Hardly encrypted mobile phones are provided with extra security when compared to regular mobile phones. This makes it extremely difficult, almost impossible, for the police to access information contained in them.

- When we get such a phone, you initially feel that this will take time and the expectation is not directly high that we will get any information from it, explains Johan Eriksson, IT forensic officer at the police in the Bergslagen region.

Has two operating systems

The phones also have a normal operating system, which starts when someone presses the power button, but the unit also has an encrypted system that is started by holding down a certain combination of buttons at startup.

A heavily encrypted mobile phone and its SIM card that appeared in a Warmlands drug target. The picture comes from the police investigation. Photo: Police

In the secure operating system, there are a limited number of apps used to communicate securely via chat, telephony or email. For the communication to work, the other device that participates in the communication must also have the encrypted system installed. The secure operating system is password protected and all data is encrypted. In addition, all data in the device can be erased immediately by entering a special panic code.

Occurs in major crimes

Such a phone costs between SEK 16,000-20,000 and it is the software itself that costs.

- It is not unusual for us to receive such phones. It is not common carpenters who use them directly, but there must be a bigger profit to be able to afford to buy them. It is a lot of money and you need more than one phone for it to be used. Super-encrypted phones occur, but it is usually in the case of serious crimes and preferably drug crimes, I would say, Johan Eriksson says.

The units received by the National Forensic Center have been used in serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder or drug crime. The majority of the units have come from operations in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Uppsala.