How the FBI's fake cell phone company put criminals into real jail cells

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/31/1197959218/fbi-phone-company-...

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/23/24163389/joseph-cox-dark-...

I remember this story. The FBI created cell phone business targeting criminals. They got criminals to believe it was a secure network all while listening in.

There is a distinct difference between a publicly offered MikroPhone and a phone swapped between criminals. Not every phone is some honeypot.

Dark Wire by Joseph Cox covers the whole story

https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Wire-Incredible-Largest-Operatio...

It was a real conundrum for law enforcement agencies because at some point they had to stop facilitating crime and start exposing it.

(judgement aside, just facts) There's a lot of that going on with the FBI, including bot nets / marketplaces that they commandeer. How long do you let it continue? It's a fantastic way to gather intelligence, and the risk that a market player may be LE adds more peril for the players engaging in it.

Look at the bottom of the page and you will see

> This project is funded through NGI0 Entrust, a fund established by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet program. Learn more at the NLnet project page.

with links and everything.

Yep, and I followed all of those. I still have absolutely no idea who is designing, running, building mikrophone or the project.

It’s great to know it’s not funded by DPRK, but that wasn’t my point. There’s a difference between it being built by an undergrad student and moxie marlinspike.