ANoM Encrypted Telephone Devices ... Bugged

"Essentially, we have been in the back pockets of organized crime and operationalized a criminal takedown like we have never seen."

"The use of encrypted communication apps presents significant challenges to law enforcement and ANoM has given law enforcement a window into the level of criminality that we have never seen before on this scale." 

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw (Australian Federal Police)

Handout images from the Australian Federal Police show arrests and seizures made under Operation Ironside.

"This was an unprecedented operation in terms of its massive scale, innovative strategy and technological and investigative achievement."

"Hardened encrypted devices usually provide an impenetrable shield against law enforcement surveillance and detection."

"The supreme irony here is that the very devices that these criminals were using to hide from law enforcement were actually beacons for law enforcement."

Randy Grossman, acting U.S. Attorney, Southern District of California

 

Police in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany and Sweden all spoke publicly with huge satisfaction of their involvement in a global operational sting against worldwide drug operatives, a three-year enterprise that finally concluded with the arrest of about a thousand people globally, the collection of tons of drugs, a huge cache of guns, tens of millions in cash and assets, and just incidentally averting many planned (intercepted) murders.

 

Australia and New Zealand police began the rounds of arrests and seizures with resulting announcements making public the revelation of a complex sting operation that took three years as it rolled across Europe and the United States. It began with an odd collaboration between police and a veteran in the use of secure devices for criminal purposes. The man, serving time for criminal activity, was involved in Phantom Secure, a provider of "secure communications to high-level drug traffickers and other criminal organization leaders", according to the FBI.

 

Among the items seized was memorabilia from The Godfather

It was the sale of hardened encrypted devices by Phantom Secure that brought police into action; devices that began life as modified cellphones to maximize privacy and security enabling connection with other criminals with the use of a similar encrypted messaging device. It isn't that these devices were meant for exclusive use by criminals, but while they have their uses in legitimate enterprises, among the successful criminal class the premium cost of the devices was clearly affordable. 

 

When Phantom Secure was closed down by the FBI, its services seized, its CEO put on trial and imprisoned, those whom it had served looked elsewhere to procure the devices so useful to their security. A "next generation" of encrypted devices for underworld secrecy was discovered, called ANoM. And it happened that the previous distributor of Phantom Secure had invested heavily in the creation of ANoM, and he offered the device to the FBI in hopes of reducing his prison time.

Encryption geniuses at work for the Australian Federal Police investigators who had cracked Phantom's encryption inserted master keys to unlock the secret codes, built into the ANoM system. That computer code allowed investigators to gather, track, decrypt and store messages which were copied to police. Once the platform was up and running, the cooperating source convinced his clients to sign up for the program. The devices were offered to three former Phantom Secure distributors to sell, and they were off to the races.

According to a U.S. indictment, all those associated with the sale of the encrypted devices were linked to transnational crime groups who, oblivious of the police links, convinced clients with established reputations and criminal ties including outlaw bikers, Italian Mafia and drug lords, to make use of the devices; as police now say, ANoM's marketing pitch had been "designed by criminals for criminals". Early adopters became 'influencers', their involvement convincing others of the system's trustworthiness.

 

According to court documents, these were "well-known crime figures who wield significant influence". ANoM's price tag in Canada was about $1,700 for six months of service. While the FBI kept sending out devices, Australian police got on with monitoring them. Suzanne Turner, Special Agent in charge of the San Diego Field office of the FBI revealed about 12,000 ANoM devices were in circulation, busy sending 27 million messages through 100 countries in 45 languages. That's a reach far and wide.

Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia and Serbia were the top five countries where the devices were utilized. This past Monday and Tuesday, policing authorities made their move against a list of targets in 15 countries where about 800 arrests were being processed, included among them six law enforcement officials who had been caught working with the underworld. "This operation demonstrates that law enforcement will not stop in our pursuit of criminal activity related to encrypted criminal communications", stated the RCMP. 

A growing stable of criminal clientele had for years believed that ANoM phones were secure. Police officials were stunned at the trust evinced by criminals in the notion of the secure phones. To the extent that they neglected coded language used typically for explicit detail. An enormous database and allied information that was collected during the probe remains under investigation. "Countless spinoff operations will be carried out in the weeks to come", announced Europol, the police agency of the European Union.

The damage in Australia was particularly heavy, suspects arrested linked to "Australian-based Italian mafia, outlaw motorcycle gangs, Asian crime syndicates and Albanian organized crime". 17 people were indicted in the United States listed as distributors, administrators and underworld influencers for ANoM. Citizens of eight countries, six Australian, four Dutch.