The National Crime Agency lawfully obtained warrants to receive messages from the hacked EncroChat encrypted phone network widely used by organised criminals, a court has found. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) rejected claims from defence lawyers that the NCA with-held critical information when it applied to a senior judge for a warrant to obtain messages from the encrypted phone network. But in a significant legal move the IPT referred questions about the legal admissibility of the EncroChat evidence back to the criminal courts to resolve, opening up the way for further legal challenges. The decision comes as prosecution lawyers are attempting to obtain an Public Interest Immunity certificate to withhold information from defence lawyers about how the hack was carried out on national security groun
The National Crime Agency (NCA) received a warrant to covertly harvest hundreds of thousands of messages from the EncroChat encrypted mobile phone network, on the basis of a conversation between a French and a British law enforcement official that was not confirmed in writing