Phantom Secure 'Uncrackable Phone' Execs Indicted for RICO Crimes

3/16/2018
03:09 PM
 
Executives of Phantom Secure have been indicted on federal RICO charges for encrypting communications among criminals.
 "Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas," the old aphorism goes. "Encrypt for drug traffickers, wake up with indictments," is the version that Phantom Secure might render today. In a series of indictments, a federal grand jury said the CEO and four associates, "... knowingly and intentionally participated in a criminal enterprise that facilitated the transnational importation and distribution of narcotics through the sale and service of encrypted communications."
According to the FBI, Phantom Secure earned more than $80 million in the last decade providing secure communications for over 20,000 users, all of whom were active in various criminal undertakings. In their product offerings, Phantom Secure took standard smart phones, removed all "civilian" functionality, and replaced it with encrypted email systems that the phones could only use for communicating within the Phantom Secure network of devices.
In a statement, the FBI says, "Given the limited functionality of the phones and the fact that they only operate within a closed network of criminals, all of Phantom Secure's customers are believed to be involved in serious criminal activity." The FBI worked with Australian Federal Police, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and law enforcement agencies in Panama, Hong Kong, and Thailand to pursue and arrest CEO Vincent Ramos in Bellingham, Wash. The other four Phantom Secure executives named in the indictments are still at large.
 
https://www.darkreading.com/endpoint/authentication/phantom-secure-uncrackable-phone-execs-indicted-for-rico-crimes/d/d-id/1331297