Dark Wire

This a great book. It's a really interesting and well-told story. It's about the criminal use of encrypted phones. With the advent of smartphones, criminals wanted encrypted phones so police couldn't listen to their calls. There were several companies that catered to criminals and produced these phones. At some point, the FBI somehow found itself in charge of one of these companies. This enabled the FBI to view everyone's messages and eavesdrop on all their conversations.

The book tells the story of how the encrypted phone industry started. It details the different brands over the years and the various criminal cases. It really focuses in on Anom, which is the company that the FBI ran. The author did a lot of research. The book has lots of interesting details from both sides of the law. It talks about the sellers and users of the phones. It also talks about law enforcement's efforts to try to thwart some drug deals and murders without tipping their hand.

Eventually, it all came to a head in a large sting operation. It was coordinated globally, which is pretty remarkable. It lead to a lot of arrests and prosecutions. More importantly, when the FBI announced that it had been running Anom it did cause criminals to question any future encrypted phones that might come out.

My only (minor) complaint is that I wish it dealt more with some of the ethical implications of all this. Should the FBI be listening in on everyone's phone conversations? Does it matter what percentage of users are committing? Does it matter what crimes they are committing? Was the FBI itself aiding and abetting criminals by providing them with an encrypted messaging platform? The book does address these issues and I feel like the author could have done a little more.