I listen to podcast called Darknet Diaries. As it describes itself, “True stories from the dark side of the Internet. This is a podcast about hackers, breaches, shadow government activity, hacktivism, cybercrime, and all the things that dwell on the hidden parts of the network. This is Darknet Diaries.” Episode 146 is the story of a secure phone system that was taken over by the FBI and used as an undercover sting operation to catch criminals around the world. It was based on this book. After listening to that episode, I added the book to my TBR (to be read) pile. As I started to do more soccer tournaments in March, I grabbed the audiobook to listen to while traveling.
The subject matter of this book is both fascinating and disturbing. It shows how widespread use of secure mobile phones is and, as a result ,how difficult for authorities to discover what its criminal users are doing. The book opens with the arrest of the head of one of these secure mobile phone networks. He is held in a Las Vegas hotel room as they try to convince him to turn over control of it to the FBI in exchange for a lighter sentence. He manages to escape to Canada where he is a citizen and the plan collapses. In the aftermath of this, the owner of the ANOM secure phone system contacts the FBI and offers them control of his network if they grant him some immunity. An agreement is made, and the sting begins.
The really disturbing part of this for me is the idea of law enforcement doing this at all. I am not sure if it crosses a line. I understand the desire to get the bad guys, but at what cost? This feels like fraud at best and entrapment at worst. There is no question that it saved lives, so it definitely did some good. I really appreciate that the book covers this dilemma and doesn’t provide any easy answers. After reading this book, I am still ambivalent about what happened. The book is a fascinating look into the dark side of secure mobile phones on both side of the legal/illegal divide.
My rating: 4/5
