Behind the scenes of the "hacked" encrypted application for secret communication Sky, there was another one: it appeared earlier, survived longer, and is still used in the criminal underworld. Balkan gangs, Italian mafia and Latin American cartels put their trust in BC phones believing that this time they will be completely safe
"He's already looking for a phone for his relative to bring him, the BC one so he can talk... Talked BMX with him yesterday, on the BC1, Past's relative brought it to him"... "He says hello, he's smiling"... "Idiot".
According to files from the investigation of the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime in Belgrade from April last year, this is the content of the messages exchanged by associates of drug lord Darko Šarić via the secret communication application SKY ECC. They refer to Milan Milovac, a high-ranking member of the group, who, according to the prosecution's belief, was liquidated in Ecuador at the end of 2020 on Saric's order.
Mainly, Milan Milovac - after he was previously seriously wounded in a failed assassination attempt - asks for the phone "BC" to be brought to him so that he does not use the SKY ECC application. Although at that time it was not yet known that SKY had been "hacked", i.e. that the police services of different countries, through international cooperation, managed to intercept part of the traffic from the application's server that was exchanged by criminal groups around the world, it is not completely clear whether Milovac really suspected that that application is not as secure as was believed or feared by former associates who tried to liquidate him. In his last days, he trusted only BC.
These are encrypted phones - modified versions of the iPhone - that are only used for secret communication, messages, calls and e-mails. After SKY ECC, Anom, Enrochet and other applications that people on the other side of the law believed to be completely safe, BC still survived. It spread underground even before SKY, but it is still not known if it has been decrypted.
"Vremena" investigation identified several Balkan criminal groups whose members used or still use encrypted BC phones for communication.
CRIMINAL PAST, TECHNOLOGICAL FUTURE
BC encrypted phones were developed by the company "No. 1 Business Communication LTD” registered in Malta in 2016 with an initial deposit of €1.200. The official address of the company is an apartment complex where dozens of companies are registered. According to satellite images, there are no visible signs of this company on any of the nearby buildings. The owner and founder is Jack David Burstein, an American from Florida. His name was mentioned in 2017 in the "Paradise Papers" - a large international investigation by journalists about the investment of more than 120.000 individuals and companies in companies and real estate in offshore locations. Brstein, a former banker, now in his late years, made his fortune in the XNUMXs by investing in real estate. In addition to him, the name of Anthony Kazar appears in the Maltese commercial register of the BC company as an auditor, connected in the "Paradise Papers" with dozens of companies.
In its official web presentation, the company claims that the services it offers are intended for business users in order to keep their confidential communications "confidential".
photo: printscreen no1.bcSITE APPEARANCE FROM 2010…
"Vreme" found an archived version of the current BC website dating back to 2010 (it was first registered in 2008, but no footage of what it looked like is available). The product was essentially presented in a similar way, and "hybrid" encryption was also insisted on, only different phones were used, based on old operating systems (it was probably a Blackberry device). The company was then allegedly registered in Innsbruck, Austria. However, in the period from May 2010 to April 2013, there was a company in Great Britain called "No. 1 BC.UK Limited”. According to the British commercial register, the current owner of the company BC registered in Malta had no connection with the company there. However, UK director Paul Parker used an email address with the same extension that BC uses today.
A little less than a month ago, two Italian media - "Irpimedia" and "Lavialibera" wrote for the first time about BC, as well as the connections of leaders of various branches with crime. Founder and commercial director Roy Livingston has been arrested several times for drug trafficking. In the period 2010–2013. branches of BC also existed in Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands. It is interesting that in all these countries there are indispensable ports in the international smuggling of cocaine from South and Latin America. Another link to BC's past with crime can be seen in the figure of former Belgian branch director Najeb Bouhbouh, a Belgian of Moroccan descent with ties to the Dutch mafia. It was liquidated in 2012 in Antwerp.
On the other hand, according to "Irpimedia", the German BC is connected to a certain Eli Gampel, a German of Jewish origin, a former member of the board of directors of the American investment bank Strategica. The founder of this bank is Jack David Burstein, the current owner of BC, registered in Malta. Gampel was also linked to money laundering.
photo: printscreen no1.bc...AND TODAY: No1.BC
ENCRYPTION BASED ON TRUST
Company No. 1 BC claims that their devices use sophisticated encryption that is completely secure, and that communication cannot be intercepted in any way. Why it is safe is not explained in detail anywhere, nor does it work in any way. They say they use a hybrid encryption model, a combination of symmetric (there is only one key to lock and unlock data between users) and asymmetric (there are two keys - private, when sending and locking, and public when receiving and unlocking data). The explanation of their hybrid encryption model is rather terse and relies on some fairly basic elements of how encryption works. Namely, according to the explanations from the site, their encryption model supposedly works in such a way that there is one key between users during a conversation (not private and public, as with asymmetric encryption), but that with each new conversation or message it changes by automatically generated.
BC insists that the key is on the SIM card and not on the phone, and that the messages become visible only after the SIM card decrypts the received data set and translates it into a message visible to the user.
"Vreme" talked to several experts in digital security and forensics. Everyone agrees that their hybrid encryption is actually based on "user trust" because, according to them, nowhere is it clearly explained how it works. "They claim that it is completely safe, but this cannot be verified", is the conclusion of the expert, with the remark that "it really can be, but it can also be about selling fog".
More or less all applications of this type are presented to the criminal underworld in a similar way. SKY ECC allegedly worked on the principle of "end-to-end" encryption (sender-receiver), so according to the official story, the contents of the conversation were downloaded from the server, which then means that it was some kind of client-server encryption. People who deal with organized crime, especially cross-border, desperately need an application that guarantees their safety and unhindered communication. When this need intersects with ignorance about how the digital space works, claims that something is "completely safe" without any further explanation often "pass" very easily.
Digital security expert from the SHARE Foundation, Filip Milošević, explains to "Vreme" that there are many companies that promote their products for secure communication and their "special encryption algorithms" as "multi-layered, hybrid and impenetrable". However, as he says, given that the closed source commercial solutions are owned by those companies, "trust is the only support for users of such products."
That's not to say that all proprietary encryption algorithms are inherently insecure, but Milošević points out that "(open source)'s lack of transparency, limited analysis, and the potential for undetected vulnerabilities" make them "less reliable" compared to open and standardized alternatives.
The entire BC set for secret communication consists of a phone, a specialized SIM card and a small device that is a kind of key, necessary to start the encrypted application. Milošević says that this device probably protects users from surveillance, that is, without it, the encrypted application cannot be accessed. As he says, when he's not around, it's possible that no app data will be visible. On the other hand, the phone can only be operated with a BC SIM card, and it becomes active only after the user pays the subscription. The price is around 1.400 euros for a six-month subscription, but the phone and the device are paid separately, each for almost 1.500 euros.
"NECESSARY" APPLICATION
As with most companies that produce applications of this type, the fact that "No. 1 Business Communication LTD" registered in the offshore zone benefits members of organized crime groups who use it. For example, Balkan users know that there is practically no chance that any of the local police will get data from the company itself about the users of their services. If they ask for them, the company will probably apologize by claiming that it "does not have access to the data".
In addition to Milan Milovac, a former associate of Darko Šarić who used BC, "Vreme" verified that these encrypted phones are also used by the organized criminal group "witch doctors", led by Nikola Vušović Johnny; he is currently on the run - as suspected - in Latin America. During 2021, persons close to the Balkan cartel, which suffered a significant blow the previous month with a series of arrests around the world, used BC phones in Montenegro. They probably still use it. It was also confirmed that they were used by members of two warring Montenegrin criminal clans - "Skaljar" and "Kavač".
According to "Lavialibere" BC phones are also widespread among the Italian and Albanian mafia. This media outlet has reportedly received confirmation from the FBI and Europol that they are aware of BC's existence, but they declined to comment further, citing an ongoing investigation.
The fact that BC is mentioned en masse in the decrypted Sky correspondences suggests that the application was already widely around then and did not become popular after the fall of SKY ECC. It became clear to users, but also to the general public, that it was "hacked" at the beginning of 2021, and SKY then simply dropped out of the game. In some correspondence, Sky users in 2020 refer to BC as a "necessary" application that "must have", which was only confirmed by members of organized criminal groups in the months that followed.
BC phones, devices and SIM cards are sold through a worldwide network of resellers. Above them are the so-called "dealers" who supply them. According to the available list of dealers and resellers, they are represented in 24 countries, 13 of which are European. It is interesting that not a single Balkan country, except Bulgaria, is on the list. However, in the underground, phones with encrypted applications are often acquired second-hand or third-hand. Often, members of the group exchange them with each other or resell them, so that once the device arrives in the Balkans, it can easily change several owners. Part of the underground is aware of the shortcomings of such applications: the group gathered around Jovanjica used the application "Razgovor" developed only for their needs, but the omission was made when the servers were located on Jovanjica.
With organized criminal groups that operate across borders, that is, overseas, developing personalized applications is logistically not feasible. In order to communicate, they practically have no choice and that's why they fall into the vortex of "super-secure" solutions, with a limited shelf life. When the deadline expires, Pandora's box opens. Who knows, maybe it's already open for BC as well - only criminals haven't been notified yet.
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