From the editor: the NOVEMBER edition is out!

Greetings and salutations. Dzien dobry, czesc, ahoj.

Yes, we are back for yet another illustrious issue of The Corners, albeit only in electronic form. Which is somewhat disappointing, but perhaps it is the reality of our times. Understand this is for the environment. That the advertising market is not what it was. That investors did not come through. That your sole hard-copy version will now become a collector’s item and be worth a pretty penny some day.

Or not.

But if you think that a mere inability to print will stop us, think again. This is The Corners. The successor of the equally illustrious CEE Cheat Sheet & Crime Report, and believe you me, friendo, there is much to discuss.

Starting with more mafia in the Balkans the their use of the ECC Sky encryption system (and the bust of said encryption system) and yes, once again, the Pegasus spyware issue, which simply never fails to rear its ugly head.

Both in fact are a sign of our times—and both have (although their stated purposes were not as such) enabled criminals to do their worst.

The ECC Sky system and other, similar communication software in fact enabled organized crime to the nth power. Suddenly, deals could be made in real time while leaving the authorities completely in the dark. Modus operandi, motive, even the players remained a mystery, and police from Holland to Serbia were at a loss even following incidents where they discovered torture rooms or bodies thrown into the streets to make the odd, anonymous but still very public statement.

Yet here their has been a recent turn of the tables, with encryption breakthroughs suddenly revealing a treasure trove of historical information that is only just now being absorbed. In fact, paradoxically, the massive cocaine trade to Europe—detailed in part in the first edition of The Corners—may have been the hardest crime sector hit.

And gangs are going down. Think: Kavac and Skaljaris, Tito and Dino, Russian vory and Italian crime families. In fact, with revelation after revelation appearing in the news literally on a weekly basis, it is now mind-boggling to think that so many high-ranking (and low-ranking) members of organized crime across Europe bought into the myth that they could in fact order hits, secure drug deals, kidnappings and murder through what was effectively a mobile-phone app with no risk of ever being discovered.

It's actually rather humorous when you think about it. For there is also the simple truth that the cybersphere is forever (and murder has no statue of limitations). For cops this has meant a massively increased work-load tantamount to needing to become a historian/anthropologist overnight. For criminals...

Well, it's probably quite the worry.

But whether the charges will stick—whether authorities even have the legitimate right (in a court of law, mind you) to read “private” sms communications--is another matter indeed.

On the flip-side there is the rather ironic issue of Pegasus (which perhaps should have clued in the brain trusts of organized crime, but hey, keeping up with the news is perhaps not their forte). For what is Pegasus? This is a kind of spyware that mocks privacy laws to no end. It is also system that has been (ironically) misused by mafias and corrupt governments for years, but which also resides(equally ironically) in similar terrain when it comes to legal discussions and use under the guise of national security.

Which means 1) no, your phone is not safe (at all) and 2) technological breakthroughs do not reduce crime. If anything, new technology appears to become a multiplier of so many vectors that all can be said is that it makes crime and related cases…

More intriguing.

Perhaps that sounds cynical. So let’s try again.

Troubling? Yes. Morbid and frightening? Absolutely.

But still (and this does bear repeating) because, yes, the cybersphere is forever.
FOREVER.

And believe you me, it makes for reading that is not only outrageous, but...

Yes, intriguing...

Undoubtedly so.

Sincerely,

Yours Truly, a.k.a. Preston Smith

Letters to the editor can be sent to query@cddi.pl or thecornersmag@gmail.com.