In a huge sting operation, FBI and Australian Federal Police ran an encrypted chat service AN0M for 3+ years to intercept messages between criminals globally
The FBI and Australian Federal Police ran an encrypted chat platform and intercepted secret messages between criminal gang members … Source: Australian Federal Police .
The RecordCatalin Cimpanu
Context & Ripple Effects
AN0M followed the earlier EncroChat infiltration, in which police read millions of messages on a network used by organized crime and made international arrests. Rather than merely gaining access to an existing service, the FBI and Australian Federal Police operated the communications channel for more than three years.
Related coverage later described how authorities marketed AN0M handsets and subscriptions to criminal users, underscoring that distribution and user trust—not just technical access—were central to the operation.
First-order effects
The FBI and Australian Federal Police obtain a large body of intercepted communications that can be used to identify criminal networks and support investigations across jurisdictions.
AN0M users lose the confidentiality they believed the service provided, while the agencies gain visibility into conversations among criminal groups globally.
Second-order effects
Criminal users and resellers of specialized encrypted phones face a sharper trust problem: a service’s encryption claims no longer establish that its operator or supply chain is trustworthy.
Police agencies have a reusable operational model alongside the EncroChat operation: targeting the service and its distribution can yield intelligence without relying solely on message decryption.
Third-order effects
Repeated infiltrations of criminal communications services point to enforcement concentrating on platform control, device distribution, and user onboarding as durable pressure points around encrypted networks.
If this pattern persists, providers whose products are marketed to criminal users will face greater scrutiny of their operators and channels, while users will fragment across less centralized services.
The trend: Law enforcement is increasingly pursuing organized-crime communications through service infiltration and distribution control rather than treating encryption itself as the only obstacle.
Let's advance the story a bit w/ some original reporting: An FBI informant introduced Anom to Phantom Secure & Sky Global users in 2018. The informant gave each user a unique ID number, the FBI had full access to that ID list. Working w/ AFP, it was called Operation Trojan Horse …
New: for *years* the FBI has been secretly running an encrypted messaging app used by criminals. Sometimes cops shut down these networks or hack them. Here, the FBI took over it in its infancy and saw it grow across the world, listen to all the messages https://www.vice.com/...
Sources told The Age the FBI had been in control of Anom and the AFP were monitoring communications there for an extended period, yielding enormously valuable intelligence before the platform was completely shut down on Tuesday. https://www.theage.com.au/...
BREAKING: Police around the world uncover ‘21 murder plots, 3000kg drugs, and $45M in cash/assets’ by tricking criminals onto a backdoored crypto network (An0m) developed by AU Federal police. https://www.abc.net.au/...
Wow! “More than 220 have been arrested on 526 charges & 3.7 tonnes of drugs, 104 weapons & $45m in cash were allegedly seized in the operation involving more than 4000 police officers ... the most significant policing operation in Australian history”. https://www.smh.com.au/...
This is an awesome story. The FBI, and the Australians, jointly broke into an encrypted messaging app that organized crime was using worldwide for years. The authorities now have 20 million communications by 11,000 people! Lots of people going to jail. https://twitter.com/...
More than 220 people have been arrested on 526 charges across Australia and 3.7 tonnes of drugs, 104 weapons, and $45 million in cash were allegedly seized in the operation involving more than 4000 police officers. https://www.theage.com.au/...
Super interesting Aussie-American op yielded major results against criminal networks. Now of only everyone would understand why telegram isn't a great place to discuss dissident movements and protests... https://twitter.com/...
This story is cool from the perspective of law enforcement success, but I fear the word “encryption” is being misrepresented here. Trojan'ing and app and controlling an endpoint where messaging is available in the clear is not an attack against encryption https://www.smh.com.au/.…
Can't make this up. Australian Police and the FBI ran a fake “secure” messaging app for years. They recruited “criminal influencers”, seeded the app widely. And sat back while scooping up evidence! Fascinating story. A future TV series for sure! https://www.couriermail.com.au/ ..…
🆕The FBI and Australian police ran a fake encrypted chat platform to catch criminal gangs in one of the largest sting operations known to date, known as Operation Ironside The platform, known as Anøm (An0m), had more than 11,000 registered users. https://therecord.media/... https…
Super-relevant tweet, on why the sting operation was shut down. Criminal gangs began catching on there was something wrong with the service https://twitter.com/...
Here is what Anom's website looked like, before it closed down earlier today. An invite code could provide a decent way for law enforcement to keep an operation intercepting communications only on targets or suspected criminals https://www.vice.com/... https://twitter.com/...
A snapshot of Victoria Police's involvement in Op Ironside. This global operation has resulted in over 100 organised crime members being charged for using encrypted communications to plot killings, organise mass drug trafficking and gun distribution.→ https://www.afp.gov.au/... h…
Anom offered users encrypted communication. People close to and trusted by organized crime sold Anom devices. But the FBI, and its source, were secretly running the company, and added a master key to the encryption, letting them read millions msgs https://www.vice.com/... https:/…
AFP Operation Ironside page: https://online.afp.gov.au/... AFP press conference: https://www.youtube.com/... More from Europol in a few hours: https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Hundreds have been arrested and charged only in Australia alone. I'm expecting the tally to be in the thousands across the world, making this one of the biggest LEA actions to date. https://twitter.com/...
Amazing. “The app, known as AN0M, was used by organised crime gangs around the world to plan executions, mass drug importations and money laundering. Authorities say they were able to read up to 25 million messages in real-time.” https://twitter.com/...
Anom started small, just Australia, around 50 devices. But it grew, and especially so when authorities closed Sky, another encrypted network. Eventually Anom, the FBI's honeypot, was active in 90 countries https://www.vice.com/... https://twitter.com/...