Was the Netherlands a key player in the massive Sky ECC hack’?
In the media image: Getty Images on Unsplash+
A new document casts doubt on the Dutch Public Prosecution Service’s role in the large-scale Sky ECC encryption bust, previously attributed to France. Bart Schermer, Professor of Law and Digital Technology, commented in ‘de Volkskrant’ newspaper.
The hack of encrypted messaging service Sky ECC in 2021 was part of one of the largest surveillance operations ever mounted. The service was used extensively by criminals as a means to communicate. The hack yielded around 500 million decrypted messages for Dutch law enforcement authorities. At the time, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) claimed that it had been carried out by law enforcement authorities in France: it was a French hack, aimed at French users of the platform, using French technology. However a new document now shows that the role of the Netherlands seems to be much greater than previously thought. The crucial hacking tool was developed by Dutch authorities, the servers in Roubaix were seized by Dutch police, and the data was processed in the Netherlands. The verdict of defence lawyers involved in the case is clear: this new document proves that the Netherlands was involved in the Sky hack.
This has far-reaching consequences for the 'principle of interstate trust', meaning that if an investigation takes place in another EU country, the Dutch courts must trust that it is carried out according to the rules. The OM, therefore, was not required to account for the legality or proportionality of the hack in the Netherlands. According to Schermer, the document can be interpreted as a form of coordination: you have that server, could you hack it? And if you find something interesting, would you like to share it with us? – or something to that effect.
In his research, Jan-Jaap Oerlemans points out that these types of operations take place in a grey area between intelligence gathering and criminal investigations. In addition, he emphasises the risks of situations in which data found is valuable, but does not show a direct connection with the original research. For this reason, he foresees 'an ongoing debate about transparency and reliability in operations such as Sky ECC’.
More information?
Read the full article in de Volkskrant (€, in Dutch)