Security News > 2021 > June > FBI and AFP created a fake encrypted chat platform to catch criminals

In the "Largest and most sophisticated law enforcement operations to date," a joint international law enforcement created a fake end-to-end encrypted chat platform designed solely to catch criminals.

The FBI and the Australian Federal Police started cooperating three years ago in Operation Ironside, creating a fake encrypted messaging platform called Anom that was sold exclusively to criminals, allowing law enforcement to listen in on their messages and conversations.

"Since 2019, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, in close coordination with the Australian Federal Police, strategically developed and covertly operated an encrypted device company, called ANOM, which grew to service more than 12 000 encrypted devices to over 300 criminal syndicates operating in more than 100 countries, including Italian organised crime, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and international drug trafficking organisations," says a press release by Europol.

In 2018, the FBI arrested the CEO of encrypted messaging platform Phantom Secure for marketing customized communication devices to criminal organizations and aiding them in their illegal activities.

According to court documents filed by the FBI and unsealed yesterday, the CHS agreed to work with the FBI in the hopes of a reduced sentence and helped the FBI and the AFP to create a new encrypted messaging platform called Anom.

To help promote the devices, the operation created the website Anom.io that included a teaser video illustrating the customized messaging device.

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https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fbi-and-afp-created-a-fake-encrypted-chat-platform-to-catch-criminals/