Authorities take down MATRIX encrypted messaging service: Europol

VENICE

European authorities have taken down another sophisticated encrypted messaging service called MATRIX used by criminals to carry out illegal activities, Europol said Tuesday.

For three months, authorities were able to monitor the messages from possible criminals, which will now be used to support other investigations, the agency said.

This resulted in more than 2.3 million messages in 33 languages being intercepted and deciphered during the investigation.

“The messages that were intercepted are linked to serious crimes such as international drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and money laundering,” Europol said.

The messaging service, made by criminals for criminals, was first discovered by Dutch authorities on the phone of a criminal convicted for the murder of a Dutch journalist in 2021. A large-scale investigation into the service was launched, involving French, Italian, Lithuanian and Spanish authorities, as well as Dutch ones.

The infrastructure to run MATRIX consisted of more than 40 servers in several countries, with important servers found in France and Germany. Three suspects were arrested as a result of the operation, which took it down.

MATRIX appeared to be more complex than the EncroChat and Sky ECC platforms, which European authorities dismantled a few years ago and whose breach led to a raft of convictions of international criminals.

In September, authorities took down another encrypted platform known as Ghost in a global operation which led to the arrest of 51 people.