The inside story of how the FBI caught criminals by making and controlling encrypted phones

The Big Tech Show

Why did the FBI set up their own encrypted phone company? How did it result in the biggest drug trafficking sting in history? And is law enforcement finally catching up with criminals online? Author of Dark Wire and co-founder of 404 Media, Joseph Cox, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. In 2018 the Federal Bureau of Investigation set up ANOM, a supposedly secure smartphone-based proprietary messaging app. It was a sting operation that intercepted millions of messages sent through the service. The ANOM service was widely used by criminals, but instead of providing secure and encrypted communication, it was in fact a trojan horse distributed covertly by the FBI between 2018 and 2021. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.

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