When the encrypted platform EncroChat was compromised by European authorities, criminals found the perfect alternative in a company that was selling secure phones among underground networks to ensure their safety. It had been created by the FBI.
Those phones couldn’t make calls or access the internet, and the only thing that worked on them was an encrypted messaging app called ANOM that, being ultra-secure, quickly spread worldwide thanks to word of mouth reaching more than 100 countries with over 12,000 devices. That was the beginning of one of the biggest scams in the cybersecurity sector.
The FBI startup scam
This peculiar startup in the criminal world offered everything an organization of this kind could desire. Their phones were protected with end-to-end encryption, the servers were hosted in countries where laws on this type of communication could not be pursued, and their distribution networks were tied to different criminal groups in Australia, Europe, and the United States.
What they all didn’t know was that, thanks to a backdoor implemented in the application itself, the messages sent through the platform were copied and sent directly to the FBI and other authorities, where the encrypted messages exploited that vulnerability to become visible to the police.
The popularity of these devices led the FBI to collaborate with Google for the massive shipment of bags full of Google Pixel phones to Europe because, due to the operation behind the modification of these devices, they were running out. Thousands of phones that were then distributed among the authorities so that teams infiltrated in these organizations and distribution networks continued to turn the wheel.
After years of accumulating messages, and before criminal organizations began to suspect, the operation was stopped, and various agencies around the globe organized to coordinate massive operations worldwide. The result was the arrest of 800 suspects and the seizure of tons of illegal substances, weapons, and over 48 million dollars in various currencies and cryptocurrencies. With this, the ANOM case became one of the greatest achievements in the history of cybersecurity.
Image | Al Elmes
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