Teens used encrypted chats to recruit for 'violence as a service' murder ring, Europol says Seven people, including a 14-year-old, have been arrested or surrendered to Danish authorities after allegedly using encrypted messaging apps to hire other teenagers for contract killings in what Europol calls a "violence-as-a-service" operation. All of those arrested or surrendered are between the ages of 14 and 26. This …
That was in bad taste, LBJsPNS.
The friends and relatives of the victims are unlikely to be at all happy.
My friend David Wails was stabbed to death on 20th June 2020 in Reading. One of my BT colleagues was blown up and killed in the 7/7 bombings in London. Fortunately I was in SF when the Admiral Duncan pub was bombed. Some people reading this site have probably experienced worse than me. Think before you post, please.
This guy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Hardrada was from that general area and was most definitely a Happy Warrior, though those he fought tended to be less happy. And he was on a murder crew when he was a mere teen, too. Modern Haralds from the area are much less fun-loving.
Note that I like to play him in Civ VI. All men fear the Thunderbolt of the North... (Except for Saxon spoil-sports, who have no sense of humor at all.)
Just one of the many consequences of mass uncontrolled immigration. Bombings in Sweden occur at rates not seen outside of warzones.
Explosions in Stockholm have become so frequent the city’s estate agents are listing ‘no bombings’ in their ‘pro’ columns when advertising properties for neighbourhoods buyers might be unfamiliar with.
Already this month there have been more than 30 bomb attacks including a blast in which an elderly man lost his leg. Last year, a 20-year-old recently graduated teacher was killed in an explosion.
As the property adverts demonstrate, the horror has started to blend into the background. It has become so normal for Swedes to learn that an apartment complex or shopfront has been blown to bits that some attacks barely make the news.
“People get tired of it,” Swedish academic and researcher Goran Adamson told the Express. “You cannot take it in because if you did, you would go crazy. [But] the situation is much worse than people seem to realise.”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2007829/panic-sweden-31-bombings-rock
That's the problem with Blair's Britain.
Up until the 90s Britain was the leaders in domestic terrorist bombings, but then thanks to the so-called government we lost an entire industry.
He did try for a brief resurgence in 2005 but we have to admit that we have lost the crown to cheaper foreign markers
Uncomfortable as it is, there is quite a bit of truth to this. Sweden used to be at the bottom of the homicide leagues, and it has gone way up. Apparently, as of late, it is not only immigrant teens who are getting in on the action but also locals.
Now, one can certainly point to stats about serial killers in Western countries generally being... of Western origin. One can also fault Sweden for not doing a great job integrating its new immigrants (and possibly being racist towards them).
Still, in this instance, there seems to be a high degree of correlation between a mass influx of people from war-traumatized countries and a high increase in crime. Governments can certainly choose to ignore this lesson, but it's clear the likes of Farage will make hay of that in elections.
Back in the early 2000s Greater Vancouver had high rates of gang killings in the Hindhu/Sikh communities, with lots of young men dying. Now, one approach would have been to have a color blind approach and treat it as a "general problem". Instead, the police had the guts to engage directly with the community leaders, as a South Asian-specific problem. Generally speaking, this was well received: that community did not enjoy seeing its young people dying and welcomed the help. The problem did not go away entirely, we still have gang shootings. But killings went down overall and South East Asians ceased being so over-represented in the victims and perpetrators.
BTW, the most notorious gangsters of that period, "gibier de potence" as we would say in French, were the Bacon Brothers and they were 100% proudly White scumbags. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon_Brothers_(gangsters)
He's probably been suckered by the sad racist idiots highlighted in this article
https://medium.com/@evansd66/the-coming-uk-civil-holy-war-cd523a76478f
Downvote because I could see the US having a civil war, what with the number of hotheads with guns, but the British? Different attitude. Even during the summer riots (other the one from a decade ago or last year's anti migrant ones), most people weren't interested in taking part and indeed quite a lot of people turned out after to help clean up the mess. The last UK civil war was 1650 or thereabouts and was largely due to the crown and parliament arguing over who looked after what (England, Scotland, Ireland).
"there seems to be a high degree of correlation between a mass influx of people from war-traumatized countries"
This has been demonstrated fairly regularly. If you're taking in traumatised people you MUST provide appropriate mental health facilities/support for them
This isn't an argument against taking in refugees, it's against doing a half-arsed job of it. Those same people can be (and usually are) vibrantly contributory members of a society that fully integrates and supports them
Monocultures don't become multicultural overnight. Integration needs to be a positive decision, not just something a society hopes will happen passively and naturally.
Australia made a decision to become a multicultural country 75 years ago, and out of necessity. The idea that Anglo Australia could stay not only dominant but the exclusive culture was rubbish anyway
Whether it be the displaced people of WWII, Vietnamese or Somali or any of the other groups that made home here, they've all brought their own trauma and all needed help adjusting.
But I like walking through Footscray or the Vic Market or down Swanston Street and trying to work out what nationalities I live with. I like that the kids of my country hear dozens of languages in their playgrounds.
It's the opposite of boring.
Monocultures don't become multicultural overnight. Integration needs to be a positive decision, not just something a society hopes will happen passively and naturally.
Multiculturism falls flat when certain cultures are simply intolerant of others and unfortunately, in the West, the most intolerant of all the cultures is on the ascendancy.
In your own words, the next few years are definitely not going to be boring!
...in the West, the most intolerant of all the cultures is on the ascendancy.
That's true... The far-right gammons do seem to be gaining ground.
Not helped by grifters and antagonists who exploit the hard-of-thinking, like, Trump, Farage, and "GB Spews".
Anyway, glad we've come to an agreement anonie.
That's true... The far-right gammons do seem to be gaining ground.
Not helped by grifters and antagonists who exploit the hard-of-thinking, like, Trump, Farage, and "GB Spews".
Anyway, glad we've come to an agreement anonie.
So sumg, so condescending and yet still stupid enough to buy into the false left-right paradigm.
Oh no, it's far more subtle then that, but the actual nuance would be lost on someone who knows that they are so out of their depth that they post anonymously.
Smug and condescending? Thanks. That's the vibe I was going for.
That's what happens when you're always right, and cleverer than your pretty little self (I'm sure this sentence will be lost on you, so I'll add a smiley face to help you out *there, there, pat pat* :-) )
Oh, I agree myself. But we do have to be careful about how things work out in practice.
Things have worked out very well in Canada as well (housing pressure aside), but mostly we have taken a long time to bring in people, historically on a merit-based system which gets you "the best" immigrants. And we have so many foreign born people, as well as an English being a widespread language, that there has up to now been relatively high acceptance of newcomers, not stranding them in sketchy neighborhoods all by themselves.
Taking in people en masse as refugees seems like it can be more tricky to manage well. Best be aware of that and try to correct for those challenges. Not least because it's not impossible that climate change will lead to some parts of the planet becoming near-unlivable in the next 2 or 3 decades.
I suggest you take a walk around Scarborough or Rexdale some evening. If you survive and post back, well done. The merit system was good in theory and for immigrants following normal channels it was successful. However there were many ways of side stepping it. Family Reunification Pathway, Refugee and Asylum Pathways, International Students Transitioning to PR, Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and Low-Wage Labor Streams.
But these integration problems are not new, Kilburn in London in the seventies and eighties for the Irish, Longsight and Cheetham Hill in Manchester on the nineties for Pakistanis, etc. etc. It takes a generation or two for new groups to assimilate into the local culture, broadening it and eventually making it more interesting. Vancouver for all it's woes has some of the best multicultural food anywhere I have ever visited, same goes for Manchester (particularly if you like Indian/Pakistani anglicized food)
Canada in particular treated the decline in birthrates as an existential problem and treated it by mass immigration. Jumping from 271K for 2015 to 471K for 2023 it put huge pressures on housing, schooling and integration. Canada quickly* discovered there is some upper threshold beyond which immigration creates more problems than it solves. And to be clear I am not saying the number is zero. But equally 1.5 million newcomers in 2021-2023 in a was likely above the limit for a population of 40 million. (nearly 10% of the population in the last decade are newcomers**)
Immigration in and of itself is not bad, but large scale immigration without the appropriate structural backing and support is terrible. Add in zero planning or forethought and you have a recipe for disaster. I have a lot of sympathy for anyone arriving in Canada today from a foreign country, any foreign country, and hoping to make it by virtue of hard work and determination. For most it will be an awful experience in comparison to those lucky enough to be already in Canada and established. Cost of living versus low wage will mean most will struggle to escape poverty, a growing backlash in Canada to immigration means whatever xenophobia was naturally occurring is now amplified, restrictive regulations mean even if you managed to convert your degree or license to operate in one province you are restricted from operating in another.
*Admitting it took a while
**Depending on your timeline all non native people in Canada are newcomers :)
"But these integration problems are not new, Kilburn in London in the seventies and eighties for the Irish, Longsight and Cheetham Hill in Manchester on the nineties for Pakistanis, etc. etc."
Ireland has a long and complicated history with Britain (the effects of which are still an issue today), so I'm not entirely certain that it is right to consider them all as foreigners who need integration.
Ditto Pakistanis, who were Indians and under British Crown rule until the end of the Raj when the country was subjected to a painful schism (the effects of which are still an issue today), so again, are they best described as foreigners who need integration?
The way I see it, the common theme here is Britain, screwing around in other people's countries and messing up... otherwise known as the glorious British Empire.
"Taking in people en masse as refugees seems like it can be more tricky to manage well"
Western countries haven't done "en masse" since the end of WW2 and the rise in militant religiosity is a combination of the people in question feeling outnumbered/backed into a corner and the intolerant hate being exported from the "Leader of the Western world" since the 1950s (I'm looking at you, evangelicals)
When you take a closer look at migrant populations you usually find that by the 3rd generation they're as non-religious as the rest of the population and as with the Religious right once you start looking beyond the noise, smoke and mirrors you find a very small group of people holding sway via intimidation, guilt tripping and being VERY LOUD in the hope that nobody realises how few their numbers actually are
As soon as you pierce the veil and realise the smoke and mirrors of the Mighty Oz are an illusion, your next observation tends to be brought to the fact of how few legs there are behind the curtain and how much they don't want you paying attention to their activities
"Monocultures don't become multicultural overnight. Integration needs to be a positive decision, not just something a society hopes will happen passively and naturally."
If by "multicultural", you mean a monoculture growing by borrowing the best bits from other cultures and making them their own, fill yer boots. If you mean an invasion of a culture by another and smeared out into pockets of neighborhoods with their own language, religious practices and food shops, no thanks. The people coming in aren't doing so out of a desire to integrate, but take advantage of and annex a bit of territory.
Governments fostering loads of mass migration is problematic. Those people don't integrate and through shear numbers and lots of catering, don't have to. In the US, one can come from south of the border and never need to learn the language or customs of the US. The government has been happy to hand out benefits, provide official services in Spanish (Mexican) and give out free legal services if entry was somewhat informal and that's now causing the person some issues. It's not that the US is saying people can't emigrate. It always has, but there is a formal process and the line forms in Tierra Del Fuego. It's become a bit long, but does move. Bonus points for a graduate degree or useful skill. Nobel laureate? Go to the front of the line.
<...."Just one of the many consequences of mass uncontrolled immigration.".....>
This kind of violence among young people is I think, more likely to be at least in part due to the uncontrolled exposure to brutal violence, murder and criminal acts from an early age that has grown up from the ever increasing sphere of availability and influence of such material on television, and more especially through rapid spread via the growth of the internet, ultra-violent games and the proliferation of footage of real world barbarism via certain social media entities some of whom seem unwilling to exert any kind of control over it.
Whilst there is plenty of evidence for mass immigration from some countries bringing with it a proportion of extra crime (of all types), I don't think you can simply dismiss this sort of violent crime among the young (some of them are still children!) by playing the immigration card.
Sorry, the "viewing violence makes you violent" theory is bunkum.
https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0vv8moc6/psychtimes/a096b69f49073bf7aed71838eef51fe4b90cfcb6-900x1079.png
https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/new-evidence-suggests-media-violence-effects-may-be-minimal
Conversely....
Swedish police do not currently map gang members' nationalities, but research for the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention in 2021 showed young people born in Sweden to two parents from abroad were overrepresented as suspects in murder cases and robberies.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67342368
"the uncontrolled exposure to brutal violence, murder and criminal acts from an early age"
I suggest you look closer at popular culture from the 1930s, 50s and 70s
Casual violence was MUCH more commonly depicted. As part of my record collection I had at least one 1930s era Disney 78 - Aladdin - where Donald Duck (genie) takes the the bad guy (Pete - grand vizier) off and executes him
Various 1930s radio plays had similar levels of violence and prior to the Hayes Act there was a lot of sexuality/drugs/LGBTQ in USA movies (After the act, violence remained but the rest was heavily censored)
It may be surprising to most but the level of violence NOW is the lowest it's been in recorded history - and last century was the lowest it's been in over 1000 years DESPITE the 2 world wars. A lot of the media coverage we see breathlessly getting national coverage would have gotten a "meh" 50 years ago because it was common.
Classic example: The Boomtown Rats "I don't like Mondays" was inspired by passing media coverage of a 1970s school shooting which was only noteworthy because the assailant was a 16yo girl. If the same thing were to happen today it would be headline news
News is "news" BECAUSE it's unusual. The fact that these things are getting media coverage is due to their increasing rarity. I can recall regular serious organised beatings and clashes that happened in my time at school which received zero media coverage whilst similar events recently received widespread attention. Ditto the regular use of schoolgirls (in uniform) as drug mules around town
<......."If the same thing were to happen today it would be headline news".....>
It was headline news back then. Perhaps you are too young to know, or too old to remember?
I don't know what planet your post relates to, but it certainly isn't the planet Earth that I am familiar with.
And if you really believe that the portrayal of violence was worse in the 1930s, you are either making it up, or giving too much creedence to someone else who has made it up. You only have to watch, hear or read stuff from that time and compare it with more recent output to see very clearly how much more actual violence and violent crime has been depicted in the recent past , and to see how much more graphic and brutal that depiction is.
"You only have to watch, hear or read stuff from that time and compare it with more recent output to see very clearly how much more actual violence and violent crime has been depicted in the recent past , and to see how much more graphic and brutal that depiction is."
This couldn't be further from the truth, at least here in the US.
The so-called "Hays Code" of self-censorship was applied to film production in the US in 1930 in an attempt to avoid the Government stepping in and probably censoring things far too much. Radio already had their CAB code of ethics, which was "borrowed" by television broadcasting in 1935 (?? From memory). Prior to this most of the industry were going out of their way to out-do each other in shocking the general public. The only reason you can't find much from before this time is because it wasn't archived properly (except porn, of course), and it was all mostly very flammable ... but you can still find copies of film and photos of the obviously very dead Bonnie & Clyde (and other gangsters and victims) which were on the front pages of newspapers and in newsreels at the cinema of your choice in the 1930s. These days such depictions are heavily censored, if shown at all.
Ah, the racist scum can't miss an occasion to propagate his hatred even if there are no detail on the information.
And even if those teens were from immigration, it wouldn't mean that every immigrant is a criminal.
Another fact: the first school shooting and the worst mass shooting in Sweden was made by a man of Swedish ascent, targeting immigrants. That's the direct consequence of promoting hatred between people.
Not every immigrant is a criminal, but uncontrolled mass migration brings with it sharp increases in serious crime. That's an undeniable fact and labeling people racist for drawing attention to is dangerous since it shuts down debate and the search for solutions.
Rates of violence and larceny in Finland and Norway: https://www.scup.com/cms/10.1080/14043858.2014.926062/asset/86b5e79c-1308-4be1-a39d-7efc9446d75a/assets/graphic/14043858.2014.926062.01.jpg
Violent crime conviction rates in Denmark: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/29/migrant-crime-ministers-immigration-league-table-ranking/
Sexual offences in England and Wales: https://tinyurl.com/5n7epwjk
"That's an undeniable fact and labeling people racist for drawing attention to is dangerous since it shuts down debate and the search for solutions."
It seems to me that a lot of the problem is already one of racism. Skin the wrong colour, unknown language, weird (misunderstood) culture...and something of a lack of tolerance on both sides. Immigrants don't want to throw away their culture and natives don't want to share theirs. There are so many little things that are done to highlight "otherness".
I'll give you an example - thanks to Brexit I have to have a residency permit. Having lived in France for nearly a quarter of a century it was basically a case of fill in a form, prove I was here, done. The website was in both English and French, because there's a shocking number of mostly older Brits that never made it beyond the introductory chapter of how to speak French. Central government was actually really accommodating and reassuring, in particular given the madness on the British side of those negotiations. My local prefecture, on the other hand, bluntly refused to speak any English. I remember one of the women behind the counter got annoyed when a Brit said something rude, so she damn well knew English, just wasn't going to speak it. Now there's a case to be made for speaking French in France (that's why I did the entire process in French myself), but holding on to attitudes like that with people who are already quite lost just makes one a massive racist dick. It's the little things like that that people remember, the "you could have helped but you chose not to".
I can't help but feel that integration problems are problems with causes on both sides.
"Immigrants don't want to throw away their culture"
There's a difference between completely chucking a cultural one was raised in and there being a solid reason for moving to a much different one. I've been to households in the US where Japanese manners are observed, but the people made a serious effort to be proficient in English and adopt US manners outside their home. When I visited, I had to learn, but as a gracious guest, it was not a big ask. It would have been rude of me to not do something such as change from my outside shoes to house slippers when entering. In the same vein, when they would visit my home, they used the manners that prevailed in my home, though it has to be said there aren't many of them. If I were to move to Germany, I should have to learn the language and adhere to customs. When only visiting, I might be excused many of those things, but I would always do my best to learn Please, Thank you, and what topics might be considered taboo outside of closer relationships with people. In some places I visited, it was customary for shops to close for a few hours in the afternoon, so it was polite to be out of the shop by that time and not just doodle around shopping.
This.
At home I am British. I watch BBC and Tetley (or PG Tips at a pinch) is a hill I'll die upon. But outside, I speak French (sort of, my pronunciation sucks) and I interact with my French cow-orkers. It's nice when people speak to me in English (cute accent) but I have no expectation of it. I live in France, it's me that must adapt (*), end of story.
* - I draw the line at snails and "andouilles".
Worth reading the Martin Beck novels by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö to get an idea of the societal undercurrents that were running beneath the surface more than 50 years ago. They were written from a particular political perspective, but nevertheless quite perceptive, I think.
What ahppened, did you turn 21 ?
Just take your head out of your older persons arse, sit down for five minutes and listen to the lyrics.
Sorry forgot to say, ignore the popular culture radio broadcasts, they have always been pap propaganda and crud from Eurovision Song Constest and the Gagged Singers.
ALF
"And their music, can't understand a word of it total gibberish etc etc"
Brace yourself and listen for bitch, gat, nigga , cap, fuck, kill, etc and you can puzzle out that love songs have turned into "kill a cop and rape their little sister" themes. Bowie wasn't adverse to "blue" lyrics, but at least he had talent. (Was listening to Bowie at the Beeb earlier today. Ripping performance)
Every generation has their slang. The issue is when you hear it in a business setting when Biz-speak is already annoying enough.
Just ban people or better still make them ill so they die before drawing a pension. That way you can extract maximum from their productivity with crazy taxes for insane schemes and not have the expense of the unproductive. Oh and I have a great idea; make women feel inadequate if they choose children over career that way you can get even more productivity and taxes.
"Or money. You could just ban money."
What, the whole concept of money? Good luck with that.
If you mean currency, good luck with that.
If government issued banknotes go away, "currency" will become something about as portable with about the same value density. I remember way back when RAM was so expensive, if you had some, you could turn it into lunch or anything you want (other than a loan or tax payments). If you want to be stealthy about moving money between countries, commodities are boring as hell so work really well. You just have to know what and how and be able to do fairly large transactions. It's not worthwhile or profitable for a few thousand. A million, no problem. The drug cartels have problems with needing to move too much money to too poor of a country that isn't going to need enough imported commodities to make the process work for them. They are also greedy and there's a premium to be paid with any sort of transaction unless you can turn enough profit on the trade itself, which is harder to pull off in a given time frame. Crypto is partially a way to lower the transaction costs and expedite the time it takes. A bit too visible these days, though.
Once upon a time a pound sterling represented a pound of silver. That pound of silver would be worth in the region of £400 today. That is the problem with any currency controlled by banks. CBDC is not the answer. People will go for that because "it's convenient" until it's not and they can't use their money as they want. I see everyone around me using their phone to pay. I use cash or card. When friends query that they look confused when I say a card doesn't need a battery, doesn't stop working if it gets wet, just needs a tap not a whole load of fumbling and a signal. I try to use cash whenever possible, not because I am doing anything illegal but because I am legal and I don't think it is either the bank's or the government's business unless they have credible reason to believe I am breaking the law. That doesn't include that I "might" be.
Also, why does the government borrow from a central bank? It just means the taxpayers have to pay the bank interest. What happens to the interest that goes to central banks? Why is there a secretive BIS at the centre of the spider's web?
OK thumb downers, give me your arguments why every transaction controlled by a bank (CBDC), paying interest when you don't have to (bank loaning to gov who could print own money) and devaluation (inflation) of currency by 40,000% is good?
Perhaps ask yourself who really runs the country.
" That pound of silver would be worth in the region of £400 today. That is the problem with any currency controlled by banks."
An average UK salaryman is paid almost exactly the same today as he was in the 19th century when both are converted to grams of silver
Fiat currency is useful because it minimises the effects of people stashing their wealth under the bed rather than having it circulating, however that brings up the point that money is only useful when it IS circulating and not static
Money always trickles upwards. It's more useful circulating a few dozen times on the way to the bank accounts of the uberwealthy than arriving directly there and effectively stagnating (It may circulate, but's a slow and stratified circulation that the lower levels don't benefit from)
If they had just stuck to euphemisms and slang, they'd have been fine. Trying to use encryption was likely what drew the most attention. If you can't use it properly, it becomes you downfall for things such as this. A couple of Kevin Mitnick's books hint as some of the pitfalls. He kept the best information for his paid talks and would give a more detailed workflow and the traps when using encryption, burner phones, etc. When you see how ignoring perfect opsec is exactly what the opposition is waiting to exploit, you get a feeling for how good a government agency with a black budget can be. I expect that some of those agencies sort of stumble into the merely criminal operations while doing their spying on whole other countries and they nuclear bomb aspirations.
If the chat is encrypted (or "encrypted"), how is the passphrase securely transmitted?
Does person #0 go into a seedy bar, look for thuggish teens (who must have managed to secure good-enough fake ID to pass the bouncer, or bribed or blackmailed the bouncer -- the bar is getting into the bar), and pass out a card reading something like, "#evil_inc / xyzzy"?
"Immigrants don't want to throw away their culture"
Yeah, that was running through my head too. The sense in which I meant is that keys get transported via a different path by different people. A passphrase is given to somebody who goes out with a Sharpie and writes it on few things in a few places just like graffiti. The person needing the key is told where to look and will scratch it out or alter it when they get it or will just take a photo as they walk by with their phone. The people that transport the keys are the "key masters".
Thinking about this has given me ideas for about a half dozen technical ways to pass along keys surreptitiously and a couple of non-technical ones.
Probably word of mouth. But that means a high chance of a leak, especially if some 14 year old wants to show off and I expect some of them aren't too bright either. Maybe the ring leaders are but unless you work for an "agency" looking for ways to see secure comms you probably aren't aware of all the vulnerabilities.
“violence-as-a-service” - not a failure of social systems or rising inequality, but obviously the fault of encryption. Because when 14-year-olds are being recruited to murder people, the real villain must be the maths.
Never mind that contract killing is illegal regardless of platform, or that police could easily set up a sting if the service existed. But no - the priority is spinning this into a campaign against private messaging.
Europol branding it Taskforce GRIMM is perfect theatre: ignore the economic rot that’s turning kids into killers and focus instead on lobbying for encryption backdoors. Balaclavas don’t cause robberies, and encrypted chat doesn’t cause murder. But scapegoats are easier than fixing broken societies.
Indeed.
I'm not accusing Jessica directly, but the word "encrypted" in this article seemed to be used excessively, to the point it was jarring.
Unless we accept that all our communication should be monitored 24/7, then this sort of thing could happen with unencrypted conversations too, or with meeting in the park, phone calls, or chats down the pub.
Wanna stop car related deaths? Ban cars!
Wanna ban stabbings? Ban ALL knives.
Wanna make sure no-one is planning on ousting the government? Ban all private conversation!
But in summary:
ENCRYPTED, ENCRYPTED, ENCRYPTED.... But they still caught them, right?
Welsh is not a form of encryption, but is a form of encoding.
By the time a non-Welsh speaker/reader decodes what they've read, so much time has passed that the info is no longer useful.
Two non-Welsh-reading motorists:
A: "What's that sign say?"
B: "Looks like ... lemme check Google ... 'Bridge ...... out.'"
A: "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!"
<splash>
(All that said, it is a pretty language to hear spoken or sung.)
Welsh is not a form of encryption, but is a form of encoding.
I am sure there is some formal definition of the difference. From a practical perspective documents in a language whose last speaker was millennia ago and without a convenient Rosetta stone might as well be encrypted. Minoan linear A still resisting satisfactory decoding.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch - You would have to be a pretty dense Saxon not to realise the Cymry are taking the piss. Dodson possibly composed Jabberwocky to return the compliment. :)
For me the peculiar use of the Latin alphabet to encode Irish Gaelic phonology is closer to encryption†. ;)
† embarrassingly it took me years to realise Siobhan wasn't See-ōb-han. 2022 Irish census statistics‡ that only 70,000 people in IE speak the language daily occasions a little Schadenfreude although 1.9million (40%) claim fluency. ‡ An Phríomh-Oifig Staidrimh :)
Here in the Empire's nicest city they have decided to rename some streets in First Nation language.
The language has no written form so the name is written in some phonetics invented by some C19 anthropologist. Think upside down letters, backward numbers etc.
But the name isn't written in any current spoken First Nation language cos that would spark a row about which Nation's language was used. So they picked an extinct language with no speakers.
When asked how emergency services were supposed to deal with an address that nobody could pronounce, nobody could type and can't be displayed on their systems? Their response was that any objections were racist
I remember as a "yoot" reading "A Tree of Swords and Jewels" with all the fancy names (Siobhan, Beorc, Sidhe, etc) and phrases (Bore da, Sut mae), including a pronunciation guide at the back.
"What an imaginative person this author is! Inventing all these exotic fancy names and phrases! They're a bit alphabet soup though..."
Then I reread it in college and realized it was all 100% Welsh.
And what is it about putting two "L's" together than leads to there not being "L" sounds in so many different languages?
They are not really two L's - the "symbol" represented by the letter "L" is repeated twice to represent the single letter "Ll"
You could make the same argument about English putting 2 "u"'s together to make the different letter "uu" --> "vv" --> "w"
Not exclusive to English though - it actually got there from Latin via French, and is used in a wide number of European languages where they have had the good sense to call actually call it double-V. Only the English decided call it double-U (possibly harking back to the Latin where a the sound for U and the sound for V were both written as the same shaped character - V).
The only thing banning encryption will do is drive people back to old ways. Crime isn't new. I also object to making platforms responsible; we didn't do that to voice comms. The real reason is definitely to keep people in power; it's ordinary people communicating on social meda and exposing government lies they want to stop. The Internet was becoming a big democratiser.
Perhaps, but you can't say democracy isn't working because people aren't voting for who you want them to. I'm afraid that happens in democracy. But what I actually meant is the establishment is finding it hard to control the news. Sure there's a load of nonsense on the Internet but there are also very good sources that provide evidence and their sources. There are interviews with experts that disagree with governments that can be heard. There is going to be a big push to silence that because we have not been truly free. What we hear has been carefully controlled but was in danger of it breaking free.
All the evil in the world is caused by ENCRYPTION. Teens (your kids?) are turned into murderous criminals by the Reefer cypher - ENCRYPTION! Good that we have been warned just in time. Before our children might be infected by ENCRYPTION or encrypted files from the internets.
I'd be curious to know how the contract rates compare with more those of more traditional criminals.
Sadly, I kinda expect that with impressionable teenagers, especially if poor, the value of a human life would be rather low.
Not that, really, rates are that high in general. Every so often in Canada or the US we hear of people getting caught trying to arrange the killing of a significant other or a business rival. It's more likely to be $25k-50k than something really high like $100k+. Considering that murders go to the top of the pile for effort to solve and that such a crime would easily net you 10+ years in jail in most jurisdictions, it doesn't seem like the sharpest tools in the shed are the ones pursuing this line of work at the lower end.
"The Iceman" is a pretty good movie about a real-life, possibly self-aggrandizing, hitman.
I suspect it will follow everything in the uberisation of the economy. You pay some arsehole intermediary† over the odds who puts the job out for bidding on the "app" to source some drug affected retard who either turn up late at the wrong address and shoots the dog, or at the right address and shoots the principal instead of the intended victim.
Traditional criminals sensibly stick to more lucrative activities where the isn't such a clear nexus between the crime and the criminal. Knocking off a business competitor, inconvenient mistress, or spouse etc will normally put the principal clearly in the frame even for the dullest plod. With enough digging a connection between the principal and the contractor inevitabiy would be found.
† aka gig economy entrepreneur.
"Knocking off a business competitor, inconvenient mistress, or spouse etc will normally put the principal clearly in the frame even for the dullest plod."
That's where it takes more skill than a teenager is going to have to arrange an accident that will take place when the customer is solidly someplace else and after they've been on, what appears to be, good terms with the victim for a while.
Are you asking pay rates or success rates?
Saw an article today about similar thing going on in Australia, and the senior police guy saying
"But you have seen how their work is sloppy, back in the day they would have paid a lot of money, flown a hitman in and [the target] would be dead by now."
Bloody useless kids these days.. cant do anything right..
Australian article link
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-22/sydney-underworld-luring-teens-for-organised-crime/105436462
"Considering that murders go to the top of the pile for effort to solve and that such a crime would easily net you 10+ years in jail in most jurisdictions, it doesn't seem like the sharpest tools in the shed are the ones pursuing this line of work at the lower end."
Most of the work is going to be on the lower end since higher value targets know they are targets and the entity wanting them to cease to be often have people in-house for that sort of task. Trying to outsource can be too risky. If you really need to do that, the work will be sent out to a similar other organization for their specialist to take care of.
Ring Ring
Hello, is this Fernando?
Yes, that’s me
I have a job for you. I need you to bang a boomerang
Mamma, Mia, where?
On a tropical love land, you’ll be the man in the Middle, sitting in the Palmtree
And for me?
Money, money, money
Will you leave the cash somewhere?
Yes, Waterloo
OK
Send up an SOS if you strike trouble. Remember, the winner takes it all.
Yes, it’s the name of the game.
Yup......Encryption and Criminals........BAD! BAD! BAD! .... BAN ENCRYPTION
But....Encryption and the banking system........NO COMMENT AT ALL.............and (very) occasionally mentioned as "good"!
Which is it? BAD! BAD! BAD! .................. or occasionally (speak it quietly)........good......
........or is it just the usual political posture......face both ways..............but NOT AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!
If an end point is infected with NSO/Pegasus or with Paragon/Graphite.........................
..............then the encryption supplied by Signal or WhatsApp or Telegram is rendered COMPLETELY MOOT!!
..............see "Jamal Kashoggi" for details!
So.....anyone wanting their (private) plain text messaging to remain private needs to take a deep breath and:
(0) DO NOT TRUST someone else to provide encryption (See multiple Register articles about snoops "breaking in")
(1) Develop a private encryption scheme (Diffie/Helman might be useful! Every point-to-point message encrypted differently!)
(2) Do some testing and validation
(3) Distribute the software ONLY to trusted associates
(4) Train everyone to do the encrypt/decrypt pass ON AN OFF-LINE MACHINE. (I.E. plain text is NEVER on a network-connected machine.)
(5) Send encrypted messages using any transport you like (Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, email......)
Note that if Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp are used for transport, then the snoops get TWO layers of encryption to break!
Yup......it's a pain........
"You sound as if you've never heard of one-time pads."
That can work if you have a secure way to send the pads and need to have comms between two trusted endpoints. Too much set up for this sort of operation where things need to be much shorter term and then be broken off fully.
I don't do anything illegal but I want spying on me to be a pain and fruitless but not a pain for me. Why? Because I simply believe in privacy and that the government should work for me not the reverse. I have quaint views of what democracy means. When a politician stands up and talks about "our" democracy I know immediately the git is referring to "his" democracy, well-being and wealth.
"I want spying on me to be a pain and fruitless but not a pain for me"
Encrypt everything, even your laundry list
If you're only encrypting the important stuff that vastly narrows down the attack surface instead of them finding out you needed to wash your socks tomorrow
A decade ago nobody would mention that the hitmen were using encrypted chats or code.
Why the hell is there a task group focused _specifically_ on encrypted chat apps? The only people that care whether criminals were using encrypted communication are snoopy governments who need an excuse.
"A decade ago nobody would mention that the hitmen were using encrypted chats or code."
They did, but it was kinda expected that anyone with a modicum of common sense would be doing so (Silk Road et al)
This is definitely a media beatup trying to create a moral panic
Who are these kids and what is their background. I know there are some violent kids around growing up in sink estates etc but to organise themselves as a guns for hire is another step beyond, especially if all their own work without some older adult luring them in. I didn't think Denmark was the type of place to generate this. More understandable in some war torn place like Somalia where extreme violence is common and kids get drawn into the fighting but Denmark??
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
