Australian Federal Police and FBI create "anonymous" messaging app to catch over 800 criminals in 18 countries

[Pacmanpro]

 

Summary

 The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the FBI collaborated to create a fake secure messaging app that they put on Google Pixels and sold to criminals. The AFP and FBI used the backdoor in the app to get information that led to the arrest of over 800 criminals including high level mafia member and drug bosses

 

Quote

More than 800 suspected criminals have been arrested worldwide after being tricked into using an FBI-run encrypted messaging app, officials say.

The operation, jointly conceived by Australia and the FBI, saw devices with the ANOM app secretly distributed among criminals, allowing police to monitor their chats about drug smuggling, money laundering and even murder plots.

Officials called it a watershed moment.

Targets included drug gangs and people with links to the mafia.

Drugs, weapons, luxury vehicles and cash were also seized in the operation, which was conducted across more than a dozen countries. This included eight tons of cocaine, 250 guns and more than $48m (£34m) in various worldwide currencies and cryptocurrencies.

 

The FBI began operating its own encrypted device company called ANOM, and covertly distributed devices with the chat app among the criminal underworld via informants.

The idea for the operation came after two other encrypted platforms were taken down by law enforcement agencies, leaving criminal gangs in the market for new secure phones.

The devices were initially used by alleged senior crime figures, giving other criminals the confidence to use the platform.

 

In total, some 12,000 encrypted devices were used by around 300 criminal syndicates in more than 100 countries.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-57394831

 

My thoughts

Not sure how I feel about this, all for taking out criminals but it makes you wonder if everything you say on the internet, private or not, is being listened in on. 

I wonder how far governments will go with this, will they start targeting people who simply were buying drugs on the platform?

 

Sources

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/08/australia/afp-fbi-anom-app-operation-ironside/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-57394831

[Levent]

3 minutes ago, James Evens said:

Anybody remembering Crypto AG?

The company that sold encryption machines to countries and then decrypted transmissions for WG/US intelligence agencies? 

[Eigenvektor]

17 minutes ago, Pacmanpro said:

Not sure how I feel about this, all for taking out criminals but it makes you wonder if everything you say on the internet, private or not, is being listened in on.

That's why you should verify before you trust and probably still keep an eye on what you say and to whom. If it's a new messaging app with little to no users promising absolute anonymity you might want to hold off until you've got some independent reviews

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, Pacmanpro said:

will they start targeting people who simply were buying drugs on the platform?

The whole platform was fake, so yes. If you were convinced to use these devices and the app by your "peers" (lol) then you were the target of police spear phishing. There might have been some unintended targets but I doubt it since it sounds like it wasn't an app on any apps stores and was pre-loaded on phones specifically intended to be given to individuals under investigation.

 

Quote

In a statement, the AFP said they and the FBI had been reading the clandestine communications of criminals since 2018 on the ANoM app -- a black-market product only accessible on specially prepared mobile phones.

 

This is about as unobtrusive and non interfering with the general public as possible since it wasn't breaking encryption, wasn't intercepting general communications and was limited only to specific targets with specific devices using a specific app. The shutting down of actual encrypted messaging apps is a different discussion point however, of course there can be legitimate reason why those were shut down too (no free passes with aiding and abetting criminals online I'm afraid, ignorance is not a defense, particularly purposeful).

[Master Disaster]

1 hour ago, Pacmanpro said:

 

My thoughts

 

Not sure how I feel about this, all for taking out criminals but it makes you wonder if everything you say on the internet, private or not, is being listened in on. 

I wonder how far governments will go with this, will they start targeting people who simply were buying drugs on the platform?

A mantra to live by...

 

A gun is always loaded, a microphone is always hot and somebody is always listening.

[Arika]

Quote

 a black-market product only accessible on specially prepared mobile phones.

The only thing that makes it OK. If it was an app that a normal person could get from the play store or something, then absolutely not. 

[connorkincaid]

32 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

A mantra to live by...

 

A gun is always loaded, a microphone is always hot and somebody is always listening.

I like this. Can I steal it?

[da na]

I mean... it wasn't very ethical, but it's complicated since it was to stop unethical things. If you kill a killer, the number of killers in the world remains the same. Plus, someone's always listening, whether it be Mark Succerberg, Alexa, or the police.

[SansVarnic]

-= Poll Closed =-

Polls are not allowed in Tech News Topics.

[Master Disaster]

1 hour ago, connorkincaid said:

I like this. Can I steal it?

I didn't create that phrase, its been around for years

[Kisai]

3 hours ago, Pacmanpro said:

 

Summary

 The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the FBI collaborated to create a fake secure messaging app that they put on Google Pixels and sold to criminals. The AFP and FBI used the backdoor in the app to get information that led to the arrest of over 800 criminals including high level mafia member and drug bosses

 

 

My thoughts

Not sure how I feel about this, all for taking out criminals but it makes you wonder if everything you say on the internet, private or not, is being listened in on. 

I wonder how far governments will go with this, will they start targeting people who simply were buying drugs on the platform?

 

Sources

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/08/australia/afp-fbi-anom-app-operation-ironside/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-57394831

Kinda feels like entrapment doesn't it?

 

On one side, the criminals should burn at the stake metaphorically. On the other side, you have to be really stupid or really careless to get caught by this. 

 

Again, usually the people at the lowest rung of these things are victims themselves, and law enforcement should not be targeting the low-hanging fruit, since that doesn't really do anything to stop the activity. You don't kill a weed by continuing to run the lawn mower over it.

 

 

[Master Disaster]

2 minutes ago, Kisai said:

Kinda feels like entrapment doesn't it?

 

On one side, the criminals should burn at the stake metaphorically. On the other side, you have to be really stupid or really careless to get caught by this. 

 

Again, usually the people at the lowest rung of these things are victims themselves, and law enforcement should not be targeting the low-hanging fruit, since that doesn't really do anything to stop the activity. You don't kill a weed by continuing to run the lawn mower over it.

 

 

Nah, entrapment is when they trick you into committing a crime so they can arrest you for it. These guys were already committing the crimes, the police just gave themselves a way to listen in.

[TetraSky]

I'm totally fine with this. It's not like they made them commit the crimes, so no entrapment here. All they did was provide a phone. Which they could've obtained literally anywhere else easily. It's not like they were handing out weapons or bombs or whatever else to these criminals to further help them in their crimes. 

[BuckGup]

3 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

I'm totally fine with this. It's not like they made them commit the crimes, so no entrapment here. All they did was provide a phone. Which they could've obtained literally anywhere else easily. It's not like they were handing out weapons or bombs or whatever else to these criminals to further help them in their crimes. 

I don’t agree at all. Imagine someone would only commit a crime if they knew their device was anonymous and secure. So they enabled crime. It’s like the FBI hosting and actively upgrading CP websites on Tor. 

[TetraSky]

6 minutes ago, BuckGup said:

I don’t agree at all. Imagine someone would only commit a crime if they knew their device was anonymous and secure. So they enabled crime. It’s like the FBI hosting and actively upgrading CP websites on Tor. 

They would've found a different way to communicate. There's plenty of other encrypted messaging apps out there. These people went out of their way to get these phones because it was "easier", they were already planning to do crime before they decided to get this phone. It's not like the FBI shipped the phone to their home with a note saying "hey use this for your next crime, thank us later  "

[Neftex]

dont they need a warrant or something to spy on people?

[Master Disaster]

25 minutes ago, BuckGup said:

I don’t agree at all. Imagine someone would only commit a crime if they knew their device was anonymous and secure. So they enabled crime. It’s like the FBI hosting and actively upgrading CP websites on Tor. 

Right, cause major drug traffickers, murderers, mafioso's and other criminals only operate as long as they have secure communications in place...

[Taf the Ghost]

40 minutes ago, BuckGup said:

I don’t agree at all. Imagine someone would only commit a crime if they knew their device was anonymous and secure. So they enabled crime. It’s like the FBI hosting and actively upgrading CP websites on Tor. 

Pretty sure they've done that one before, too.

[Taf the Ghost]

So, we need to first think why they would go public with this information. Either information about the infiltration was about to go public or the penetration of the devices had stopped. I would suspect it's the latter, because only 800 arrests for years of technical work & global coordination sounds like the bills were getting high for no arrests before this point. They also probably want to move onto other approaches, as this was also likely eating up a lot of man-power in general.

 

The one really interesting side aspect is that if the Feds sold a product, even under a shell company, that lied about its function, are some governments now liable for damages to innocent buyers of the product? I'm sure in the States they'd claim Sovereign Immunity, that might not be the case in all places. I suspect it'll cause some seriously hilarious court cases.

[Vishera]

5 hours ago, Pacmanpro said:

My thoughts

Not sure how I feel about this, all for taking out criminals but it makes you wonder if everything you say on the internet, private or not, is being listened in on. 

I wonder how far governments will go with this, will they start targeting people who simply were buying drugs on the platform?

 

Well,as long as they exclusively sell these devices to known criminals without targeting innocents- I am fine with that.

[BuckGup]

51 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Pretty sure they've done that one before, too.

They have that’s why I said it

[BuckGup]

1 hour ago, Master Disaster said:

Right, cause major drug traffickers, murderers, mafioso's and other criminals only operate as long as they have secure communications in place...

Secure communication channels is a fundamental part to organized crime 

[Mihle]

1 hour ago, Taf the Ghost said:

So, we need to first think why they would go public with this information. Either information about the infiltration was about to go public or the penetration of the devices had stopped. I would suspect it's the latter, because only 800 arrests for years of technical work & global coordination sounds like the bills were getting high for no arrests before this point. They also probably want to move onto other approaches, as this was also likely eating up a lot of man-power in general.

 

The one really interesting side aspect is that if the Feds sold a product, even under a shell company, that lied about its function, are some governments now liable for damages to innocent buyers of the product? I'm sure in the States they'd claim Sovereign Immunity, that might not be the case in all places. I suspect it'll cause some seriously hilarious court cases.

From my understanding, that might be wrong, so don't quote me, the reason why they choose to act now was they had imminent information of a possible targeted mass shooting, and only stopping those spesific people might blow the cover, so decided it was best to end it before people could run or whatever.

 

They did not sell the phones to normal citizens or on the open market, they got sold to the criminals via an informant that had developed earlier communication methods for criminals, plus undercover police officers. To get the phone you basically had to know some criminals that sold it to you.

 

The phone could also not be used to call someone or send mail.

[Master Disaster]

50 minutes ago, BuckGup said:

Secure communication channels is a fundamental part to organized crime 

Agreed but to suggest the criminals wouldn't do what they do without it is entirely false.

[Bombastinator]

6 hours ago, Pacmanpro said:

 

Summary

 The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the FBI collaborated to create a fake secure messaging app that they put on Google Pixels and sold to criminals. The AFP and FBI used the backdoor in the app to get information that led to the arrest of over 800 criminals including high level mafia member and drug bosses

 

 

My thoughts

Not sure how I feel about this, all for taking out criminals but it makes you wonder if everything you say on the internet, private or not, is being listened in on. 

I wonder how far governments will go with this, will they start targeting people who simply were buying drugs on the platform?

 

Sources

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/08/australia/afp-fbi-anom-app-operation-ironside/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-57394831

Let me put you at ease on that one:  yes.  It may not be listened to but the chances any given thing is recorded somewhere is extremely high.  This didn’t appear to be the internet though.  They were apparently special flip phones.  Pseudo Analog stuff that apparently actually wasn’t. 

Edited June 8, 2021 by Bombastinator