobody can do anything to make a message visible, but it sometimes depends on a comma that is wrong somewhere. Then you can put 15 locks on a safe door, but if the hinges come loose and the doors falls out, you will enter.”
Source: Police decrypt 258,000 messages after breaking pricey IronChat crypto app | Ars Technica
