Weeping Angel DEVELOPED_BY Central Intelligence Agency
Jack says the CIA developed Weeping Angel.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 146 Details
“There’s a thing that the CIA developed called Weeping Angel.”
Episode
04 June 2024 Official episode · Official transcript
cybercrime advanced persistent threat
Joseph Cox discusses Anom, an encrypted-phone platform secretly operated with FBI involvement to collect users’ messages, and the resulting Operation Trojan Shield investigation.
Topics: Encrypted mobile communications platforms, End-to-end encryption and hidden message recipients, Law-enforcement backdoors and message interception, FBI-operated surveillance infrastructure, Graph analysis of criminal communication networks, AI-assisted message summarization and triage, Enterprise message archiving, Custom Android and GrapheneOS phone operating systems, Remote wiping and application obfuscation, Voice scrambling, SIM cards and cellular baseband communications, Parallel construction, Mass surveillance and cross-border intelligence sharing, Threat-to-life detection in encrypted communications
Links published on the Darknet Diaries episode page. Not LLM output.
Qualified statements from this episode, not graph facts.
Weeping Angel DEVELOPED_BY Central Intelligence Agency
Jack says the CIA developed Weeping Angel.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 146 Details
“There’s a thing that the CIA developed called Weeping Angel.”
Weeping Angel AFFECTS Samsung smart TV
Weeping Angel is described as spyware for Samsung smart TVs that records microphone audio.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 146 Details
“they developed some kind of spyware for the Samsung smart TV, where it would record the audio from the mic”
Weeping Angel USES Fake Off
The spyware relies on the TV's Fake Off mode to keep the microphone active while the TV appears to be off.
Derived Confidence 95% · Jack Rhysider EP 146 Details
“The TV sits there, recording all the audio in the room, but appears to be off.”
Joseph Cox AUTHORED Dark Wire
Joseph identifies himself as the author of Dark Wire.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“My name is Joseph Cox. I’m the author of Dark Wire”
Joseph Cox MEMBER_OF 404 Media
Joseph says he is a co-founder and journalist at 404 Media.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“I’m also a co-founder and journalist at 404 Media.”
Jason Kebler MEMBER_OF 404 Media
Jason Kebler is identified as one of the four people comprising 404 Media.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“404 is a group of four of us; myself, Jason Kebler, Emanuel Maiberg, and Samantha Cole”
Emanuel Maiberg MEMBER_OF 404 Media
Emanuel Maiberg is identified as one of the four people comprising 404 Media.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“Jason Kebler, Emanuel Maiberg, and Samantha Cole”
Samantha Cole MEMBER_OF 404 Media
Samantha Cole is identified as one of the four people comprising 404 Media.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“Jason Kebler, Emanuel Maiberg, and Samantha Cole”
GrapheneOS VARIANT_OF Android
GrapheneOS is described as a fork of Android.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 146 Details
“GrapheneOS, which is a fork of Android.”
ANOM VARIANT_OF GrapheneOS
Joseph says Anom's custom phone operating system was, apparently, a fork of GrapheneOS.
Uncertain Confidence 78% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“Apparently Anom had also removed all GPS functionality”
Joseph says Anom was created by Afgoo, whom he characterizes as a criminal-underground technology expert.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“Anom was created by someone called Afgoo.”
Afgoo ASSOCIATED_WITH Hakan Ayik
Joseph says Afgoo was connected to Hakan Ayik.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“They were connected to a very well-known criminal called Hakan Ayik”
ANOM USES End-to-end encryption
Anom included a communications app that allowed users to send end-to-end encrypted messages.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“It had a secure communications app that allows you to send end-to-end encrypted messages”
ANOM USES remote wipe
Joseph says Anom included phone-wiping functionality.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“Anom had all of those sorts of bells and whistles you would expect; wiping the phone”
ANOM USES Man-in-the-middle
Anom secretly added a ghost contact to every conversation and sent it a copy of each message, functioning as a man-in-the-middle surveillance mechanism.
Derived Confidence 99% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“Anom basically created a ghost contact that was added to every conversation, and it received a blind carbon copy, a BCC, of every message sent across the platform.”
ANOM AFFECTS End-to-end encryption
Although Anom was described as end-to-end encrypted, the messages were also encrypted to Anom's servers through the hidden contact.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 146 Details
“it was also end-to-end encrypted directly to Anom servers.”
Operation Trojan Shield INVOLVES ANOM
Operation Trojan Shield is identified as the worldwide operation involving Anom devices and services.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Randy Grossman EP 146 Details
“This investigation, called Operation Trojan Shield, shined a light into the shadowy industry of hardened encrypted devices.”
ANOM DEVELOPED_BY Federal Bureau of Investigation
The FBI's Acting U.S. Attorney says the FBI developed its own hardened encrypted device company called Anom.
Attributed Confidence 99% · Randy Grossman EP 146 Details
“the FBI developed and operated its own hardened encrypted device company called Anom”
ANOM ASSOCIATED_WITH Federal Bureau of Investigation
According to Randy Grossman, Anom devices were operated by the FBI.
Attributed Confidence 99% · Randy Grossman EP 146 Details
“But the devices were actually operated by the FBI.”
Operation Trojan Shield ASSOCIATED_WITH Federal Bureau of Investigation
The operation is described as a San Diego-based FBI investigation.
Attributed Confidence 90% · Randy Grossman EP 146 Details
“This was an unprecedented operation”
Operation Trojan Shield INVOLVES Australian Federal Police
The campaign involved the Australian Federal Police as an international partner in the operation.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 146 Details
“The FBI and AFP, Australian Federal Police, got access to all the encrypted messages going across Anom.”
Operation Trojan Shield INVOLVES Department of Justice
The operation involved DOJ officials in decisions about access to U.S. communications and wiretap approval.
Explicit Confidence 93% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“higher-ups at the DOJ shut that down, essentially.”
Hola iBot DEVELOPED_BY Federal Bureau of Investigation
Hola iBot was developed in-house by FBI computer scientists as Anom's surveillance interface.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“Hola iBot was developed by FBI computer scientists. It was made in-house as basically the surveillance interface of Anom.”
The Hola iBot interface is compared to a Maltego-style interface.
Derived Confidence 90% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“It’s almost like a Maltego sort of interface.”
Fast and Furious INVOLVES Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Jack describes Fast and Furious as an ATF operation involving weapons deals with criminals.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 146 Details
“This was a real operation done by the ATF, Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, where they set up weapons deals with criminals”
Fast and Furious LEADS_TO Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Jack says the operation went wrong and resulted in criticism that the ATF acted without proper strategy or oversight.
Explicit Confidence 95% · Jack Rhysider EP 146 Details
“it showed how the ATF was operating without proper strategy or oversight or following policies put in place.”
EncroChat hack RELATED_TO Operation Trojan Shield
Joseph groups the EncroChat hack with Anom and Sky as continuing law-enforcement efforts against encrypted communications.
Explicit Confidence 90% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“As well as Anom, there was the Sky hack, there was the EncroChat hack as well.”
Sky hack RELATED_TO Operation Trojan Shield
Joseph groups the Sky hack with Anom and EncroChat as continuing law-enforcement efforts against encrypted communications.
Explicit Confidence 90% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“As well as Anom, there was the Sky hack”
Operation Trojan Shield USES Parallel construction
The episode says law enforcement used parallel construction to conceal that Anom intelligence led to enforcement actions.
Derived Confidence 96% · Joseph Cox EP 146 Details
“That’s basically parallel construction.”
Mass surveillance ASSOCIATED_WITH Operation Trojan Shield
Jack characterizes the collection of all messages from all Anom users as a mass-surveillance aspect of the operation.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 146 Details
“what’s different about this story is the mass-surveillance aspect to it. All messages for all users were being collected and stored.”
Joseph Cox REFERENCES Dark Wire
Joseph's interview and Jack's recommendation center on Joseph's book Dark Wire.
Explicit Confidence 95% · Jack Rhysider EP 146 Details
“you should do yourself a favor and go read Dark Wire by Joseph Cox.”
Works mentioned in the transcript. Distinct from show-note sources.
Model gpt-5.6-luna · prompt 1.5.19 · schema 1.5.19 · 2026-09-13T08:23:16.358213+00:00