The Sting: The US and Australian FBI agencies, in collaboration with an international group of police departments from 16 countries, executed an immense sting operation on the international crime syndicate, arresting over 800 people and counting. This is by far the most successful sting operation to date. More than 32 tons of drugs were seized, along with 250 firearms, 55 luxury cars, and over $148M in cash and cryptocurrencies.
The Key: How were they able to bring down such wide-ranging international criminal organizations that included mafia, Asian crime syndicates, and motorcycle gangs? The FBI developed an encrypted messaging phone designed specifically for crime syndicates. The marketing tagline was “designed by criminals for criminals.” The devices had no GPS service and no email. It was simply a messaging app that could send text and pictures. Only other users of the device would be able to unencrypt sent messages, thus criminals using the devices thought they were free to discuss anything – and discuss they did. What the criminals didn’t know was the devices blind-copied every message to the FBI.
How They Started: In 2018, two of the three largest encrypted messaging systems were taken down by the FBI. The FBI asked one of the developers of the systems to create a next generation device for them called ANOM. ANOM filled the gap in the market left by the two busted services. Criminals went out of their way to buy the device and pay for the services. Since October 2019, the FBI has cataloged over 20million messages and 11,800 devices. The primary use of the devices was for drug trafficking and money laundering activities, but they did come across some high level public corruption cases.
Cops Stopped Them: Criminals sent each other pictures of tons of cocaine concealed in shipments of fruit or canned goods. The Swedish police stopped dozens of planned killings. The police were always one step ahead—able to discover the methods and who was involved. Over 220 arrests were made in Australia, and 155 in Sweden. In the U.S., officials indicted 17 foreign nationals, with more arrests forthcoming.
Someone Is Always Watching: The criminals learned the hard way that one can’t always have secret conversations when in the digital world. There could always be someone watching. Your social media and your text messages are not private or secure using the usual methods. The crooks already knew that, but you should know that as well.
Too Good - Like Amazon Sidewalk: Sometimes things sound good for you but turn out not to be what you expected. For instance, take Amazon’s deployment of what they call the “Sidewalk” function. Sidewalk takes your Amazon devices, like Echo, and your Ring security devices and extends your network into your neighbor’s house, creating what’s called a mesh network. This gives you coverage outside the normal range of your home wi-fi.
Issues: Beside the privacy issues that are rampant with something like this, the bigger concern now is that you are no longer in control of your home network. If your neighbor has a virus on her network, now it is on your network. Sidewalk may sound like a great concept, but, for security purposes, we recommend that you turn off the Sidewalk functionality.
How to Turn It Off: By the way, this service is on Amazon devices by default and just began on June 8th. Here is how you can turn it off: For the Echo family, open the Alexa mobile app, go to “More, Settings,” “Account Settings,” “Amazon Sidewalk” and “disable.” In the Ring app, it is in the Control Center.
The Moral: Sometimes things sound good for you but turn out not to be what you expected. You have to do your due diligence when you are choosing your digital services. Whether you are the head of the Serbian Mafia or the head of your own house, it is always a good idea to do your research.