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>The F.B.I.’s operation, according to court documents that the Justice Department unsealed on Monday, had its origins in early 2018 after the bureau dismantled
by hoppyhoppy2 5y ago
>The F.B.I.’s operation, according to court documents that the Justice Department unsealed on Monday, had its origins in early 2018 after the bureau dismantled a Canadian-based encryption service called Phantom Secure. That company, officials said, supplied encrypted cellphones to drug gangs, like Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, and other criminal groups.
>Seeing a void in the underground market, the F.B.I. recruited a former Phantom Secure distributor who had been developing a new encrypted communications system called Anom. The informant agreed to work for the F.B.I. and let the bureau control the network for the possibility of a reduced prison sentence, according to the court documents. The F.B.I. paid the informant $120,000, the documents said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/08/world/australia/operation-trojan-horse-anom.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/08/world/australia/operation... (from when it was first revealed to the public last month)
- handmodel 5y agoto me the most impressive part isn't that they even did this - but that they did so that fast.
- craftinator 5y agoHope they provide a grant to the numerous open source projects they piggy-backed on.
- Bilal_io 5y agoSomeone else commented on here saying the image was based on his open source project. Check it
- BLKNSLVR 5y agoI'm interested to read more about Phantom Secure's "dismantling" in the context of both HSBC's slap on the wrist and the FBI starting and running a company that did the exact same thing. Edited to add: It's fairly obvious that Phantom Secure was setup specifically to cater to organised crime communications - it appears the CEO experssly admitted this. I wonder if the company would have been better off marketing to 'security and privacy' conscious individuals, rather than, specifically, drug cartels, leaving the door of plausible deniability open.
- xxpor 5y agoIt seems like the cartels aren't very good at threat modeling. It seems like it should be very obvious that secure comms setup specifically to cater to cartels would have a huge target on its back. Just use signal, damn.