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A thread about the FBI's colossal triumph over criminals using the encrypted ANOM phone. How were thousands of criminals caught? Who developed this phone? The answer to this question will be in this thread!
Contents:
It’s a quiet morning in the Australian suburbs. The residents of the area are fast asleep. In a few seconds, the silence will end. Armed officers will burst into the houses. Torches pierce the darkness, illuminating the terrified faces of criminals. It seems that it will happen all over the world. A global storm is hitting organized crime.
As the sun rises, from Asia to Europe and finally to America, police in 16 countries will strike. They will raid drug labs, secret warehouses and private homes. Some 9,000 police officers will make more than 800 arrests. Around 40 tons of drugs, countless weapons and millions in cash and cryptocurrency will be seized.
Entire organized crime groups will cease to exist any minute. This will be the final act of Operation Trojan Shield. The largest operation ever organized by the FBI and Europol. And at the center of it all, this phone.
Chapter I. Communication.
I also have a cargo ship with a captain on board. They want to transfer the cargo when they leave. When can we start?
This is a real conversation between two drug dealers, transmitted over an encrypted phone. Encrypted phones are special devices. They often lack features like cameras and GPS and are designed to provide greater privacy. People use these phones when they don’t want to be tracked. Politicians, military corporations, a wide range of people use privacy-oriented devices.
The market for these phones is huge for obvious reasons. They are also very attractive to criminals. Encrypted phones are often modified consumer phones with additional privacy tools. Sky ECC, EncroChat, Phantom Secure and others have been big players in the criminal underworld. These secure phones do not come cheap. Phantom Secure, for example, charged up to $2,000 for a 6-month subscription, which is the price you pay for absolute privacy.
Some of these phones come with a very convenient feature. If the device is compromised, a remote data wipe command known as the Kill Switch can be activated. This command erases all data from the phone, rendering it completely useless to law enforcement. Even if the police manage to seize one of these devices, all potential evidence can be destroyed remotely. Over the past few years, law enforcement has been aggressively targeting companies that make these phones one after another.
Companies like Phantom Secure and Sky ACC have been shut down, leaving a huge vacuum. As in any industry, the vacuum creates new opportunities, and one man is eager to take advantage of them.
Chapter II. The Trap.
The year is 2018. A rather shady businessman has an idea. His name is Avgu. Avgu is an expert in encryption phones, selling secure devices to criminals. He’s a bit of a geek, although he’s not very good with code. Avgu previously worked alongside one of Australia’s most notorious drug dealers, Hakan Ike, known as the Facebook Gangster for publicly documenting the criminal lifestyle online, and they have deep connections in the criminal underworld. Watching all these encryption companies close down, Avgu hatches a plan.
He wants to launch the next big encryption phone, called Anom. Anom is essentially a Google Pixel phone modified to run a custom operating system called Arcane OS. This is where it gets interesting. At first glance, it looks like any other phone. It has apps like Tinder, Netflix, and Spotify.
But when you tap on them, nothing happens, they’re dummies. Anom phones come with a few special features. One of them is PIN encryption. It randomly shuffles the numbers on the keypad, making it difficult for anyone nearby to guess your password. The real magic happens when you enter a different PIN. If you unlock the phone this way, you will only see these 3 apps, settings, clock and calculator.
The calculator works just like a regular one, but if you enter a special code, the heart of the device will be revealed. This is a special messenger that allows you to communicate anonymously with Anom users. If something goes wrong, the phone also has a Kill Switch. Anom will soon become a thriving tech startup for organized crime, with Avgu as its CEO.
But his true plan goes far beyond that. This is a story about a brilliant operation, but also about privacy, where every detail matters. In this day and age, it is very important to protect your privacy online. This is where Liberty, a VPN you can trust, comes in. It gives you access to servers all over the world. Want to watch 4K videos or use blocked platforms, it's all easy and unlimited with no restrictions on the number of connected devices.
No compromises, high speed, data protection and a money-back guarantee if you don't like something. And most importantly, Liberty can't be blocked. Trust is the foundation of everything, whether it's a covert operation or your safety on the Internet. Follow the link in the description and get a 15% discount on your subscription. With Liberty, your privacy is protected.
This lawyer I'd never heard of called me and said he wanted to meet tomorrow.
This is Andrew Yang, he works for the Department of Justice in San Diego, California. Yang and his team meet a mysterious lawyer. His client is none other than Avgu. It turns out that the lawyer has made a deal. Avgu pitches his product Anom to the FBI. Avgu will create the next generation of encrypted phone, and law enforcement will get full access. A hidden backdoor. A permanent get-out-of-jail escape for Avgu, should he ever need it.
In fact, his personal intentions are unclear. Presumably, there is already a lot of dirt on them. The lawyer presents the phone to the authorities as a demo model of Silicon Valley technology. Andrew Yang and his team quickly realize that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. What could be more valuable than control over thousands of devices intended for criminals? Yang and the FBI have agreed to work with the Soviets, but many questions remain unanswered.
How to implant Bagdoor into Anom and how to get criminals to start using the phones? And of course, there is one more serious problem. Spying without evidence is illegal in the United States. Young knows the operation may not be approved by the Department of Justice. So the FBI turns to Australian law enforcement, and they seem to be excited about the idea. With the help of the Australian Federal Police, the AFP, the first ONO phones are able to hit the black market in Australia.
The trap is set.
Chapter III. The Startup.
Months pass. While August builds his company, the FBI remains in the shadows. He hires people from all over the world. They all work from home, completely unaware of their true employer. Since CEO Avgu works closely with law enforcement, they soon manage to plant a backdoor that allows Australian police to collect intelligence from Anom's phones. The FBI remains on the sidelines for now. The mechanism is simple. When one user sends a message to another, it is silently copied and forwarded to the authorities.
The users will not notice. Now Anom needs people using the devices. The strategy is to rely on word of mouth, as with any other product in the criminal underworld. Avgu begins handing out Anom phones to Australian criminals for free. They, in turn, tell others about the device, and so on.
After a series of tests, the moment of truth arrives. An Australian officer stares at the screen in anticipation. He can hardly believe his eyes when the first intercepted message appears. All the hard work has finally paid off. It’s 2019, and Anom has several hundred users. Demand is growing rapidly, and supplies are spreading across the country.
Drug dealers, Italian mafiosi, biker gangs – they all use Anom to service their businesses, while the FBI meticulously monitors every message, gaining invaluable information about criminal operations. But the FBI still can’t read the messages. Young needs approval from the highest levels. After many meetings and persuasion, he finally gets what he wants. Hosting servers with intercepted messages in the United States is prohibited, and Australia is legally prohibited from sharing its intelligence.
The FBI needs another country to run the operation and pass on the information. Young turns to EU members for a willing partner. Finally, Lithuania volunteers to host the FBI servers. Operation Trojan Shield can finally operate at full capacity.
Chapter IV. “Trojan Shield.”
This is Swedish drug dealer Maximilian Rivkin, nicknamed Microsoft. Microsoft runs a meth lab in Sweden and is well connected in the country’s underground. He uses EncroChat to communicate with his accomplices. In the summer of 2020, Microsoft receives a strange message. In fact, every EncroChat user receives this message. At that very moment, law enforcement in Europe is cracking down on the company that encrypts phone calls.
Microsoft is in a bind and urgently needs a new, more secure way to do business. So he travels to Istanbul. There, he meets Hakan Aik, a notorious Facebook gangster. Aik is working on expanding Anom’s reach and sees huge potential in the company. The meeting leads to a new business partnership.
Both men are convinced that Anom is the future of encrypted communication for criminals. Together, they set out to market Anom globally and become its largest resellers. Back in Sweden, Microsoft wastes no time. He begins to recruit a network of people who will help distribute Anom phones across the country. After the collapse of EncroChat, the spread of Anom is going crazy.
But users are skeptical after the recent events with EncroChat, everyone is extremely cautious, trusting this new phone company is a huge risk. To build trust, Microsoft tells others that the founders of Anom are on the run from the FBI. If even the FBI can’t hack the platform, then they should all be safe. In a rather silly demonstration of the device’s reliability, He even sends photos of his Swedish passport via Anom to reassure his interlocutors.
Meanwhile, law enforcement is watching this whole thing from the sidelines. FBI agents are analyzing all the messages, including those from Microsoft. Everything is unfolding as planned. Anom is spreading autonomously and selflessly in the criminal world. But one day, one of the officers reads a series of very disturbing messages. Apparently, Microsoft is planning to kill a former cafe owner in Stockholm and is convinced that he owes him $ 800 thousand.
In a group chat, Microsoft hires a hitman. The hitman offers to disguise himself as a courier, go to the target's door and kill him. Microsoft liked it. At this point, the Swedish police realized that the threat was about to become real. The police have no choice but to warn the target. The assassination attempt fails, Anom is never mentioned as a source.
2021. Anom is spreading at a phenomenal speed. About 12 thousand users and millions of messages sent in 45 languages. The volume of data has become overwhelming. FBI agents sift through countless messages from around the world, from drug deals and contract killings to money laundering operations. When lives are at stake, the police are forced to intervene. However, Anom can never be named as the source, otherwise the entire operation will be exposed.
Secrecy of operations is of the utmost importance. With each new user, this problem increases many times over. Eventually, the flow of intelligence becomes too great to process. At the same time, the Lithuanian court ruling is coming to an end. Without Lithuania, where Anom’s servers are located, the FBI can no longer spy on people.
After four years, Operation Trojan Shield must end. But when it does, it sends a shockwave through global organized crime.
Anom users around the world wake up from a nightmare. Armed law enforcement enters their homes with information about all their illegal transactions. On the same day, the FBI publicly reveals the secret behind Anom.
Law enforcement agencies around the world are celebrating their unprecedented victory.
Operation Trojan Shield has resulted in hundreds of arrests, the dismantling of major criminal networks, and the seizure of vast quantities of drugs, weapons, and illegal funds. The evidence seized by police is staggering. It looks like a final triumph in the fight against organized crime. It is certainly the largest FBI operation, perhaps in the history of mankind. But when the dust settles, the harsh reality begins to set in.
This mission, which was considered a success, may turn out to be a monumental failure.
Chapter V: Limbo.
To date, more than 27 million messages have been collected from Anom. More than 800 arrests have been made based on this data. But experts are increasingly skeptical about whether Anom chats will be admissible in court. This is because the evidence could have been obtained through potentially illegal means.
A German court has already set a precedent by ruling that Anom chats cannot be used as evidence in trials because they cannot be physically linked to suspects. In the case of three drug dealers arrested in Germany, the court only allowed physical evidence, rejecting encrypted messages collected with Anom. In Australia, legal uncertainty has already delayed a major trial as the court decides whether data collected through the Anom backdoor can be used to convict suspects.
If courts around the world continue to reject evidence obtained through Anom, hundreds of cases could be at risk of falling apart. Criminals caught red-handed in these messages could potentially go free, despite their obvious involvement in serious crimes. Trials will likely go to the highest levels, with many cases dragging on for years.
It is unknown how many Anom users will ultimately be convicted. While official press releases extol the number of murders that were supposedly prevented, those that were not are kept silent. At least one murder of a Swedish man was carefully planned in Anom chats and carried out while authorities watched in real time.
As these cases emerge in a legal vacuum, the uncomfortable question arises: was Operation Trojan Shield worth it if key evidence is rejected and trials are delayed or cancelled? The long-term impact of the operation may be much smaller than law enforcement had hoped.
Conclusion
There is another dilemma that concerns us all. It concerns privacy. Today, almost all popular instant messaging apps have end-to-end encryption.
Maintaining privacy is extremely important. It is a basic right. Encryption technology is not only for criminals. Journalists, human rights activists, and dissidents in authoritarian regimes rely on encrypted communication because they are concerned about security. This concerns all of us. Data abuse can affect anyone. Your instinct may be to say that you have nothing to hide.
But what if you lived in a totalitarian state, rather than a liberal democracy. Would that still be true?
Contents:
- Chapter I. Communication.
- Chapter II. The Trap.
- Chapter III. Startup.
- Chapter IV. "The Trojan Shield".
- Chapter V. Limbo.
- Conclusion
It’s a quiet morning in the Australian suburbs. The residents of the area are fast asleep. In a few seconds, the silence will end. Armed officers will burst into the houses. Torches pierce the darkness, illuminating the terrified faces of criminals. It seems that it will happen all over the world. A global storm is hitting organized crime.
As the sun rises, from Asia to Europe and finally to America, police in 16 countries will strike. They will raid drug labs, secret warehouses and private homes. Some 9,000 police officers will make more than 800 arrests. Around 40 tons of drugs, countless weapons and millions in cash and cryptocurrency will be seized.
Entire organized crime groups will cease to exist any minute. This will be the final act of Operation Trojan Shield. The largest operation ever organized by the FBI and Europol. And at the center of it all, this phone.
Chapter I. Communication.
I also have a cargo ship with a captain on board. They want to transfer the cargo when they leave. When can we start?
This is a real conversation between two drug dealers, transmitted over an encrypted phone. Encrypted phones are special devices. They often lack features like cameras and GPS and are designed to provide greater privacy. People use these phones when they don’t want to be tracked. Politicians, military corporations, a wide range of people use privacy-oriented devices.
The market for these phones is huge for obvious reasons. They are also very attractive to criminals. Encrypted phones are often modified consumer phones with additional privacy tools. Sky ECC, EncroChat, Phantom Secure and others have been big players in the criminal underworld. These secure phones do not come cheap. Phantom Secure, for example, charged up to $2,000 for a 6-month subscription, which is the price you pay for absolute privacy.
Some of these phones come with a very convenient feature. If the device is compromised, a remote data wipe command known as the Kill Switch can be activated. This command erases all data from the phone, rendering it completely useless to law enforcement. Even if the police manage to seize one of these devices, all potential evidence can be destroyed remotely. Over the past few years, law enforcement has been aggressively targeting companies that make these phones one after another.
Companies like Phantom Secure and Sky ACC have been shut down, leaving a huge vacuum. As in any industry, the vacuum creates new opportunities, and one man is eager to take advantage of them.
Chapter II. The Trap.
The year is 2018. A rather shady businessman has an idea. His name is Avgu. Avgu is an expert in encryption phones, selling secure devices to criminals. He’s a bit of a geek, although he’s not very good with code. Avgu previously worked alongside one of Australia’s most notorious drug dealers, Hakan Ike, known as the Facebook Gangster for publicly documenting the criminal lifestyle online, and they have deep connections in the criminal underworld. Watching all these encryption companies close down, Avgu hatches a plan.
He wants to launch the next big encryption phone, called Anom. Anom is essentially a Google Pixel phone modified to run a custom operating system called Arcane OS. This is where it gets interesting. At first glance, it looks like any other phone. It has apps like Tinder, Netflix, and Spotify.
But when you tap on them, nothing happens, they’re dummies. Anom phones come with a few special features. One of them is PIN encryption. It randomly shuffles the numbers on the keypad, making it difficult for anyone nearby to guess your password. The real magic happens when you enter a different PIN. If you unlock the phone this way, you will only see these 3 apps, settings, clock and calculator.
The calculator works just like a regular one, but if you enter a special code, the heart of the device will be revealed. This is a special messenger that allows you to communicate anonymously with Anom users. If something goes wrong, the phone also has a Kill Switch. Anom will soon become a thriving tech startup for organized crime, with Avgu as its CEO.
But his true plan goes far beyond that. This is a story about a brilliant operation, but also about privacy, where every detail matters. In this day and age, it is very important to protect your privacy online. This is where Liberty, a VPN you can trust, comes in. It gives you access to servers all over the world. Want to watch 4K videos or use blocked platforms, it's all easy and unlimited with no restrictions on the number of connected devices.
No compromises, high speed, data protection and a money-back guarantee if you don't like something. And most importantly, Liberty can't be blocked. Trust is the foundation of everything, whether it's a covert operation or your safety on the Internet. Follow the link in the description and get a 15% discount on your subscription. With Liberty, your privacy is protected.
This lawyer I'd never heard of called me and said he wanted to meet tomorrow.
This is Andrew Yang, he works for the Department of Justice in San Diego, California. Yang and his team meet a mysterious lawyer. His client is none other than Avgu. It turns out that the lawyer has made a deal. Avgu pitches his product Anom to the FBI. Avgu will create the next generation of encrypted phone, and law enforcement will get full access. A hidden backdoor. A permanent get-out-of-jail escape for Avgu, should he ever need it.
In fact, his personal intentions are unclear. Presumably, there is already a lot of dirt on them. The lawyer presents the phone to the authorities as a demo model of Silicon Valley technology. Andrew Yang and his team quickly realize that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. What could be more valuable than control over thousands of devices intended for criminals? Yang and the FBI have agreed to work with the Soviets, but many questions remain unanswered.
How to implant Bagdoor into Anom and how to get criminals to start using the phones? And of course, there is one more serious problem. Spying without evidence is illegal in the United States. Young knows the operation may not be approved by the Department of Justice. So the FBI turns to Australian law enforcement, and they seem to be excited about the idea. With the help of the Australian Federal Police, the AFP, the first ONO phones are able to hit the black market in Australia.
The trap is set.
Chapter III. The Startup.
Months pass. While August builds his company, the FBI remains in the shadows. He hires people from all over the world. They all work from home, completely unaware of their true employer. Since CEO Avgu works closely with law enforcement, they soon manage to plant a backdoor that allows Australian police to collect intelligence from Anom's phones. The FBI remains on the sidelines for now. The mechanism is simple. When one user sends a message to another, it is silently copied and forwarded to the authorities.
The users will not notice. Now Anom needs people using the devices. The strategy is to rely on word of mouth, as with any other product in the criminal underworld. Avgu begins handing out Anom phones to Australian criminals for free. They, in turn, tell others about the device, and so on.
After a series of tests, the moment of truth arrives. An Australian officer stares at the screen in anticipation. He can hardly believe his eyes when the first intercepted message appears. All the hard work has finally paid off. It’s 2019, and Anom has several hundred users. Demand is growing rapidly, and supplies are spreading across the country.
Drug dealers, Italian mafiosi, biker gangs – they all use Anom to service their businesses, while the FBI meticulously monitors every message, gaining invaluable information about criminal operations. But the FBI still can’t read the messages. Young needs approval from the highest levels. After many meetings and persuasion, he finally gets what he wants. Hosting servers with intercepted messages in the United States is prohibited, and Australia is legally prohibited from sharing its intelligence.
The FBI needs another country to run the operation and pass on the information. Young turns to EU members for a willing partner. Finally, Lithuania volunteers to host the FBI servers. Operation Trojan Shield can finally operate at full capacity.
Chapter IV. “Trojan Shield.”
This is Swedish drug dealer Maximilian Rivkin, nicknamed Microsoft. Microsoft runs a meth lab in Sweden and is well connected in the country’s underground. He uses EncroChat to communicate with his accomplices. In the summer of 2020, Microsoft receives a strange message. In fact, every EncroChat user receives this message. At that very moment, law enforcement in Europe is cracking down on the company that encrypts phone calls.
Microsoft is in a bind and urgently needs a new, more secure way to do business. So he travels to Istanbul. There, he meets Hakan Aik, a notorious Facebook gangster. Aik is working on expanding Anom’s reach and sees huge potential in the company. The meeting leads to a new business partnership.
Both men are convinced that Anom is the future of encrypted communication for criminals. Together, they set out to market Anom globally and become its largest resellers. Back in Sweden, Microsoft wastes no time. He begins to recruit a network of people who will help distribute Anom phones across the country. After the collapse of EncroChat, the spread of Anom is going crazy.
But users are skeptical after the recent events with EncroChat, everyone is extremely cautious, trusting this new phone company is a huge risk. To build trust, Microsoft tells others that the founders of Anom are on the run from the FBI. If even the FBI can’t hack the platform, then they should all be safe. In a rather silly demonstration of the device’s reliability, He even sends photos of his Swedish passport via Anom to reassure his interlocutors.
Meanwhile, law enforcement is watching this whole thing from the sidelines. FBI agents are analyzing all the messages, including those from Microsoft. Everything is unfolding as planned. Anom is spreading autonomously and selflessly in the criminal world. But one day, one of the officers reads a series of very disturbing messages. Apparently, Microsoft is planning to kill a former cafe owner in Stockholm and is convinced that he owes him $ 800 thousand.
In a group chat, Microsoft hires a hitman. The hitman offers to disguise himself as a courier, go to the target's door and kill him. Microsoft liked it. At this point, the Swedish police realized that the threat was about to become real. The police have no choice but to warn the target. The assassination attempt fails, Anom is never mentioned as a source.
2021. Anom is spreading at a phenomenal speed. About 12 thousand users and millions of messages sent in 45 languages. The volume of data has become overwhelming. FBI agents sift through countless messages from around the world, from drug deals and contract killings to money laundering operations. When lives are at stake, the police are forced to intervene. However, Anom can never be named as the source, otherwise the entire operation will be exposed.
Secrecy of operations is of the utmost importance. With each new user, this problem increases many times over. Eventually, the flow of intelligence becomes too great to process. At the same time, the Lithuanian court ruling is coming to an end. Without Lithuania, where Anom’s servers are located, the FBI can no longer spy on people.
After four years, Operation Trojan Shield must end. But when it does, it sends a shockwave through global organized crime.
Anom users around the world wake up from a nightmare. Armed law enforcement enters their homes with information about all their illegal transactions. On the same day, the FBI publicly reveals the secret behind Anom.
Law enforcement agencies around the world are celebrating their unprecedented victory.
Operation Trojan Shield has resulted in hundreds of arrests, the dismantling of major criminal networks, and the seizure of vast quantities of drugs, weapons, and illegal funds. The evidence seized by police is staggering. It looks like a final triumph in the fight against organized crime. It is certainly the largest FBI operation, perhaps in the history of mankind. But when the dust settles, the harsh reality begins to set in.
This mission, which was considered a success, may turn out to be a monumental failure.
Chapter V: Limbo.
To date, more than 27 million messages have been collected from Anom. More than 800 arrests have been made based on this data. But experts are increasingly skeptical about whether Anom chats will be admissible in court. This is because the evidence could have been obtained through potentially illegal means.
A German court has already set a precedent by ruling that Anom chats cannot be used as evidence in trials because they cannot be physically linked to suspects. In the case of three drug dealers arrested in Germany, the court only allowed physical evidence, rejecting encrypted messages collected with Anom. In Australia, legal uncertainty has already delayed a major trial as the court decides whether data collected through the Anom backdoor can be used to convict suspects.
If courts around the world continue to reject evidence obtained through Anom, hundreds of cases could be at risk of falling apart. Criminals caught red-handed in these messages could potentially go free, despite their obvious involvement in serious crimes. Trials will likely go to the highest levels, with many cases dragging on for years.
It is unknown how many Anom users will ultimately be convicted. While official press releases extol the number of murders that were supposedly prevented, those that were not are kept silent. At least one murder of a Swedish man was carefully planned in Anom chats and carried out while authorities watched in real time.
As these cases emerge in a legal vacuum, the uncomfortable question arises: was Operation Trojan Shield worth it if key evidence is rejected and trials are delayed or cancelled? The long-term impact of the operation may be much smaller than law enforcement had hoped.
Conclusion
There is another dilemma that concerns us all. It concerns privacy. Today, almost all popular instant messaging apps have end-to-end encryption.
Maintaining privacy is extremely important. It is a basic right. Encryption technology is not only for criminals. Journalists, human rights activists, and dissidents in authoritarian regimes rely on encrypted communication because they are concerned about security. This concerns all of us. Data abuse can affect anyone. Your instinct may be to say that you have nothing to hide.
But what if you lived in a totalitarian state, rather than a liberal democracy. Would that still be true?
