Criminal Communication App Taken Down

Uploaded on 2024-09-23 in NEWS-Cybersecurity News, GOVERNMENT-Law Enforcement, FREE TO VIEW

Australian police have infiltrated Ghost, an encrypted global communications app developed for criminals, leading to dozens of arrests. The app’s alleged administrator, Jay Je Yoon Jung, 32, appeared in a Sydney on charges including supporting a criminal organisation and benefitting from proceeds of crime.

Investigators say that Jung developed the app specifically for criminal use in 2017 and he will remain behind bars until his case returns to court in November.

The police operation prevented 50 people from being killed, kidnapped or seriously hurt by monitoring threats amongst 125,000 messages and 120 video calls since March.

The police arrested 38 suspects in raids across four states in recent days while law enforcement agencies were also making arrests in Canada, Sweden, Ireland and Italy, Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney said. “We allege hundreds of criminals including Italian organised crime, motorcycle gang members, Middle Eastern organised crime and Korean organised crime have used Ghost in Australia and overseas to import illicit drugs and order killings”.

Australia joined a Europol-led global taskforce targeting Ghost in 2022 and officers provided technical resources to the task force over several years that helped decrypt the communications following an initial breakthrough by French law enforcement.  

McCartney said the French had “provided a foot in the door” for police to decrypt Ghost communications and the Australian police technicians were then able to modify software updates regularly pushed out by the administrator, 

ABC   |   APNews   |   Newswek   |     Security Week   |    Independent   |   Yahoo 

Image: Sammy-Sander

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