Who’s Up in Your Encrypted Apps?

Backdoors to encrypted apps are bad for privacy and undermine secure networks for everyone

Banksy’s street art reading “What are you looking at?” — Photo by Duca di Spinaci, Creative Commons license

Quite a mind boggling story recently: The FBI bought a fledgling encryption app called Anom about three years back and monitored criminals eager to use it for organizing various shenanigans, leading to some 800 arrests in 12 countries. The app was marketed exclusively to criminals — often by word of mouth and in person at nightclubs and similar venues. It came on a stripped down cell phone, hidden in a calculator app and was accessed via a pass code. Criminals apparently took to it like flies to cow pies. Arrests included law enforcement officers and even employees of the company itself. Quite a coup for the FBI, as well as the Australian police and other authorities involved in the global exercise. This excellent episode of Vice’s Cyber podcast recounts the whole thing.

I’m sure there’s much to be celebrated here and I’m guessing the vast majority of folks falling upon this story may just think, Cool!

Still, this development also serves as a potent reminder that, just because you’re using an encrypted app, doesn’t guarantee you’re not still being monitored (potentially). Because even encrypted apps can have backdoor entry points built into them.