The inside story of the largest law-enforcement sting operation ever, in which the FBI made its own tech start-up to wiretap the world, shows how cunning both the authorities and drug traffickers have become, with privacy implications for everyone.
In 2018, a powerful app for secure communications called Anom took root among organized criminals. They believed Anom allowed them to conduct business in the shadows. Except for one thing: it was secretly run by the FBI.
Backdoor access to Anom and a series of related investigations granted American, Australian, and European authorities a front-row seat to the underworld. Tens of thousands of criminals worldwide appeared in full view of the same agents they were trying to evade. International smugglers. Money launderers. Hitmen. A sprawling global economy as efficient and interconnected as the legal one. Officers watched drug shipments and murder plots unfold, making arrests without blowing their cover. But, as …
The inside story of the largest law-enforcement sting operation ever, in which the FBI made its own tech start-up to wiretap the world, shows how cunning both the authorities and drug traffickers have become, with privacy implications for everyone.
In 2018, a powerful app for secure communications called Anom took root among organized criminals. They believed Anom allowed them to conduct business in the shadows. Except for one thing: it was secretly run by the FBI.
Backdoor access to Anom and a series of related investigations granted American, Australian, and European authorities a front-row seat to the underworld. Tens of thousands of criminals worldwide appeared in full view of the same agents they were trying to evade. International smugglers. Money launderers. Hitmen. A sprawling global economy as efficient and interconnected as the legal one. Officers watched drug shipments and murder plots unfold, making arrests without blowing their cover. But, as the FBI started to lose control of Anom, did the agency go too far?
A painstakingly investigated exposé, Dark Wire reveals the true scale and stakes of this unprecedented operation through the agents and crooks who were there. This fly-on-the-wall thriller is a caper for our modern world, where no one can be sure who is listening in.
Written like a thriller, Cox covers the rise and fall of Anom, an encrypted phone service run by the FBI.
I do wish that the book had engaged more with any of the actual legal and geopolitical consequences before the last chapter. I also wish that there was more clarity about where the various pieces of information came from, and how he reported on this - I never felt sure exactly what was coming from where.
I once knew a man arrested and held for a bank robbery he did not commit. It's a much longer story, but while he was held, he told me about how the other inmates would all watch "Law and Order" while rooting for the "bad guys" because the police were not following the rules of engagement when hunting down criminals. It was the first time I had thought about what it must mean to real-life people locked away on actual charges and what media reflects about their experiences. While reading this book, I found myself shouting, "No way!", "How can that be legal?", "Who allowed that!" and it made me remember this experience from long ago.
This is an excellent book that is painful for privacy advocates to read, but it is an important story. It's constructed in a way that immerses the reader in the point of view of …
I once knew a man arrested and held for a bank robbery he did not commit. It's a much longer story, but while he was held, he told me about how the other inmates would all watch "Law and Order" while rooting for the "bad guys" because the police were not following the rules of engagement when hunting down criminals. It was the first time I had thought about what it must mean to real-life people locked away on actual charges and what media reflects about their experiences. While reading this book, I found myself shouting, "No way!", "How can that be legal?", "Who allowed that!" and it made me remember this experience from long ago.
This is an excellent book that is painful for privacy advocates to read, but it is an important story. It's constructed in a way that immerses the reader in the point of view of law enforcement while laying out the wider world of crime that leverages encrypted phones. Joseph Cox does an excellent job of letting the reader understand the motives of law enforcement and the impact of their actions so the reader can simply absorb what is happening before calling into larger questions about privacy, legality, and the legal practicality of a program like this. For that reason, I hope this will become standard reading in criminal justice classes. It's constructed in a non-technical manner, so the average reader won't get lost in technical jargon. It's respectful to the law enforcement personnel who are trying to make a difference while painting a highly complex topic that needs to be discussed.
