BlackBerry messages released in Dutch probe
Crime ring used encrypted devices: police
After a police raid on a Toronto technology company, Canada has agreed to share a massive stash of encrypted BlackBerry Ltd. messages with Dutch police investigating an underworld conspiracy involving robberies, drug trafficking, attempted murder and assassinations.
But rather than simply hand over the messages, from 20,000 different users, an Ontario judge this week imposed restrictions designed to prevent a “fishing expedition” by police in the Netherlands or any other country. The ruling ensures the data will remain under Canadian control, and not be shared further without a court’s approval.
The fear is that unfettered disclosure would expose innocent people to the unjustified attention of police, just because they used an encrypted BlackBerry.
“Canada remains the home of this data,” Judge Ian Nordheimer wrote.
The case arose from a Dutch probe of an organized crime ring, in which police seized assault rifles, machine guns, grenades, vehicles, tracking devices, and large sums of money. Unusually, they also kept discovering BlackBerrys that had been modified to send only encrypted messages, outside the normal cellphone network.
The BlackBerrys had been modified so they could not be used for phone calls or Internet access or to take pictures. Their microphones had either been disabled or removed.
That service was offered by a Dutch company called Ennetcom, which sold the modified BlackBerrys for about 1,500 euros ($2,220), and had the power to remotely “wipe” them clean of data. Ennetcom bills itself as a pioneering data-protection company that will “defend against all forms of cybercrime.”
Dutch authorities, however, allege Ennetcom was actively facilitating organized crime by offering an almost uncrackable encryption service for gangsters, using the famously secure BlackBerry.
Further Dutch investigation revealed the devices were all using a particular IP address, a routing code for Internet traffic, which they traced to Bitflow Technologies Inc., an Internet hosting company with offices at One Yonge Street on the Toronto waterfront.
Riaz Timol, a lawyer for Bitflow, said the company’s part in the case is entirely innocent. “They don’t know what’s on the servers. They rent space to people,” he said.
The search warrant executed at Bitflow was coordinated with raids in the Netherlands on April 19. The head of Ennetcom, Danny Manupassa, 36, was held for two weeks by police on money laundering and weapons charges. He was released with conditions that included not leaving the Netherlands.
He later wrote a letter that came before Judge Nordheimer in which he “denies any conscious involvement with anyone who used the services of his company for criminal purposes.” Manupassa was also “critical of Dutch authorities for not requesting assistance and/or information from him, prior to taking the steps that they did.”
The 20,000 users are said to include the Dutch criminal suspects and their associates, but also likely include many innocent users of Ennetcom’s service. Most are believed to be Dutch.
THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT’S ON THE SERVERS. THEY RENT SPACE TO PEOPLE.