The FBI just pulled off a Trojan Horse… 21st century style.
“Operation Trojan Shield” is an encrypted communications platform known as ‘Anom.’ Anom was used by criminals to coordinate illegal activity, but the platform was actually run by the FBI.
Yeah, bad news for users.
“Operation Trojan Horse” oversaw 27 million encrypted messages from 12,000 users in 100 different countries. The international op started in 2008 and required cooperation between 9,000+ law enforcement offices. FBI Special Agent Suzanne Turner commented:
The immense and unprecedented success of Operation Trojan Shield should be a warning to international criminal organizations—your criminal communications may not be secure; and you can count on law enforcement world-wide working together to combat dangerous crime that crosses international borders.
Anom was programmed to secretly intercept and decrypt users’ messages. Thanks to the platform, police have conducted 800+ arrests in 16 different countries. And officials have seized 8 tons of cocaine, 2 tons of synthetic drugs, 250 firearms, 55 luxury cars, and $48M in currency.
Think about the Trojan Horse before doing something illegal online.