Law enforcement officials in Australia gain access to encrypted communication platform Ghost, resulting in numerous arrests.
The supposed mastermind behind the app, Jay Je Yoon Jung, age 32, faced charges in a Sydney court on Wednesday, including involvement in a criminal organization and benefiting from criminal proceeds. Jung chose not to plead or request bail and will stay locked up until his case resurfaces in court in November.
Over the past few days, Australian law enforcement apprehended 38 suspects during raids across four states. Simultaneously, authorities in Canada, Sweden, Ireland, and Italy were making arrests as well. Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney shared this information.
McCartney claimed that hundreds of criminals, including members of Italian organized crime, motorcycle gangs, Middle Eastern organized crime, and Korean organized crime, had utilized Ghost in Australia and abroad for illegal drug imports and hit contracts.
Since March, Australian police had managed to thwart 50 potential victims from being harmed, kidnapped, or seriously injured by monitoring threats in 125,000 messages and 120 video calls, Assistant Commissioner Kirsty Schofield revealed.
Police alleged that Jung had engineered the app specifically for criminal activities in 2017.
Australia joined a Europol-led worldwide operation targeting Ghost in 2022.
Col. Florian Manet, who heads France’s Home Affairs Ministry National Cyber Command Technical Department, stated in a statement issued by Australian police that their team had supplied technical resources to the taskforce for several years, assisting in decrypting the communications.
McCartney expressed gratitude towards the French, stating they had provided the key to decrypt Ghost communications for Australian law enforcement.
Australian police technicians managed to alter software updates issued by the administrator regularly, allowing them to contaminate devices, enabling them to access content on Australian devices, according to McCartney.
“Effectively, we infected the devices, granting us access to the material on Australian devices,” McCartney said, also mentioning that Jung resided in his parents' Sydney home, lacked a police record, and had never been in trouble with the law before his arrest on Tuesday.
Jung was reportedly using a network of resellers to offer custom smartphones to criminals worldwide at 2,350 Australian dollars ($1,590), which included a six-month subscription to Ghost and tech support.
After Australia joined a Europol-led worldwide operation targeting Ghost in 2022, French cyber command provided crucial technical resources to aid decryption efforts. Furthermore, Australian police were able to alter software updates and infect devices, granting them access to criminal activities within Australia.
