I'm curious about this encrypted VoIP network. I've never heard of an off-the-shelf product like that, so was it custom-written? What was the interface like?<p>The source NYT article has some more details, but not enough to answer these questions:<p><pre><code> One of Mr. Guzmán’s Colombian suppliers, Jorge Cifuentes,
who introduced the kingpin to the I.T. expert, testified
last month that Mr. Rodriguez had promised to arrange
secure communications for what amounted to the entire
cartel’s leadership. His system operated on VoiP, or voice
over internet protocol, Mr. Marston said on Tuesday, and
was accessible only to those within the network. According
to Mr. Cifuentes, Mr. Guzmán was able to sign in through
Wi-Fi even from his hide-outs in the Sierra Madre
mountains.
</code></pre>
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/nyregion/el-chapo-trial.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/nyregion/el-chapo-trial.h...</a>
I remember an article on HN about disappearing techs who were kidnapped by cartels to build them a custom telecoms network or something. Wondering how related this could be to that.<p>Edit - found the article:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9145003" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9145003</a>
> Amid the accounts of corruption, murder, and drug smuggling, Vice News’ Keegan Hamilton wrote on Twitter, there was a brief moment of levity when lights in the courtroom went out. When the electricity returned, someone shouted “He’s gone!”, referring to Guzmán’s habit of escaping from prison. “Everybody laughed, except maybe the U.S. Marshals,” Hamilton wrote.<p>It's interesting how even such a serious situation as this can have these moments of laughter.
The article mentions that the server was moved to the Netherlands, but not the reason. According to the Dutch press, it was because the FBI asked so, because we're not so difficult installing wire taps on the internet [1].<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/nederlandse-politie-tapte-anderhalf-jaar-lang-alle-communicatie-van-mexicaanse-drugsbaron-el-chapo-~bab33a30/" rel="nofollow">https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/nederlandse-pol...</a>
Asking for a ... friend. What is the mitigation against attacks like this? Seriously, it would appear that every organization is at risk of having a trusted insider hand over keys to a competitor, criminals, etc. There must be a way to detect or protect against this, right?
The battleground in crypto is so often around crypto key management. With the Snowden revelations, it was obvious that the NSA strategy is going after keys in targets key management systems first.<p>Then cryptoanalysis becomes O(n)
Actually there are a few providers that do encrypted VoIP, or more specifically encrypted SIP. Telnyx offer a private infrastructure deployed around the world with low latency and the really good call quality.<p><a href="https://telnyx.com/solutions/global-ip-network?utm_source=organic_social&utm_medium=hackernews_organic&utm_campaign=encrypted-voip-january-2019" rel="nofollow">https://telnyx.com/solutions/global-ip-network?utm_source=or...</a>
Reminds me of <a href="https://xkcd.com/538/" rel="nofollow">https://xkcd.com/538/</a><p>No matter the technological sophistication, humans will always be the weakest link in any secure system.