Thursday, July 23, 2020

Dutch Police Discovers Underworld Torture Chamber

the difference between reality and "for us this is real"

No limits? As in non-consensual non-consensual? Dentist chair meant for torturing fellow criminals discovered by police.

Criminals everywhere felt safe using Encrochat, a secure way to communicate without police interference. Got something to sell? Look for buyers on Encrochat. Desperately wanna kill someone? Encrochat! Feeling the heat from the girls and boys in blue, just press that panic button and all that naughty stuff is gone. Or at least it used to. As it turns out, the panic wipe button wasn't functioning properly for some time already. Police officers in various country were reading in real time what criminals were up to. Bye bye dreams of being safe and anonymous while doing bad things, really bad things.

An Encrochat phone sets you back 1.000 euro, no camera, no gps chip and no mike. On the other hand it includes a 3.000 euro annual subscription fee. Be honest, that's a steal for staying out of prison because you're a criminal.

Kompromat or honey pot, it's the stuff you read about in spy novels. Why wouldn't the police try and hack Encrochat? It's invisibility cloak turned out to be the emperor's new clothes. In the end the secure crime phone did get hacked by the good girls and guys. After which they were listening in. EncroChat announced on the night of 12–13 June 2020 that the company would cease operations because of the police operation. They were "illegally hacked".

Of course the police keeps it mouth shut - no gag needed - on how it was able to read over 20 million messages from about 60.000 subscribers. In just under a week at least 800 criminals in several countries were arrested, usually lifted from their beds at dawn.

On of the most disturbing discoveries was a torture chamber set up in a container. In the middle of it was a dentist's chairs with additional restraints to prevent the victim from disagreeing. To stop discovery by means of infrared camera's the interior was lined with tinfoil and soundproofed. Adjacent to the torture room were six prison cells. On Encrochat criminals referred to it as "EBI" (Dutch: extra beveiligde inrichting), loosely translated as maximum security prison AKA supermax. The police also discovered bags with pliers, scalpels, handcuffs, power tools and gardening tools. The criminals also possessed police uniforms, fast cars and bullet proof vests.

I like my kink to be real as in choosing to be unfree. This has nothing to do with it. I'm glad the police found out. In time they'll also break the next secure communication device. If there is one thing I believe in, it's privacy. This discovery will no doubt erode our privacy, but there's no other way. Sadly, with more strict rules in place, the police will turn to the low-hanging fruit first, keeping criminals safe for longer than absolutely necessary. Somehow it feels the good guys always loose.

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