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The FBI, Europol and the intelligence services of other countries have reported on the results of the large-scale operation Trojan Shield (aka Greenlight and Ironside), as a result of which more than 800 arrests have already been made. Law enforcers created and maintained their own encrypted communications platform Anom for several years, similar to Encrochat and Phantom Secure, and monitored all correspondence of the criminals.
TROJAN SHIELD
Law enforcement agencies of almost twenty countries of the world, including the FBI and Europol, reported on the results of the large-scale special operation Trojan Shield (in other departments, the operation was called Greenlight and Ironside).
According to Europol, Australia, Austria, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, Canada, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, USA, Finland, Sweden, Scotland and Estonia took part in the operation. At the same time, in their statement, the Australian police thanked colleagues from eighteen countries for participating in the operation, but did not specify which ones.
As it turned out, law enforcement officers created and maintained for several years their own platform for encrypted communications Anom (aka An0m or Anøm - in the reports of different departments the name "sounds" differently), similar to Encrochat and Phantom Secure. This means of communication has gained immense popularity among criminals all over the world, thanks to which law enforcement officers have been able to monitor all their communications.
BACKGROUND
We have talked more than once about such secure communication platforms that are used in the criminal environment and naturally attract the attention of law enforcement agencies. So, in 2020, the European law enforcement officers face-vidiro Wali platform for encrypted communications Encrochat, which was used by more than 60,000 criminals worldwide.
Encrochat phones guaranteed their users absolute anonymity, since they did not have a device or SIM card tied to the customer's account and were purchased under conditions that ensure that it is impossible to trace their origin. Complete confidentiality was also guaranteed: the encrypted interface was reliably hidden, and the device itself was modified - the camera, microphone, GPS module and USB port were physically missing.
Such devices came with two operating systems at once: if the user wanted the device to look harmless, he loaded regular Android. If it was necessary to use secret chats, the user switched to the Encrochat system. According to media reports, the Encrochat phones were based on modified BQ Aquaris X2 - Android smartphones released in 2018 by a Spanish electronics company.
The operators of the Encrochat platform installed their own encrypted messaging and VoIP calling programs on their phones, and they routed traffic through the company's own servers. Also, the phones had the function of quick and complete zeroing of the device if the user entered a special PIN-code.
The company sold these phones by subscription: a six-month contract cost around £ 1,500.
As a result, the Encrochat compromise led to the arrest of 746 people, the seizure of £ 54 million in cash ($ 67.4 million), 77 firearms (machine guns, pistols, four grenades and more than 1,800 rounds of ammunition), 55 expensive cars and more than two tons of drugs.
In the Netherlands alone, the closure of Encrochat allowed multiple arrests, the dismantling of 19 methamphetamine laboratories, the seizure of 1,200 kilograms of methamphetamine and more than 10 tons of cocaine. Also, law enforcement officers on-the outside-whether in a village near the border with Belgium, macabre cargo containers, converted to prisons and torture chambers (soundproofed, dental chair, handcuffs, scalpels and other tools).
Two years earlier, in 2018, it was the Ares Tov CEO of Phantom Secure Vincent Ramos, who also produced "uncrackable" phones for criminals.
Phantom Secure hosted its servers in Panama and Hong Kong and used virtual proxies to hide their physical location. The platform also helped to remotely destroy data on devices already seized by law enforcement agencies.
A subscription to the Phantom Secure service cost about 2-3 thousand dollars for six months. To protect the anonymity of customers and the activities of Phantom Secure itself, transactions were made in digital currencies, including bitcoins. For this money, a person received a device where both software and hardware were modified in such a way as to ensure anonymity and encryption of all communications. GPS navigation, microphone, camera, internet access and instant messenger and even voice transmission technology - everything was done taking into account the special needs of customers.
Phantom phones have enjoyed great popularity in the underworld, including at the very top of transnational criminal gangs. In particular, members of the famous Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico were customers of Phantom Secure.
Another similar company - MPC created and controlled-familiarize organized criminal group related to the drug trade, from Scotland.
ANOM
Soon after Vincent Ramos was arrested in 2018, an unnamed insider who previously sold Phantom and Sky Global phones agreed to partner with law enforcement officials in the hope of a mitigation of the sentence and helped them create their own encrypted communications product called Anom. He soon suggested that the FBI and the Australian Federal Police should spread the devices more widely and use them in ongoing and new investigations, a concept that law enforcement officials found interesting.
Like Phantom Secure, the new service offered users secure smartphones that were configured to run exclusively the Anom app and nothing else. To get such a device, you had to know the other owner of Anom and get a kind of recommendation from him.
Anom device and criminals negotiation.
The app, advertised by word of mouth and through the anom.io website, allowed phone owners to transfer encrypted text and voice messages between devices, but prevented any other services from starting or installing other apps that could lead to data breaches.
Declassified is now up-cumene-you say that Anom was created so that the master key invisibly attached to each message written by an application that allowed law enforcement agencies to decrypt and store all messages passing through the platform, as they are transmitted.
Specifically, Anom devices outside the US were configured to send blind copies of all messages to the XMPP bot, which the FBI dubbed the iBot. He decrypted messages and then re-encrypted them using keys controlled by the investigators.
The journalists Vice Motherboard searched Anom mention the network in recent years and found the old company on Reddit account. For the first time, the company announced itself two years ago, in a message that was already deleted, but preserved in the cache.
From the commercial.
Anom was growing pretty fast. At first, 50 devices were distributed in Australia, but soon rumors about new devices began to circulate in the underground, other services closed, and just a year later, Anom already had several hundred users. At this stage, a third unnamed country joined the operation, which also provided the FBI with the data of Anom users.
The popularity of the platform increased exponentially, soon it went beyond Australia, and law enforcement officers were already tracking a huge network of more than 10 thousand devices in 90 countries around the world. Official documents state that Anom was in high demand in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Serbia. In total, more than 300 different international criminal organizations have adopted the devices.
Anom device prevalence map.
You need to understand that we are talking about the widest range of criminal groups, from biker gangs in Australia and Italian mafiosi to drug cartels from Asia and South America and arms and human traffickers in Europe.
Anom discusses a large shipment of cocaine.
Interestingly, in March of this year, some criminals began to suspect that the application transmits all their conversations to third-party XMPP servers. For example, Google cached cox-injured the now remote research on this topic. Just shortly after that, law enforcement officers expired a number of orders and powers, and it was decided to curtail the operation.
RESULTS OF THE OPERATION
Although the above scheme was created by the FBI, due to a number of legal subtleties, the reports of the criminals were mainly analyzed by the Australian authorities, for which it was easier for them to draw up all the necessary documents. The Australians then relayed the collected information to the United States three times a week.
The scheme was so successful, according to court documents, that a third unnamed country, allegedly part of the EU, hosted an additional iBot server and helped analyze more than 26 million encrypted messages. In these messages, the criminals freely discussed the issues of drug smuggling, weapons, corruption and other organized criminal activities.
Officially announced, Lenie Europol says that over the years Anom law enforcement agencies managed to spread among more than 12 thousand offenders 'protected' devices in more than 100 countries around the world. The investigators themselves described this special operation as one of the largest and most difficult in the history of law enforcement agencies.
As a result of Operation Trojan Shield, more than 700 searches have already been carried out, more than 800 arrests have been made, and more than 8 tons of cocaine, 22 tons of cannabis, 2 tons of synthetic drugs (amphetamine and methamphetamine), 6 tons of synthetic drug precursors, 250 firearms have been seized, 55 luxury cars and over $ 48 million in various global and cryptocurrencies.
These numbers are likely to continue to rise as searches and detentions continue, and thanks to Anom, a wide variety of crimes have been and will be solved and prevented.
TROJAN SHIELD
Law enforcement agencies of almost twenty countries of the world, including the FBI and Europol, reported on the results of the large-scale special operation Trojan Shield (in other departments, the operation was called Greenlight and Ironside).
According to Europol, Australia, Austria, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, Canada, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, USA, Finland, Sweden, Scotland and Estonia took part in the operation. At the same time, in their statement, the Australian police thanked colleagues from eighteen countries for participating in the operation, but did not specify which ones.
As it turned out, law enforcement officers created and maintained for several years their own platform for encrypted communications Anom (aka An0m or Anøm - in the reports of different departments the name "sounds" differently), similar to Encrochat and Phantom Secure. This means of communication has gained immense popularity among criminals all over the world, thanks to which law enforcement officers have been able to monitor all their communications.
BACKGROUND
We have talked more than once about such secure communication platforms that are used in the criminal environment and naturally attract the attention of law enforcement agencies. So, in 2020, the European law enforcement officers face-vidiro Wali platform for encrypted communications Encrochat, which was used by more than 60,000 criminals worldwide.
Encrochat phones guaranteed their users absolute anonymity, since they did not have a device or SIM card tied to the customer's account and were purchased under conditions that ensure that it is impossible to trace their origin. Complete confidentiality was also guaranteed: the encrypted interface was reliably hidden, and the device itself was modified - the camera, microphone, GPS module and USB port were physically missing.
Such devices came with two operating systems at once: if the user wanted the device to look harmless, he loaded regular Android. If it was necessary to use secret chats, the user switched to the Encrochat system. According to media reports, the Encrochat phones were based on modified BQ Aquaris X2 - Android smartphones released in 2018 by a Spanish electronics company.
The operators of the Encrochat platform installed their own encrypted messaging and VoIP calling programs on their phones, and they routed traffic through the company's own servers. Also, the phones had the function of quick and complete zeroing of the device if the user entered a special PIN-code.
The company sold these phones by subscription: a six-month contract cost around £ 1,500.
As a result, the Encrochat compromise led to the arrest of 746 people, the seizure of £ 54 million in cash ($ 67.4 million), 77 firearms (machine guns, pistols, four grenades and more than 1,800 rounds of ammunition), 55 expensive cars and more than two tons of drugs.
In the Netherlands alone, the closure of Encrochat allowed multiple arrests, the dismantling of 19 methamphetamine laboratories, the seizure of 1,200 kilograms of methamphetamine and more than 10 tons of cocaine. Also, law enforcement officers on-the outside-whether in a village near the border with Belgium, macabre cargo containers, converted to prisons and torture chambers (soundproofed, dental chair, handcuffs, scalpels and other tools).
Two years earlier, in 2018, it was the Ares Tov CEO of Phantom Secure Vincent Ramos, who also produced "uncrackable" phones for criminals.
Phantom Secure hosted its servers in Panama and Hong Kong and used virtual proxies to hide their physical location. The platform also helped to remotely destroy data on devices already seized by law enforcement agencies.
A subscription to the Phantom Secure service cost about 2-3 thousand dollars for six months. To protect the anonymity of customers and the activities of Phantom Secure itself, transactions were made in digital currencies, including bitcoins. For this money, a person received a device where both software and hardware were modified in such a way as to ensure anonymity and encryption of all communications. GPS navigation, microphone, camera, internet access and instant messenger and even voice transmission technology - everything was done taking into account the special needs of customers.
Phantom phones have enjoyed great popularity in the underworld, including at the very top of transnational criminal gangs. In particular, members of the famous Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico were customers of Phantom Secure.
Another similar company - MPC created and controlled-familiarize organized criminal group related to the drug trade, from Scotland.
ANOM
Soon after Vincent Ramos was arrested in 2018, an unnamed insider who previously sold Phantom and Sky Global phones agreed to partner with law enforcement officials in the hope of a mitigation of the sentence and helped them create their own encrypted communications product called Anom. He soon suggested that the FBI and the Australian Federal Police should spread the devices more widely and use them in ongoing and new investigations, a concept that law enforcement officials found interesting.
Like Phantom Secure, the new service offered users secure smartphones that were configured to run exclusively the Anom app and nothing else. To get such a device, you had to know the other owner of Anom and get a kind of recommendation from him.
Law enforcement also played into the hands of the fact that after the closure of Phantom Secure and Encrochat, criminals needed a new means for secure negotiations, and Anom quickly began to gain popularity. For example, Phantom devices were especially common in Australia, and after the elimination of the service, a trusted law enforcement distributor introduced Anom to their customers. Those, in turn, were trusted by large criminal organizations, and soon the three people who had previously distributed Phantom "saw a lot of money" and agreed to sell new devices.
Anom device and criminals negotiation.
The app, advertised by word of mouth and through the anom.io website, allowed phone owners to transfer encrypted text and voice messages between devices, but prevented any other services from starting or installing other apps that could lead to data breaches.
Declassified is now up-cumene-you say that Anom was created so that the master key invisibly attached to each message written by an application that allowed law enforcement agencies to decrypt and store all messages passing through the platform, as they are transmitted.
Specifically, Anom devices outside the US were configured to send blind copies of all messages to the XMPP bot, which the FBI dubbed the iBot. He decrypted messages and then re-encrypted them using keys controlled by the investigators.
The journalists Vice Motherboard searched Anom mention the network in recent years and found the old company on Reddit account. For the first time, the company announced itself two years ago, in a message that was already deleted, but preserved in the cache.
From the commercial.
Anom was growing pretty fast. At first, 50 devices were distributed in Australia, but soon rumors about new devices began to circulate in the underground, other services closed, and just a year later, Anom already had several hundred users. At this stage, a third unnamed country joined the operation, which also provided the FBI with the data of Anom users.
The popularity of the platform increased exponentially, soon it went beyond Australia, and law enforcement officers were already tracking a huge network of more than 10 thousand devices in 90 countries around the world. Official documents state that Anom was in high demand in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Serbia. In total, more than 300 different international criminal organizations have adopted the devices.
Anom device prevalence map.
You need to understand that we are talking about the widest range of criminal groups, from biker gangs in Australia and Italian mafiosi to drug cartels from Asia and South America and arms and human traffickers in Europe.
Anom discusses a large shipment of cocaine.
Interestingly, in March of this year, some criminals began to suspect that the application transmits all their conversations to third-party XMPP servers. For example, Google cached cox-injured the now remote research on this topic. Just shortly after that, law enforcement officers expired a number of orders and powers, and it was decided to curtail the operation.
RESULTS OF THE OPERATION
Although the above scheme was created by the FBI, due to a number of legal subtleties, the reports of the criminals were mainly analyzed by the Australian authorities, for which it was easier for them to draw up all the necessary documents. The Australians then relayed the collected information to the United States three times a week.
The scheme was so successful, according to court documents, that a third unnamed country, allegedly part of the EU, hosted an additional iBot server and helped analyze more than 26 million encrypted messages. In these messages, the criminals freely discussed the issues of drug smuggling, weapons, corruption and other organized criminal activities.
Officially announced, Lenie Europol says that over the years Anom law enforcement agencies managed to spread among more than 12 thousand offenders 'protected' devices in more than 100 countries around the world. The investigators themselves described this special operation as one of the largest and most difficult in the history of law enforcement agencies.
As a result of Operation Trojan Shield, more than 700 searches have already been carried out, more than 800 arrests have been made, and more than 8 tons of cocaine, 22 tons of cannabis, 2 tons of synthetic drugs (amphetamine and methamphetamine), 6 tons of synthetic drug precursors, 250 firearms have been seized, 55 luxury cars and over $ 48 million in various global and cryptocurrencies.
These numbers are likely to continue to rise as searches and detentions continue, and thanks to Anom, a wide variety of crimes have been and will be solved and prevented.
