On as we speak’s episode of Decoder, I sat down with Joseph Cox, top-of-the-line cybersecurity reporters round. Joseph spent a very long time working at Vice’s tech vertical Motherboard, however final yr, after Vice imploded, he and three different journalists co-founded a brand new web site, referred to as 404 Media, the place they’re performing some actually nice work.
Criminals like drug traffickers characterize a marketplace for encrypted, safe communications away from the eyes of legislation enforcement. Within the early cell period, that gave rise to a distinct segment business of specialised, secured telephones criminals used to conduct their enterprise.
Joseph’s completed a ton of reporting on this through the years, and the guide finally ends up telling a really extraordinary story: After breaking into a number of of those encrypted smartphone firms, the FBI ended up running one of these secure phone services itself so it may spy on criminals world wide. And meaning the FBI needed to really run an organization, with all the issues of every other tech startup: cloud companies, manufacturing and transport points, customer support, growth, and scale.
The corporate was referred to as Anom, and for about three years, it gave legislation enforcement businesses world wide a crystal-clear window into the legal underworld. In the long run, the feds shut it down largely as a result of it was too profitable — once more, a really wild story. Now, with the rise of apps like Sign, most criminals now not want specialised {hardware}, however that, in fact, raises a complete new set of points.
The guide is a good learn, however it additionally touches on numerous issues we speak about loads right here on Decoder. There actually are unhealthy individuals on the market utilizing tech to assist them do unhealthy issues, however the identical instruments that hold their communications non-public assist give everybody else their privateness, too — whistleblowers, dissenters, atypical individuals such as you and me.
There’s a deep rigidity between privateness and safety that consistently runs by way of tech, and also you’ll hear us actually dig into the way in which tech firms and governments are perpetually going forwards and backwards on it. There’s loads right here, and it’s a enjoyable one.