Security News > 2021 > June > ‘An0m’ Encrypted-Chat Sting Leads to Arrest of 800

As FBI Special Agent Nicholas I. Cheviron wrote in the affidavit in support of a search warrant, while the FBI might have dented the supply of encrypted messaging devices, the demand didn't go away.

"The continued for these encrypted device platforms by criminals is significant," he wrote.

Following the Phantom Secure takedown, the FBI got its hooks into the developer of a next-generation hardened device - one used only for encrypted messaging, having been stripped of its texting, calling, GPS, and internet functions.

The insider not only handed Anom over to the FBI: The CHS also agreed to distribute the devices within the existing network of distributors of encrypted chat devices, all of them linked to organized crime.

The supply of hardened, encrypted devices had shrunken further after the Phantom Secure closure, with subsequent takedowns of competing platforms including EncroChat and Sky ECC. Those takedowns led to a massive demand for Anom devices.

So what comes next? It's going to be something, he said: "As we have seen in the past, the end of one encrypted chat service popular with criminals usually leads to a shift to a new one," he wrote.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/an0m-encrypted-chat-sting-arrest-800/166716/