All over the world, in Dutch clubs like the one Kok frequented, or Australian biker hangouts and Mexican drug safe houses, there is an underground trade of custom-engineered phones. These phones typically run software for sending encrypted emails or messages, and use their own server infrastructure for routing communications. Sometimes the devices have the microphone, camera, and GPS functionality removed. Some also have a dual-boot mode, where powering on the device as normal will show an innocuous menu screen with no sensitive information. But if certain buttons are held down when turning the phone on, it will reveal a secret file system containing the user’s encrypted text messages and other communications. With these tweaks, the ordinary methods for law enforcement to intercept messages are cut-off—police can’t simply get an ordinary phone tap or subpoena messages from a company; the texts are typically only available in a readable form on the users’ devices. [...] For MPC, the process of setting up the devices was relatively simple: MPC would take a Google Nexus 5 or Nexus 5X Android phone, and then add its own security features and operating system, according to social media posts from MPC and a source with knowledge of the process. MPC then created the customer’s messaging accounts, added a data-only SIM card (which MPC paid about £20 a month for), and then sold the phone to the customer at £1,200. Six-month renewals cost £700, the source added. MPC only sold around 5,000 phones, the source said, but that still indicates the business netted the company some £6 million. At one point, a version of MPC's phones also used code from an open-source, security-focused Android fork called CopperheadOS, three sources said. [...] Initially, The Brothers were clients of the encrypted phone industry, and used to buy their specialized BlackBerry devices from a company called Ennetcom, according to a source with knowledge of their operations. Dutch police say they have linked Ennectom, run by a man called Danny Manupassa, to cases of assassination, armed robbery, and drug trafficking. The Brothers, not wanting to trust others with their security, decided to create their own devices. They hired developers to make a custom operating system. Motherboard confirmed the name of one of those developers with three sources in the secure phone industry; the developer did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Continua su http://web.archive.org/web/20191023140835/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article... Giacomo