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French court ruling may lead to legal challenges over state Sky ECC and EncroChat phone hack | Computer Weekly

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French court ruling may lead to legal challenges over state Sky ECC and EncroChat phone hack | Computer Weekly


The French supreme court has turned to the European Court of Justice to decide whether EU citizens have the right to challenge the legality of evidence obtained by French law enforcement by hacking the Sky ECC cryptophone network.

The Cour de Cassation has asked the European Court of Justice to rule whether French law is in line with European law. It comes after the French courts refused the right of a German citizen to appeal against the lawfulness of the French hacking operation in the French courts.

The decision will have “significant consequences” for legal proceedings in the European Union against individuals who are charged with criminal offences based on evidence obtained by French police from hacking the Sky ECC and EncroChat encrypted phone networks.

French, Belgian and Dutch police infiltrated servers belonging to Sky ECC, the world’s largest cryptophone network, and decrypted millions of messages between June 2019 and March 2021, leading to the arrest of drug gangs across Europe.

French and Dutch police also harvested messages from tens of thousands of EncroChat cryptophone users after police infiltrated the network’s servers in a novel hacking operation in 2020. A three-year investigation led to 6,500 arrests of organised crime and drug groups worldwide and the seizure of nearly €900m in cash and assets.

France ‘breached European law’

A coalition of defence lawyers, known as the Joint Defence Team, are challenging the legality of the French hacking operation. They argue that France breached European law by obtaining millions of encrypted messages from Sky ECC and EncroChat without grounds for suspicion against the individuals targeted.

They also argue that the French failed to notify other EU states in advance about when they intercepted messages from phones outside of French territory, denying other EU member states the right to object to the operation.

The defence lawyers say that their argument gained extra weight after the French supreme court ruling in June 2025. The court stated that EU states engaged in cross-border digital investigations must formally notify other EU states when intercepting data in their jurisdiction – an obligation defence lawyers say has been ignored in the Sky ECC operation.

No legal recourse

Individuals facing prosecution have been denied the right to challenge the lawfulness of the French hacking operations before judges in their own country, because the “mutual recognition” principle requires EU member states to accept evidence provided by other member states under European Investigation Orders (EIOs).

At the same time, people have been denied the right to challenge evidence in the French courts, leaving people charged with offences based on intercepted Sky ECC or EncroChat messages without legal recourse to appeal.

German lawyer Christian Lödden and French lawyer Guillaume Martine filed an appeal on behalf of a man accused of crimes based partly on evidence from Sky ECC intercepts in Germany, in the Paris Court of Appeal in June 2024, seeking to challenge the lawfulness of the Sky ECC data. The court ruled that the man was not entitled to be heard by the French Court.

Lödden, working with a network of European defence lawyers, appealed the decision in  the French supreme court in February last year.

Decision will have ‘significant consequences’

The supreme court found that under French law, it was not possible for people accused of crimes in other countries to bring an appeal in France to challenge the lawfulness of the evidence, when it had been shared with another country under an EIO.

But the court also recognised the right of defendants to seek legal redress, and in a ruling on 16 September, the French supreme court asked the Court of Justice of the European Union to determine if there is a conflict between French and European law.

“The interpretation requested is likely to have significant consequences…in proceedings currently underway in various member states of the EU, where prosecutions rely on evidence similar to that contested here, all originating from the Sky ECC procedure,” the court said in its ruling. 

‘Fishing with dynamite’

Lödden told Computer Weekly that the French operation to hack Sky ECC, amounted to a mass surveillance operation against 170,000 devices across the world, without concrete grounds for suspicion against individual phone users required under European law. “It was like fishing with dynamite,” he said.

Under current law, it was not possible to have a court review the lawfulness of the interception operations against Sky ECC and EncroChat, he said, adding: “That is totalitarianism, not the rule of law.”

Justus Reisinger, a Dutch defence lawyer, said that the French supreme court decision “created a possibility of having a real effective remedy” against Sky ECC.

No judge has so far decided on the lawfulness of evidence obtained by French police by hacking encrypted phones in other countries without notifying those countries in advance and giving them a chance to object, he said.

“The Court of Justice of the European Union and the French Cour de Cassation agree that interception is unlawful if there is no notification, and there has been no notification. If this case is found admissible, then the outcome is almost certainly they will declare [the Sky ECC evidence] unlawful,” he added.

France, which carried out the Sky ECC hacking operation, obtained the data on the premise that it would bring prosecutions against individuals involved in running the Sky ECC network, including its founder Jean-Francois Eap and distributor Thomas Herdman.

French police went further and gathered data from Sky ECC phones worldwide, which it provided to law enforcement agencies in other countries investigating organised crime groups who were using the encrypted phones.

The Court of Justice of the European Union is expected to take up to a year and a half to respond to the French supreme court.



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Amazon’s Spring Sale Is So-So, but Cadence Capsules Are a Bright Spot

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Amazon’s Spring Sale Is So-So, but Cadence Capsules Are a Bright Spot


The WIRED Reviews Team has been covering Amazon’s Big Spring Sale since it began at on Wednesday, and the overall deals have been … not great, honestly. So far, we’ve found decent markdowns on vacuums, smart bird feeders, and even an air fryer we love, but I just saw that Cadence Capsules, those colorful magnetic containers you may have seen on your social media pages, are 20 percent off. (For reference, the last time I saw them on sale, they were a measly 9 percent off.)

If you’re not familiar, they allow you to decant your full-sized personal care products you use at home—from shampoo and sunscreen to serums and pills—into a labeled, modular system of hexagonal containers that are leak-proof, dishwasher safe, and stick together magnetically in your bag or on a countertop. No more jumbled, travel-sized toiletries and leaky, mismatched bottles and tubes.

Cadence Capsules have garnered some grumbling online for being overly heavy or leaking, but I’ve been using them regularly for about a year—I discuss decanting your daily-use products in my guide to How to Pack Your Beauty Routine for Travel—and haven’t experienced any leaks. They do add weight if you’re trying to travel super-light, and because they’re magnetic, they will also stick to other metal items in your toiletry bag, like bobby pins or other hair accessories. This can be annoying, especially if you’re already feeling chaotic or in a hurry.

Otherwise, Capsules are modular, convenient, and make you feel supremely organized—magnetic, interchangeable inserts for the lids come with permanent labels like “shampoo,” “conditioner,” “cleanser,” and “moisturizer.” Maybe you love this; maybe you don’t. But at least if you buy on Amazon, you can choose which label genre you get (Haircare, Bodycare, Skincare, Daily Routine). If this just isn’t your jam, the Cadence website offers a set of seven that allows you to customize the color and lid label of each Capsule, but that set is not currently on sale.



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Fellow Readers, Don’t Miss These E-Reader Sales

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Fellow Readers, Don’t Miss These E-Reader Sales


This is the older Kindle Scribe, but the price and features are the best you’ll get, especially when it’s on sale like this. I still reach for this model even though I have the newer third generation, and keep in mind the second generation will also get some of the newer software and experiences over time. With the sale, it’s half the price of the newer model.

Amazon

Kindle Colorsoft and Colorsoft Signature Edition

If you’re already a Kindle reader and looking to upgrade, it’s likely because you want a new feature like a color screen. While the Kobo above is the better buy, if you want to stay in the Kindle ecosystem but add some color to your books, both the Colorsoft and Colorsoft Signature are on sale.

Amazon

Kindle (2024, 11th Gen)

If you’re looking to spend as little as possible, the basic Kindle (11th generation) is still a great e-reader and is currently under $100. It can do almost everything the other Kindles can (except the Scribe) on a snappy black-and-white screen. It doesn’t have a warm front light either, but it’s still a great purchase for the price.


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This Speaker I Tried From Soundboks Can Handle a Real Party

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This Speaker I Tried From Soundboks Can Handle a Real Party


In addition to the rubber balls, there’s a nice physical interface on the side for adjusting volume and pairing multiple Mix speakers together if you have multiple on hand (I was only sent the single mono speaker). Setup involves installing the Soundboks app, pairing to the speaker via Bluetooth on your phone, and picking whatever you want to play. It’s all quick and painless, especially for my first-time pairing with a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Otherwise, it’s all very pro audio. Everything reminds me very much of the Peavey PA system I have in my music rehearsal space. The top of the speaker features a built-in carrying handle and a place for a strap (an accessory you have to buy aftermarket, or you can fasten it with any strap you have that fits through the hole). There are also top-hat mounts for the speakers to slide onto traditional PA pole stands, if you wanted to use them in that way at a party or event.

The grill is replaceable, as is the massive internal battery, which means that these things are pretty much indestructible as long as the amp and speakers themselves still work—the battery is the weak point of most portable speakers in 2026.

I bounced it around my yard, dropped it off my patio, and generally beat the crap out of it during my two-week testing period, and the thing just needed a little wipe down and a charge when it ran out of juice. The claimed 40 hours of battery at reasonable volume is accurate, but you’ll get about eight hours at max volume (which is very good for the category). If you need to bring some walk-out music to your kid’s all-day Little League tournament, this a great way to go.

Big Sound

Photograph: Parker Hall

Soundboks calls this speaker midsize, but at 21.4 pounds and the size of a medium-size cooler, I’d still call it a large speaker. That said, the size doesn’t make it any less portable than competitors from JBL and others; you still need a car or cargo ebike to take one of these with you, so what’s a couple inches here or there? The fact that this is a rectangle actually makes it easier to strap down than many others, especially with the holes for the strap and the built-in handle to tie down through.



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