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Dark Wire

The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever

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Dark Wire

Written by: Joseph Cox
Narrated by: Peter Ganim
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About this listen

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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Joseph Cox (P)2024 PublicAffairs
Freedom & Security Security & Encryption True Crime
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What the critics say

"Joseph Cox has written an instant true-crime classic, the inside—very inside it turns out—story of the largest global crime sting in history, a fascinating portrait not just of the frontiers of technology but also how organized crime operates in the 21st century. Filled with stranger-than-fiction gangsters and smugglers, this book is part-Miami Vice, part-Sneakers, and part-Ocean's Eleven. Your eyebrows will be raised in amazement page after page."—Garrett Graff, director of the Cybersecurity Program at The Aspen Institute, bestselling author of Watergate: A New History

"A jaw-dropping page turner that truly terrified me. The story of how the FBI subverted an encrypted messaging program should send chills down the spine of anyone who cares about privacy and a free society."—Julia Angwin, contributing writer at the New York Times and author of the bestselling book Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance

"A tense, deep, beautifully told tale that could be a top-notch technothriller... except it's all true."—Cory Doctorow, author of The Bezzle and The Internet Con

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When the hunters spy on the hunted

This book tells the story of when the FBI launched an operation to try to use one of the criminal underworld's greatest tools against them: Encrypted communications. Instead of trying just to beat all the illicit companies that were offering hyper-secure smartphones to cartels, they decided to join them, launching their own service, making it look completely legit, all the while their customers had no idea everything they said and did was being watched.

It's both a fascinating story and one that might leave many oddly conflicted. Fascinating because of how effectively and efficiently this notoriously bureaucratic organization started and ran this service, plus all the coordination that was done with other world police organizations. It was incredibly effective as not only making a dent (though only a dent) in the drug trade, but has also now made these criminal organizations paranoid about using this now essential tool in the future. However, it's conflicting because there were a lot of questions of the legality of this method and how much documented crime the FBI let go unpunished in the effort of getting more intel. This whole program was greenlit by a Trump apointeee, who did so in no small part because basically any other administration wouldn't have gone near it. Yet, despite how much I hate Trump, one cannot deny the effectiveness here.

The book does a good job of taking a fairly technical subject and breaking it down in a way most people can understand, while also being appealing enough for nerds like myself. The reader's presentation is a little monotone at times, but he still did a good job.

If you want an interesting story worthy of good spy fiction about where sometimes, law enforcement can arguably cross the line to great success, this is a good listen.

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