The Imitation Game and Modern Information Warfare: What is Security?

The movie The Imitation Game revolves around the activities of British scientists who deciphered the German military's code. The main character Alan Turing and his team deciphered the German military's Enigma machine, which was considered impregnable at the time, but they had to keep the fact a complete secret. If the fact that they had deciphered the code was revealed, the German military would change the encryption system, and all their efforts would have been in vain. They made a strategic choice to prevent information leaks and achieve maximum results with minimum sacrifice.

Information warfare is being waged in a similar way in modern times. In the digital age, criminals are sharing their plans with each other using encrypted messengers. In response, the FBI and intelligence agencies around the world have employed strategies to eliminate them using encryption technology. A representative example is the secure messenger called 'ANOM'.

The Birth of ANOM and the Trust of Criminals

ANOM is an encrypted messenger developed in collaboration between the FBI and the Australian Federal Police (AFP), and has been secretly distributed since 2018. This messenger functioned as a Trojan horse designed to allow the FBI to eavesdrop on encrypted communications in real time. ANOM was installed on dedicated devices used primarily by criminal organizations, and these devices were sold through illegal networks.

The reason criminals trusted ANOM was because the demand for encrypted communication methods increased rapidly after the FBI shut down existing messengers popular with criminals, 'Phantom Secure' and 'Sky ECC'. The FBI took advantage of this gap to naturally infiltrate ANOM among criminals, making users believe that it offered strong security. As a result, ANOM acquired approximately 12,000 users in over 100 countries, many of whom were involved in organized crime.

The FBI's ANOM Operation: A Large-Scale Trap Using Security as Bait

The core of the ANOM operation was to make criminals believe that it offered strong security, and then have the FBI and AFP eavesdrop on all of their communications in real time. After three years of operation, the FBI reportedly collected evidence of serious crimes such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and contract killings through this messenger. In June 2021, simultaneous crackdowns were carried out around the world, and more than 800 criminals were arrested. This operation is considered a successful example of digital information warfare that took advantage of the fact that criminals rely too much on encrypted messengers.

Martial law and enhanced messenger use: The illusion of security

There were notable cases even during martial law. Some martial law participants and government officials used Telegram, then deleted it after leaving, and it was reported that they used a messenger with enhanced security than Telegram, then deleted it. The messenger they used boasted strong security, but could they really avoid being tracked?

The encryption function provided by secure messengers is often overrated in itself.

First, security is closely related to user habits as well as technology. Even an encrypted messenger is meaningless if the conversation is screenshotted and shared, or the device itself is confiscated.

Second, government agencies can directly hack messenger services or obtain data from user devices to neutralize security if necessary.

Third, as the ANOM operation shows, there are cases where intelligence agencies create messengers or have access to data. There are backdoor apps in smartphone app stores and Google Play Market that have backdoors embedded in apps or that are created to target specific groups.

Reevaluation and lessons for secure messengers

Encryption technology clearly protects personal privacy and is useful when used for legitimate purposes. However, it can be dangerous to rely too much on it. Especially when dealing with national security or serious crimes, the environment surrounding it and the user's behavior should be closely examined, not the security technology itself.

In the case of Telegram, which had grown in number due to word of mouth about its strong security, after its founder Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris, it began providing information on criminals to intelligence agencies and judicial authorities in each country and announced that it would delete several functions that were mainly used for crimes.

As the lesson from the movie The Imitation Game suggests, security is not simply completed with encryption technology. Only when the use of information, concealment, and strategic choice of appropriate timing are all intertwined can complete security be achieved. In modern digital information warfare, it is necessary to maintain this balance and to coolly analyze the truth and falsehood of technology.

The use of unauthorized messengers by Korean government officials can pose a great risk to national security. It should be recognized that communicating through unauthorized messengers can lead to the leaking of sensitive information that threatens national security to a third country.

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