physics

Operation Trojan Shield

Operation Trojan Shield is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Operation Trojan Shield rather than just read about it. In short: Operation Trojan Shield (stylized TRØJAN SHIELD), part of Operation Ironside, was a collaboration by law enforcement agencies from several countries, running between 2018 and 2021. It was a sting operation that intercepted millions of messages sent through the supposedly secure smartphone-based proprietary messaging app ANOM (also stylized as AN0M or ΛNØM).

Key takeaways

Operation Trojan Shield belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Operation Trojan Shield to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Operation Trojan Shield from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Operation Trojan Shield (stylized TRØJAN SHIELD), part of Operation Ironside, was a collaboration by law enforcement agencies from several countries, running between 2018 and 2021. It was a sting operation that intercepted millions of messages sent through the supposedly secure smartphone-based proprietary messaging app ANOM (also stylized as AN0M or ΛNØM). The ANOM service was widely used by criminals, but instead of providing secure communication, it was actually a trojan horse covertly distributed by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP), enabling them to monitor all communications. Through collaboration with other law enforcement agencies worldwide, the operation resulted in the arrest of over 800 suspects allegedly involved in criminal activity in 16 countries. Among the arrested people were alleged members of Australian-based Italian mafia, Albanian organised crime, outlaw motorcycle clubs, drug syndicates and other organised crime groups.

Background An investigation into a Canadian secure messaging company called Phantom Secure was initiated in 2017. The FBI alleges that the investigation revealed that Phantom Secure sold its encrypted devices exclusively to members of transnational criminal organizations (TCO). Hardened encrypted devices provide an "impenetrable shield against law enforcement surveillance” and are in high demand by TCOs, thus the shutdown of Phantom Secure in March 2018 left a vacuum for TCOs in need of an alternative system for secure communication. Around the same time, the San Diego FBI branch had been working with a person, known by the pseudonym "Afgoo", who had been developing a "next-generation" encrypted device for use by criminal networks. The person was facing charges and cooperated with the FBI in exchange for a reduced sentence. The person offered to develop ANOM and then use his contacts to distribute it to TCOs through existing networks. Before the devices were put to use, however, the FBI, and the AFP had a backdoor built into the communication platform which allowed law enforcement agencies to decrypt and store the messages as the messages were transmitted. The first communication devices with ANOM were offered by this informant to three former distributors of Phantom Secure in October 2018. The FBI named the operation "Trojan Shield", and the AFP named it "Ironside". Europol set up the Operational Task Force Greenlight.

Distribution and usage

The ANOM devices consisted of a messaging app running on Android smartphones with a custom ROM called ArcaneOS that had been specially modified to disable normal functions such as voice telephony, email, or location services, and with the addition of PIN entry screen scrambling to randomise the layout of the numbers, the deletion of all information on the phone if a specific PIN is entered, and the option for the automatic deletion of all information if unused for a specific period of time. The app was opened by entering a specific calculation within the calculator app, described by the developer of GrapheneOS as "quite amusing security theater", where the messaging app then communicated with other devices via supposedly secure proxy servers, which also – unbeknownst to the app's users – copied all sent messages to servers controlled by the FBI. The FBI could then decrypt the messages with a private key associated with the message, without ever needing physical access to the devices. The devices also had a fixed identification number assigned to each user, allowing messages from the same user to be connected to each other. About 50 devices were distributed in Australia for beta testing from October 2018. The intercepted communications showed that every device was used for criminal activities, primarily being used by organised criminal gangs. About 125 devices were shipped to different drop-off points to the United States in 2020. Use of the app spread through word of mouth, and was also encouraged by undercover agents; drug trafficker Hakan Ayik was identified "as someone who was trusted and was going to be able to successfully distribute this platform", and without his knowledge was encouraged by undercover agents to use and sell the devices on the black market, further expanding its use. After users of the devices requested smaller and newer phones, new devices were designed and sold; customer service and technical assistance was also provided by the company. The most commonly used languages on the app were Dutch, German and Swedish. After a slow start, the rate of distribution of ANOM increased from mid-2019. By October 2019, there were several hundred users. By May 2021, there had been 11,800 devices with ANOM installed, of which about 9,000 were in use. New Zealand had 57 users of the ANOM communication system. The Swedish Police had access to conversations from 1,600 users, of which they focused their surveillance on 600 users. Europol stated 27 million messages were collected from ANOM devices across over 100 countries. Some skepticism of the app did exist; an anonymous blog post in March 2021 called the app a scam.

Law enforcement operational methodology

The following is alleged by the FBI:

2018 The "backdoor" built by the FBI into the system by design would send an additional encrypted copy of each message sent by the ANOM users to a third party server referred to by the FBI as an "iBot" server. Fourth amendment interpretations endangered the project if the iBot servers were located in the U.S. and so the servers necessarily were located outside U.S. borders. The first server would decrypt the copied message, process the information in the message (GPS location, text, username/Jabber-ID, password etc.) and then re-encrypt it to send it to a second "FBI-owned" iBot server.

2019 Because the FBI could not own the first iBot node, nor were they permitted to receive any of the seized information about U.S. citizens, they contracted with the AFP to run the first node of the server and process the data. (Australian law does not provide the same protections as U.S. law for its citizens.) Controversially the AFP did share "general" information about conversations from the ANOM messages with the FBI during this time period despite Australia's judicial order to intercept ANOM communications did not allow for the sharing of the content with foreign partners.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Operation Trojan Shield: ANOM app screenshot — ANOM app screenshot

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Operation Trojan Shield

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Operation Trojan Shield claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Operation Trojan Shield before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Operation Trojan Shield ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Operation Trojan Shield

In research: Operation Trojan Shield appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Operation Trojan Shield in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Operation Trojan Shield is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2021 in international relations, 2021 in law, Anonymity networks, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Operation Trojan Shield outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Operation Trojan Shield in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Operation Trojan Shield means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Operation Trojan Shield out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Operation Trojan Shield in simple terms?

Why does Operation Trojan Shield matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Operation Trojan Shield?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Operation Trojan Shield.