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Sellers of Anom, the FBI's Secret Backdoored Phone, Plead Guilty

The pleas mean that “Afgoo,” the person who provided the FBI with the backdoored encrypted phone company in the first place, likely won’t have to testify and have their identity revealed in court.
Sellers of Anom, the FBI's Secret Backdoored Phone, Plead Guilty
Image: 404 Media.

A group of men who sold Anom devices, the encrypted phone secretly backdoored by the FBI which led to the largest sting operation in history, pleaded guilty this month in San Diego. The defendants had been set to go to trial, in which the government was preparing to reveal the real identity of the confidential human source who provided the FBI with the Anom company in the first place. Now, that trial most likely won’t happen.

The court records released as part of the plea deals also provide new insight into how some of the phone sellers discussed drug trafficking on their Anom devices as well.

“If you really want to be secure there is only one word. ANOM,” one of the defendants wrote in messages collected from a backdoored phone.

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