ANØM: The Most Genius FBI Operation

it's a quiet morning in an Australian suburb the streets are still the neighborhood sleep soundly in a few seconds the silence will come to an abrupt end armed officers will storm through family homes flashlights will cut through the darkness Illuminating the startled faces of criminals violently ripped from their sleep scenes like these will happen all across the world a global storm is coming down on organized crime as the sun is rising from Asia to Europe and finally to the Americas police in 16 countries will strike they will raid drug Labs secret warehouses and private residences

around 9,000 police officers will make over 800 arrests nearly 40 tons of drugs along with countless weapons and millions in cash in crypto will be seized police operation tro Global opest investigation and operational ever entire organized crime Rings will cease to exist from one minute to the next it will be the final Act of operation troan Shield the largest sting operation ever orchestrated by the FBI in europool and at the heart of it all is this phone [Applause] this video is partially based on the book dark Wire by Joseph Cox Cox is an investigative journalist

he went deep into the criminal Underworld for his research due to the nature of some Anonymous sources we are unable to verify all the information independently we highly recommend checking out the book I have a cargo ship with Captain on side too they want to throw overload as they leave when can we start I have aob ready is tomorrow to pick up it's already here this is a real conversation between two drug traffickers sent via an encrypted phone encrypted phones are very special devices they often lack functions like camera and GPS and are designed to

enable more privacy people use these phones when they don't want to be tracked politicians military corporations a wide range of people use privacy focused devices the market for these phones is massive for obvious reasons they are also very appealing to criminals and crypted phones are often modified consumer phones with additional privacy tools Sky ECC encro shot and Phantom secure to name a few were big players in the crime World secure phones like these don't come cheap phantom secure for example charg up to $22,000 for a 6-month subscription this is the price you pay for absolute

privacy some of these phones come with a very handy feature so he picked up the load and I think he's been arrested and in need there's a lot of evidence and [ __ ] on my BlackBerry yeah I need that evidence gone ASAP one sec and but the thing is cops can't access it right they can't even access that anyways yeah if a phone is ever compromised a remote wipe command known as kill switch can be activated this kill switch wipes all the data from the phone making it completely useless for law enforcement this is

a nightmare even if police manage to seize one of these devices all potential evidence can be destroyed Ely over the past few years law enforcement has aggressively cracked down on encrypted phone companies one by one companies like Phantom secure and Sky ECC were shut down leaving behind a massive vacuum as in any industry a vacuum presents an opportunity and one man seek to seize it it is 2018 a rather dodgy businessman has an idea he goes by the name AFU AFU is an expert when it comes to encrypted phones selling Phantom secure devices to criminals

he's a bit of a geek though not much of a coder previously AFU worked alongside one of Australia's most notorious drug traffickers hakan AEK known as the Facebook gangster for publicly documenting his criminal lifestyle online AEK is deeply connected in the Underworld observing the Gap left by all those encrypted phone companies going down AFU hatches a plan he wants to launch the next big encrypted phone anom anom devices are essentially off-the-shelf Google pixel phones 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 them nothing happens they're just dummies anom phones come with several special features one of them is pin scrambling it randomly shuffles the numbers on the keypad making it difficult for anyone nearby to figure out your passcode the real magic is unlocked when you enter a different pin when you unlock the the phone this way you only see these three apps settings the clock and a calculator the calculator works just like a normal one but if you enter a special code the

heart of the device reveals itself the anom messenger it allows you to chat with an anom user anonymously in case things go south the phone also has a kill switch anom will soon become a thriving Tech startup for organized crime and AFU will become its CEO but his true plan goes far beyond that this story is about a brilliant sting operation but it's also about privacy how many input Fields have you filled in your life remember the account from that sketchy online store you ordered from a decade ago or that weird form about that thing

you once cared about data Brokers are companies that collect your private information from the farthest corners of the internet and sell it often to the highest bidder that way your data can easily end up in the hands of cyber criminals think identity theft fraudulent loans and even maxed out out credit cards incog forces data Brokers to delete your sensitive information all you need to do is sign up and let incog do the work their dashboard keeps you updated on which companies have removed your data keeping your subscription means that incog also makes sure that data

Brokers don't add your data back to their roster later scan this QR code or head to incognitomode Fern TV I get this call from this lawyer I've never heard of and who basically said I want to meet you tomorrow this is Andrew Young he works for the Department of Justice in San Diego California young and his team are meeting the mysterious attorney his client none other than AFU turns out the lawyer reached out to broker a deal AFU is offering his product Anam to the FBI the offer AFU will build the Next Generation of privacy

phones and law enforcement will have Total Access a hidden back door the ultimate got out of jail free card for AFU in case you ever needed one his personal intentions for that are not clear presumably there's already a lot of dirt on them aku's attorney pitches the phone to the authorities like a Silicon Valley Tech demo Andrew Young and his team quickly realize this could be a once- in a-lifetime Opportunity what could be more valuable than having control over thousands of devices designed for criminals Young and the FBI agreed to work with AFU but many

questions remain unanswered how should the back door be implemented in Anam and how do you get criminals to start using the phones and there is of course another major problem without evidence of a crime spying on phones inside the US is illegal young as concerning the operation might not get approved by the Department of Justice so the FBI reaches out to Australian law enforcement instead and they seem to be stoked by the idea with the help from the Australian federal police AFP the first anom phones can hit the black market in Australia the Trap is

[Music] set months go by as AFU builds his company the FBI remains hidden in the shadows he hires coders from around the globe they all work from home completely unaware of the real employer as CEO AFU collaborates closely with law enforcement they soon managed to implement a back door that allows the Australian police to gather intelligence from anom phones the FBI is still left out the mechanism is straightforward when a user sends a message to another user that message is silently copied and redirected to a third location controlled by the authorities the users will not

notice a thing now anom just needs users the strategy is to rely on Word of Mouth just like any other product in the criminal underworld AFU starts handing out anom phones to Australian criminals for free they in turn tell others of the device and so on and so forth after a series of tests the Moment of Truth arrives an Australian AFP officer stares at his 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 anom has several hundred users demand is

skyrocketing and deliveries are spreading all over the country drug traffickers Italian mobsters and bik gangs all of them are using anom to discuss business meanwhile the AFP is meticulously monitoring every message getting invaluable insights into criminal operations but the FBI is still not allowed to read the messages young needs approval from higher ranks after a lot of meetings and persuasion he finally gets what he wants his approach is somewhat dubious though running servers with intercepted messages on us soil is prohibited and Australia is legally not allowed to share their intelligence the FBI needs another country

to host the operation and pass on the information to them young reaches out to members of the EU searching for a willing partner to help finally Lithuania volunteers to host the FBI servers let's put a pin into these legal Shenanigans for a moment though for now operation Trojan Shield can finally kick into high gear this is this is Swedish drug trafficker Maximillian rivkin his nickname is Microsoft he has scars on his knees and fingers his right arm shows a tattoo with three monkeys don't see don't speak don't listen Microsoft runs a meth lab in Sweden

and is well connected in the country's underbelly he uses enro chat to communicate with his accompli in the summer of 2020 Microsoft receives a weird message in fact every enro chat user receives this message at that very moment law enforcement in Europe is cracking down on the encrypted phone company Microsoft is screwed and urgently needs a new safer way to conduct his business so he travels to eastanbul here he meets hakan AEK the infamous Facebook gangster AEK is working on expanding anam's reach and sees enormous potential in the company the meeting leads to a new

Business Partnership both men are convinced that Anam is the future of encrypted communication for criminals together they set a goal push Anam globally and become a biggest resellers back in Sweden Microsoft wasted no time he begins recruiting a network of people to help distribute anom phones across the country with the downfall of enro chat Anam grows at insane speeds but users are skeptical after the recent Crackdown everyone is extremely cautious trusting this new phone company is a huge risk to build credibility Microsoft tells others that anam's founder is on the run from the FBI if

even the FBI can't crack the platform they all should be safe in a fairly foolish display of trust he even sends photos of his own Swedish ID card over anom to reassure his contacts meanwhile law enforcement is watching the whole drama from a distance FBI agents are analyzing all the messages including those from Microsoft everything is unfolding just as planned anom spreads autonomously and self-propelled within the criminal underworld but one day an officer reads a series of very concerning messages apparently Microsoft is planning to murder a former Cafe owner in Stockholm convinced that the man

owes him $800,000 Microsoft hires a Hitman in a group chat The Hitman suggests to disguise himself as a delivery driver approach the target's door and take him out on the spot Microsoft loves this at this point the Swedish police realized the threat is about to become real the police has no choice but to warn the target the assassination fails Anam is never mentioned as as a source it's 2021 Anam has spread at a phenomenal rate with around 12,000 users and millions of messages sent in 45 different languages the sheer volume of data has become overwhelming

FBI agents are sifting through countless messages from all over the world ranging from drug deals and murder For Hire schemes to money laundering operations and even the occasional unsed pick when lives are at risk the police are forced to intervene anom however can never be named as a source during fieldwork or the entire operation would be exposed the secrecy of the operation is Paramount with every new user this problem multiplies eventually the flood of intelligence becomes too much to process at the same time lithuania's court order is coming to an end without Lithuania where the

anom servers are running the FBI cannot spy on people anymore after 4 years operation Trojan Shield needs to end but when it do it sends shock waves through Global organized crime opo investigation and operation criminal sting ever anom users all around the world are waking up to a nightmare heavily armed law enforcement enters their home somehow fully and thoroughly aware of all their illegal dealings later that day the FBI comes out publicly and reveals the secret behind Anam for the first time the FBI developed and operated its own hardened encrypted device company called anom law

enforcement agencies across the globe celebrate their unprecedented Victory this investigation called operation Trojan Shield shined a light into the shadowy industry of hardened encrypted devices this is a watershed moment in Australian law enforcement history operation Trojan Shield results in hundreds of arrests the dismantling of major criminal networks and the seizure of enormous quantities of drugs weapons and illicit funds the evidence seized by the police is staggering it feels like the ultimate Triumph against organized crime it certainly is the biggest sting operation FBI history probably in all of history but as the dust settles a harsh

reality begins to emerge this Mission hailed as a success could potentially turn into a massive [Music] failure to this day over 27 million Anam messages have been collected based on this intelligence over 800 arrests have been made but experts are growing increasingly skeptical about whether anam's chats will be admissible in court that's because the evidence may have been obtained through potentially illegal means a German court has already set a precedent ruling that Anam chats cannot be used as evidence in Trials because they could not be physically linked to the suspects in the case of three

drug traffickers arrested in Germany the court only approved physical evidence for trial dismissing the encrypted messages gathered from Anam in Australia legal uncertainty has already delayed a major trial with the court grappling over whether the data collected through anam's back door can be used to convict suspects if courts worldwide continue to reject the anom chat evidence hundreds of cases could be thrown into Jeopardy criminals who are caught red-handed through these communications could potentially walk free despite their obvious involvement in serious crimes other courts declared anam's messages as lawfully obtained trials will likely go through higher

instances in many cases dragging on for years it's unclear how many anom users will ultimately be convicted while official press releases praise the number of murders supposedly prevented there's a troubling silence regarding those that were not according to Joseph Cox at least one assassination of a Swedish man was meticulously planned in Anam chats and executed while authorities observed in real time as these cases become Merd in legal limbo an uncomfortable question arises was Operation Trojan Shield actually work worth it if key evidence is dismissed and trials are delayed or overturned the operation's long-term impact may

be far smaller than law enforcement had hoped and there's another dilemma here one that affects us all it's about privacy today almost every popular messenger is end to-end encrypted preserving privacy is essential it's a basic right encryption technology is not just for criminals journalists human rights activists and dissidents from authoritarian regimes rely on encrypted messaging privacy concerns all of us data abuse can affect anybody you might instinctively want to respond that you have nothing to hide even if that were true what if you lived in a totalitarian state rather than a liberal democracy would that

stance still hold [Music]