Mafia and drug dealers rely on encrypted phones

An encrypted messaging system that criminals have been using for years has been shut down after law enforcement agencies managed to penetrate the network.

On Wednesday, Europol announced that it had shut down the company Ghost, which sold encrypted phones to criminals, including mafia groups, drug traffickers and money launderers.

Ghost, which launched around 2015, sold phones to “several thousand people” and gave them the ability to communicate privately. This included the ability to self-delete all messages on a phone, preventing law enforcement from recovering the data during forensic investigations.

Ghost phones could be sold for a whopping $1,600, including a six-month subscription to the encrypted messaging network. But in 2022, Europol set up a task force to investigate Ghost, which led investigators to identify the network's servers and begin intercepting messages sent through the encrypted phones.

(Source: Australian Federal Police)

Authorities apparently exploited the phones' update process. Australian police were able to gain access to the servers and send out a modified update, giving law enforcement the ability to add a backdoor to the Ghost devices.

“As a result of our efforts, we will allege that hundreds of criminals, including members of Italian organised crime, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and organised crime in the Middle East and Korea, have used Ghost,” Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner David McLean said in a press conference.

The operation, known as Operation Kraken, also enabled local police in Australia to prevent attacks and targeted killings of up to 50 people. In total, the crackdown led to the arrest of 51 suspects, including the alleged mastermind of Ghost, a 32-year-old man who was arrested in Australia.

“More Australian and international arrests are expected in the coming days,” the Australian Federal Police added.

The takedown of Ghost came after law enforcement took down two other encrypted platforms used by criminals called EncroChat and Phantom Secure. In 2019, the FBI even secretly sold its own encrypted phone system called Anom to catch criminals.

Therefore, Europol expects criminals to increasingly resort to a “variety of less established or bespoke communication tools” to avoid the same fate as users who bought their phones from Ghost.

About Michael Kan

Senior Reporter

I've been a journalist for over 15 years—I started as a schools and city reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017.

Read Michael's full biography

Read the latest from Michael Kan