
Radio Svoboda, сiting the Washington Post, reported that the FBI developed a messaging app that helped to arrest more than 800 people around the world.
The FBI began operating an encrypted device network called Anom and covertly distributed devices with the messaging app among the criminals via informants. In 2018, two encrypted platforms were taking down by the FBI, and the criminals needed a new platform. Undercover detectives duped an Australian drug trafficker Hakan Ayik who promoted Anom to others in his network.Initially, it was used by senior crime figures and then by lower level criminals.
In total, according to the publication, some 12,000 encrypted devices were uses by criminal syndicates in more than 100 countries.
Ukrainian experience of cyberwar
In the context of the news about the FBI success, it will be interesting to recall the experience of ordinary Ukrainian IT volunteers who in 2016 carried out a similar operation to distribute among pro-Russian militants and Russian servicemen a specialized application CropUkrop.
Dozens of Russian websites, propagandists and bloggers, to which the hackers of the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance gained secret access, spread various messages with advice to install the CropUkrop application. Its publicly declared functions were “to DDos sites InformNapalm, Myrotvorets, and other resources.” In fact, this app only simulated DDos-attacks and at the same time discreetly sent information from the aggressor’s smartphones.
In 7 days, more than 2,500 phones were infected and hacked, including phones of not only ordinary fans of the “Russian world” from the occupied territory of the Donbas, but also of militants, Russian servicemen and propagandists from the territory of the Russian Federation. Their data were then used in investigations and intelligence.You can read more about this operation in the article Young IDP from Donetsk created Android app which hacked 2,500 phones of aggressor.
Interestingly, the example of this operation has been repeatedly cited by InformNapalm volunteers in 4 years, both at thematic international conferences on cybersecurity and in informal communication with foreign journalists, diplomats and experts interested in the experience of asymmetric counteraction to Russian aggression in the information domain.
Read also on InformNapalm:
Proofs of the Russian Aggression: InformNapalm releases extensive database of evidence
Volunteers gathered evidence of 32 Russian military units taking part in the invasion of Crimea
Advanced Russian artillery reconnaissance system Navodchik-2 spotted in Donbas for the first time
Russian soldiers who lost Takhion drone in Donbas have been identified
Newest Russian equipment in Donbas in aerial photo (photo and coordinates)
Russian drone Orlan-10 consists of parts produced in the USA and other countries – photo evidence
Soldier of Russian 45th Spetsnaz Brigade in Ukrainian resort near Novoazovsk
Ukraine armed with Bayraktar TB2 is a better deterrent than “deep concern”
By end of year, Russia plans to set up twenty new military units near its western borders
By Andrii Romanenko specially for InformNapalm. Translated by Svetlana Kemblowski. Distribution and reprint with reference to the source is welcome! (Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0)
InformNapalm social media pages: Facebook / Тwitter / Telegram.
InformNapalm does not receive any financial support from any country’s government or large donors. InformNapalm.org website is supported solely by the community volunteers and our readers. You can also volunteer or support the development of the unique volunteer intelligence resource InformNapalm with your donations through Patreon.
No Responses to “FBI-controlled messaging app helps to arrest more than 800 criminals. Ukrainian Experience in the cyberwar”