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nadim@infosec.exchange ("Nadim Kobeissi") wrote:
JUST PUBLISHED: press release from the Paris Judiciary Tribunal, laying out the specific charges against Pavel Durov.
These all appear to be France-specific charges, nothing to do with the European Commission.
Worryingly, this seems to be a “throw everything and see what sticks” situation. Such charges could be brought against Signal or any other encrypted messenger.
The inclusion of cryptography-related charges is especially troubling, as it suggests an attack on the fundamental security technologies that encrypted messaging platforms rely on.
This confirms my worst fears and means that this must be fought, hard. They’re going for a precedent.
If these charges lead to significant legal actions or convictions, it might embolden other jurisdictions to pursue similar cases against other encrypted messaging platforms like Signal. The implications could be far-reaching, potentially challenging the very legality of providing end-to-end encryption without compromising user privacy.
Attachments:
- TRIBUNAL JUDICIAIRE Pavel DUROV, founder and CEO of instant messaging and platform TELEGRAM, was arrested at Le Bourget airport in the outskirts of Paris on Saturday, the 24 of August 2024, then taken into police custody at 8 p.m. This measure comes in the context of a judicial investigation opened the 8% of July 2024, following a preliminary inquiry initiated by Section J3 - JUNALCO (Fight against Cybercrime) of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office. This judicial investigation was opened against person unnamed, on charges of: - Complicity — web-mastering an online platform in order to enable an illegal transaction in organized group, - Refusal to communicate, at the request of competent authorities, information or documents necessary for carrying out and operating interceptions allowed by law, - Complicity — possessing pornographic images of minors, - Complicity - distributing, offering or making available pornographic images of minors, in organized group, - Complicity - acquiring, transporting, possessing, offering or selling narcotic substances, - Complicity - offering, selling or making available, without legitimate reason, equipment, tools, programs or data designed for or adapted to get access to and to damage the operation of an automated data processing system, - Complicity - organized fraud, - Criminal association with a view to committing a crime or an offense punishable by 5 or more years of imprisonment, (remote)
- - Laundering of the proceeds derived from organized group’s offences and crimes, -Providing cryptology services aiming to ensure confidentiality without certified declaration, - Providing a cryptology tool not solely ensuring authentication or integrity monitoring without prior declaration, - Importing a cryptology tool ensuring authentication or integrity monitoring without prior declaration. The investigative magistrates in charge of this preliminary judicial investigation have requested a co-referral of the Centre for the Fight against Cybercrime (Centre de lutte contre les criminalités numériques, C3N) and the Anti-Fraud National Office (Office National Anti-Fraude, ONAF) for the pursuance of the investigations. It is within this procedural framework in which Pavel DUROV was questioned by the investigators. The custody period was extended until the 25" August 2024 by an investigative magistrate and can last up to 96 hours (that being the 28" August 2024) given the applicable procedure for organized crime offences, as referred to above. Laure BECCUAU, Prosecutor of the Republic scom.parquet.tj-paris@justice.fr (remote)
