Australian cops, FBI created backdoored chat app, told crims it was secure — then listened to 9,000 users' plots
- Reference: 1623117213
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/06/08/operation_ironside_anom/
- Source link:
The app was secretly built by the FBI, allowing law enforcement authorities to tune into conversations between about 9,000 users scattered around Earth.
Results in Australia alone have included over 500 warrants executed, 200-plus arrests, the seizure of AU$45m and 3.7 tonnes of drugs, and the prevention of a credible threat to murder a family of five. Over 4,000 AFP officers were involved in raids overnight, Australian time. Europol and the FBI will detail their use of the app in the coming hours.
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The existence of the app — part of Operation Ironside — was revealed at a press conference in Australia today, where AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw detailed that informal beer-based meetings between members of the AFP and the FBI cooked up the idea of creating a backdoored app. The idea built on previous such efforts such as the [2]Phantom Secure platform.
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The app, called AN0M, was seeded into the organised crime community. The app could only run on smartphones that could not make calls or send emails, and could only communicate with other AN0M-equipped phones. The app required payment of a monthly fee.
“We were able to see every handset that was handed out and attribute it to individuals,” Kershaw said.
[5]US govt indicted me because I make privacy tools, says crypto-chat app CEO accused of helping drug smugglers
[6]CEO pleads guilty of conspiring with drug cartels to sell them stealthy Blackberrys
[7]CEO of smartmobe outfit Phantom Secure cuffed after cocaine sting, boast of murder-by-GPS
[8]Australian Federal Police hiring digital evidence retrieval specialists: Being a very good boy and paws required
“Criminals needed to know a criminal to get a device,” said the AFP’s [9]announcement of the operation. “The devices organically circulated and grew in popularity among criminals, who were confident of the legitimacy of the app because high-profile organised crime figures vouched for its integrity.”
But the software had a backdoor. Commissioner Kershaw said the organisation he leads “provided a technical capability to decrypt the messages,” and that as a result the force, the FBI, and Europol were able to observe communications among criminals in plain text.
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“All they talk about is drugs and violence,” Kershaw said. “There was no attempt to hide behind any kind of codified information.” Intercepts included comments about planned murders and information about where and when speedboats would appear to shift contraband.
Kershaw said the surveillance enabled by the app is legal under the terms of Australia’s Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018. Law enforcement agencies in other jurisdictions also had legal cover for their use of the software.
However, some of those authorities were set to expire. That, and an operational decision to end the operation due to the opportunity to act on intelligence gathered using AN0M, led to today’s disclosures.
AN0M gave us insights we never had before
“The use of encrypted apps represents significant challenges,” Kershaw said. “AN0M gave us insights we never had before.”
The commissioner acknowledged that criminals will now adjust their behaviour as a result of this news, but suggested the AFP is working to develop similar capabilities. “This was a small platform. We know there are bigger ones. We will ensure we have the technology to disrupt criminals."
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FBI International Operations Division legal attaché for Australia, Anthony Russo, offered similar comments, saying “Criminals should be on notice that law enforcement are resolute to continue to evolve our capabilities.”
Kershaw somewhat smugly suggested that organised crime will take a while to bounce back from this operation, as intercepts of AN0M messages and conversations suggest that arrests made before the app was revealed have sparked internecine warfare and revenge plots. ®
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[2] https://www.theregister.com/2018/10/03/phone_ceo_pleads_guilty/
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2018/10/03/phone_ceo_pleads_guilty/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2018/03/13/phantom_secure_ceo_arrested/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/19/woof_woof_whos_a_good/
[9] https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/afp-led-operation-ironside-smashes-organised-crime
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Re: Mobile phones that can't make calls?
Answer: the fully-restricted handsets which have been standard in security-sensitive circles for many years now.
'What kinds of mobile phones would these be then?'
Mobile phones that can't make calls. There's a demand among drug traffickers for handhelds that have had their voice call capabilities, and other functions, removed for security and privacy reasons -- preferably physically removed, if possible. See [1]Sky ECC , which was bundled on devices that had their microphones, cameras, and GPS receivers removed.
From the AFP announcement:
"The app AN0M was installed on mobile phones that were stripped of other capability. The mobile phones, which were bought on the black market, could not make calls or send emails. It could only send messages to another device that had the organised crime app. Criminals needed to know a criminal to get a device."
C.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/19/sky_global_ecc_shuts_down_indictment_raids/
Re: 'What kinds of mobile phones would these be then?'
SMS is typically also disabled.
Re: 'What kinds of mobile phones would these be then?'
But surely they connect to a cellular network. I'm pleased if this is the way forward rather than mass snooping EVERY individual. But methinks thats not going to be the case.
I think this 'success' will just empower the agencies further to do what they hecking want in terms of backdooring anything and everything they desire, alongside the sneaky entrapment methods that they eventually come clean about. utilising a method of 10% overt, 90% covert.
Pay to Crim
Genius! So who gets the payments for the AN0M app? How may non-free cousins of AN0M for regular phones exist and does Apple and Google get their cut of the monthly payments?
Re: Pay to Crim
> Genius! So who gets the payments for the AN0M app?
The crims, actually :D . The police were quite smart about applying the social-infection tools used by network-driven movements like social media and MLM.
From social meeja they ran the Influencer route, and in fact directly planted only FIVE handsets in Australia (1,650 eventually purchased via network effects), all to identified Crimfluencers. (The core one, Hakan Ayik/Hakan Reis, was actually on the run offshore; still is; no idea how they got jurisdiction for that.)
But the really genius one they took from MLM (eg, Amway). Each crimfluencer got a cut from every handset they sold and its ongoing licence fees. And then from every handset+licencestream that _those_ guys sold, who also got _their_ cut. And so on and so on, standard pyramid marketing scheme stylee.
Nice.
Mobile phones that can't make calls?
"The app could only run on mobile phones that could not make calls"
What kinds of mobile phones would these be then?