#joseph cox

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Joseph Cox’s “Dark Wire”

NEXT WEEKEND (June 7–9), I'm in AMHERST, NEW YORK to keynote the 25th Annual Media Ecology Association Convention and accept the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.

No one was better positioned to tell the tale of the largest sting operation in world history than veteran tech reporter Joseph Cox, and tell it he did, in Dark Wire, released today:

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/joseph-cox/dark-wire/9781541702691/

Cox – who was one of Motherboard's star cybersecurity reporters before leaving to co-found 404 Media – has spent years on the crimephone beat, tracking vendors who sold modded phones (first Blackberries, then Android phones) to criminal syndicates with the promise that they couldn't be wiretapped by law-enforcement.

It's possible that some of these phones were secure over long timescales, but all the ones we know about are ones that law enforcement eventually caught up with, usually by capturing the company's top founders explicitly stating that the phones were sold to assist in the commission of crimes, and admitting to remote-wiping phones to obstruct law-enforcement options. It's hard to prove intent but it gets a lot easier when the criminal puts that intent into writing (that's true of tech executives, too!):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

But after a particularly spectacular bust landed one of the top crimephone sales reps in the FBI's power, they got a genuinely weird idea: why not start their own crimephone company?

The plan was to build an incredibly secure, best-of-breed crimephone, one with every feature that a criminal would want to truly insulate themselves from law enforcement while still offering everything a criminal could need to plan and execute crimes.

They would tap into the network of crimephone distributors around the world, not telling them who they were truly selling for – nor that every one of these phones had a back-door that allowed law-enforcement to access every single message, photo and file.

This is the beginning of an incredible tale that is really two incredible tales. The first is the story of the FBI and its partners as they scaled up Anom, their best-of-breed crimephone business. This is a (nearly) classic startup tale, full of all-nighters, heroic battles against the odds, and the terror and exhilaration of "hockey-stick" growth.

The difference between this startup and the others we're already familiar with is obvious: the FBI and its global partners are acting under a totally different set of constraints to normal startup founders. For one thing, their true mission and identity must be kept totally secret. For another, they have to navigate the bureaucratic barriers of not one, but many governments and their courts, constitutions and procedures.

Finally, there are the stakes: while the bulk of the crimes that the FBI targets with Anom are just the usual futile war-on-drugs nonsense (albeit at a never-before seen scale), they also routinely encounter murders, kidnappings, tortures, firebombings, and other serious crimes, either in the planning phase, or after they have been committed. They have to make moment-to-moment calls about when and whether to do something about these, as each action taken based on intercepts from Anom threatens to tip the FBI's hand.

That's one of the startup stories in Cox's book. The other one is the crime startup, the one that the hapless criminal syndicates that sign up to distribute Anom devices find themselves in the middle of. They, too, are experiencing hockey-stick growth. They, too, have a fantastically lucrative tiger by the tail. And they, too, have a unique set of challenges that make this startup different from any other.

The obvious difference is that they are involved in global criminal conspiracies. They have to both grow and remain hidden. The tradecraft and skullduggery are fascinating, in the manner of any great crime procedural tale. But there's another constraint: these criminals are competing with one another to corner the market on these incredibly lucrative phones. Being part of violent, global criminal conspiracies, they don't confine themselves to the normal Silicon Valley crimes of violating antitrust law – they are engaged in all-out warfare.

These two startups are, of course, the same startup, but only one side knows it. As Cox weaves these two tales together – along with glimpses into the lives of the hapless gig-work developers in Asia who are developing and maintaining the Anom platform – we get front seat in a series of high-speed, high-stakes near-collisions between these two groups.

And it's not always the cops who have the advantage. When an ambitious mobster figures out how to clone the "black boxes" that initialize new Anom phones, the FBI are caught flatfooted as the number of Anom devices in the hands of criminals balloons, producing a volume of intercepts that vastly exceeds their processing capacity.

Cox has been on this story for a decade, and it shows. He has impeccable sourcing and encyclopedic access to the court records and other public details that allow him to reproduce many of the most dramatic scenes in the Anom caper verbatim. This really shines in the final section of the book, when the FBI and its partners decide to roll up the company with a series of global arrests that culminate in a triumphant press-conference in which the true masters of Anom are revealed.

As a privacy and encryption advocate, there were moments in this story that made me a little uncomfortable. There are places where the FBI is chafing at the constitutional limits on its surveillance powers where we can't help buy sympathize with these "good guys" going after "bad guys." But this the the FBI, a lawless, unaccountable secret police who routinely bypass those limits by secretly buying data from sleazy data-brokers, or illegally sharing data with the NSA.

The conclusion really hammers home the point that the FBI's problem isn't constitutional niceties. Despite seizing hundreds of tons of illegal drugs and arresting thousands of high-ranking criminal syndicate bosses, Anom made no difference in the drug trade. Prohibition, after all, just makes criminals more wealthy and powerful. The Anom raids were, at worst, the cost of doing business – and at best, they were a global reset that cleared the board of established actors so that other criminals could seize their turf.

But even though Anom didn't triumph over crime, Dark Wire is a triumph. The book's out today, and there will shortly be a Netflix adaptation based on it, directed by Jason Bateman:

https://deadline.com/2022/09/jason-bateman-netflix-21-laps-dark-wire-surveillance-gangs-movie-1235130444/

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/04/anom-nom-nom/the-call-is-coming-from-inside-the-ndrangheta

[dont-read-this-im-dead]

The best part about living out of my car, is that the library is free, and air conditioned. I LOVE books about true stories, especially if it's about a crime or a cop or someone overcoming a dark past.

[deniable-masterpiece]

great british twerk off contest in my room tonight!! andrew garfield, tom holland, joseph quinn, robert pattinson, and charlie cox come to claim your first place prize

[scruffylookingpiratecaptain]

Avengers Doomsday is going to fucking kill me

[toiletpotato]

Would you like another way to help raise money for Medical Aid for Palestinians? Please consider participating in the above silent auction! It goes to a very, very good cause and there are some pretty cool items/experiences up for auction!

In doing so you could...

Win a Doctor Who shooting script signed by Peter Capaldi

Have Josh O'Connor teach you how to make porridge

Win a ticket to Ramy Youssef's live show, after party, and meet and greet

Have Tilda Swinton read you (or your children) a bedtime story

Have a cup of tea over Zoom with Paapa Essiedu

Win Susan Wokoma's tasking outfit from Taskmaster

Have a cup of tea over Zoom with Joseph Quinn

Have Kiell Smith Bynoe sew you a dress

Win a script of Ghosts signed by Kiell Smith Bynoe

Talk astrology with Aimee Lou Wood over Zoom

Win a meet and greet with Brian Cox

Have a walk on part in Gurinder Chadha's next film

Win a Zoom Q&A with Aisling Bea

Win a Downton Abbey book signed by Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter

... and more!!

If you cannot participate, or would prefer to give directly, regardless of where you are based:

Medical Aid for Palestinians

Operation Olive Branch

Palestine Children's Relief Fund

UNRWA

Help Gaza Children

Mutual Aid Fund for Gaza & Help Mona's Family Leave Gaza (only $5000 away from meeting their goal!)

Click to Help

[mikyapixie]

𝐖𝐁 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐌𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐃𝐞 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐓𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞-𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐆𝐨! 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬!

[ohdeargodwhy]

Cinema for GAZA Auction now live until 12th April, raising money for MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

Featuring a lot of Doctor Who goodies:

Signed DOCTOR WHO shooting script with amazing cover artwork by Peter Capaldi

Clapperboard from DOCTOR WHO signed by Jenna Coleman + Peter Capaldi

Zoom with Arthur Darvill & Karen Gillan + signed DOCTOR WHO script

Zoom with DOCTOR WHO's Pearl Mackie + signed gift

Plus other auction items from Tilda Swinton, Joseph Quinn, Jonathan Glazer, Rose Matafeo, Louis Theroux, Annie Lennox, Olly Alexander, Gurinder Chadha, Brian Cox, Ramy Youssef, Kiell Smith-Bynoe and many many more!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Make that Trump and D.C. Be sure to read the caption.

[Thanks Steve Jennings]

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 2, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jun 03, 2025

The Republicans’ giant budget reconciliation bill has focused attention on the drastic cuts the Trump administration is making to the American government. On Friday, when a constituent at a town hall shouted that the Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid, the federal healthcare program for low-income Americans, meant that “people will die,” Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) replied, “Well, we are all going to die.”

The next day, Ernst released a video purporting to be an apology. It made things worse. “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this Earth. So, I apologize. And I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well. But for those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my lord and savior, Jesus Christ," she said.

Ernst blamed the “hysteria that’s out there coming from the left” for the outcry over her comments. Like other Republicans, she claims that the proposed cuts of more than $700 billion in Medicaid funding over the next ten years is designed only to get rid of the waste and fraud in the program. Thus, they say, they are actually strengthening Medicaid for those who need it.

But, as Linda Qiu noted in the New York Times today, most of the bill’s provisions have little to do with the “waste, fraud, and abuse” Republicans talk about. They target Medicaid expansion, cut the ability of states to finance Medicaid, force states to drop coverage, and limit access to care. And the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the cuts mean more than 10.3 million Americans will lose health care coverage.

House speaker Mike Johnson has claimed that those losing coverage will be 1.4 million unauthorized immigrants, but this is false. As Qiu notes, although 14 states use their own funds to provide health insurance for undocumented immigrant children, and seven of those states provide some coverage for undocumented pregnant women, in fact, “unauthorized immigrants are not eligible for federally funded Medicaid, except in emergency situations.” Instead, the bill pressures those fourteen states to drop undocumented coverage by reducing their federal Medicaid funding.

MAGA Republicans claim their “One Big, Beautiful Bill”—that’s its official name—dramatically reduces the deficit, but that, too, is a lie.

On Thursday, May 29, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the measure would carry out “the largest deficit reduction in nearly 30 years with $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings.” She echoed forty years of Republican claims that the economic growth unleashed by the measure would lead to higher tax revenues, a claim that hasn’t been true since Ronald Reagan made it in the 1980s.

In fact, the CBO estimates that the tax cuts and additional spending in the measure mean “[a]n increase in the federal deficit of $3.8 trillion.” As G. Elliott Morris of Strength in Numbers notes, the CBO has been historically very reliable, but Leavitt and House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) tried to discount its scoring by claiming, as Johnson said: “They are historically totally unreliable. It’s run by Democrats.”

The director of the CBO, economist Philip Swagel, worked as chief of staff and senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisors during the George W. Bush administration. He was appointed in 2019 with the support of Senate Budget Committee chair Michael Enzi (R-WY) and House Budget Committee chair John Yarmuth (D-KY). He was reappointed in 2023 with bipartisan support.

Republican cuts to government programs are a dramatic reworking of America’s traditional evidence-based government that works to improve the lives of a majority of Americans. They are replacing that government with an ideologically driven system that concentrates wealth and power in a few hands and denies that the government has a role to play in protecting Americans.

And yet, those who get their news by watching the Fox News Channel are likely unaware of the Republicans’ planned changes to Medicaid. As Aaron Rupar noted, on this morning’s Fox and Friends, the hosts mentioned Medicaid just once. They mentioned former president Joe Biden 39 times.

That change shows dramatically in cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA is an agency in the Commerce Department, established under Republican president Richard Nixon in 1970, that monitors weather conditions, storms, and ocean currents. The National Weather Service (NWS), which provides weather, wind, and ocean forecasts, is part of NOAA.

NWS forecasts annually provide the U.S. with an estimated $31.5 billion in benefits as they enable farmers, fishermen, businesspeople, schools, and individuals to plan around weather events.

As soon as he took office, Trump imposed an across-the-board hiring freeze, and billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” fired probationary employees and impounded funds Congress had appropriated. Now, as hurricane season begins, experts in storms and disasters are worried that the NOAA will be unable to function adequately.

Cuts to the NWS have already meant fewer weather balloons and thus less data, leaving gaps in information for a March ice storm in Northern Michigan and for storms and floods in Oklahoma in April. Oliver Milman of The Guardian reported today that 15 NWS offices on the Gulf of Mexico, a region vulnerable to hurricanes, are understaffed after losing more than 600 employees. Miami’s National Hurricane Center is short five specialists. Thirty of the 122 NWS stations no longer have a meteorologist in charge, and as of June 1, seven of those 122 stations will not have enough staff to operate around the clock.

On May 5, the five living former NWS leaders, who served under both Democratic and Republican presidents, wrote a letter to the American people warning that the cuts threaten to bring “needless loss of life.” They urged Americans to “raise your voice” against the cuts.

Trump’s proposed 2026 budget calls for “terminating a variety of climate-dominated research, data, and grant programs” and cutting about 25% more out of NOAA’s funding.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has also suffered dramatic cuts as Trump has said he intends to push disaster recovery to the states. The lack of expertise is taking a toll there, too. Today staff members there said they were baffled after David Richardson, the head of the agency, said he did not know the United States has a hurricane season. (It does, and it stretches from June 1 to the end of November.) Richardson had no experience with disaster response before taking charge of FEMA.

Trump’s proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are even more draconian. On Friday, in a more detailed budget than the administration published in early May, the administration called for cuts of 43% to the NIH, about $20 billion a year. That includes cuts of nearly 40% to the National Cancer Institute. At the same time, the administration is threatening to end virtually all biomedical research at universities.

On Friday, May 23, the White House issued an executive order called “Restoring Gold Standard Science.” The order cites the COVID-19 guidance about school reopenings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to claim that the federal government under President Joe Biden “used or promoted scientific information in a highly misleading manner.” (Schools closed in March 2020 under Trump.) The document orders that “[e]mployees shall not engage in scientific misconduct” and, scientists Colette Delawalla, Victor Ambros, Carl Bergstrom, Carol Greider, Michael Mann, and Brian Nosek explain in The Guardian, gives political appointees the power to silence any research they oppose “based on their own ‘judgment.’” They also have the power to punish those scientists whose work they find objectionable.

The Guardian authors note that science is “the most important long-term investment for humanity.” They recall the story of Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko, who is a prime example of the terrible danger of replacing fact-based reality with ideology.

As Sam Kean of The Atlantic noted in 2017, Lysenko opposed science-based agriculture in the mid-20th century in favor of the pseudo-scientific idea that the environment alone shapes plants and animals. This idea reflected communist political thought, and Lysenko gained the favor of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Lysenko claimed that his own agricultural techniques, which included transforming one species into another, would dramatically increase crop yields. Government leaders declared that Lysenko’s ideas were the only correct ones, and anyone who disagreed with him was denounced. About 3,000 biologists whose work contradicted his were fired or sent to jail. Some were executed. Scientific research was effectively banned.

In the 1930s, Soviet leaders set out to “modernize” Soviet agriculture, and when their new state-run farming collectives failed, they turned to Lysenko to fix the problem with his new techniques. Almost everything planted according to his demands died or rotted. In the USSR and in China, which adopted his methods in the 1950s, at least 30 million people died of starvation.

“[W]hen the doctrines of science and the doctrines of communism clashed, he always chose the latter—confident that biology would conform to ideology in the end,” Kean said of Lysenko. He concludes: “It never did.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[medievalandfantasymelee]

The Near Misses Tourney: Round II (2 of 2)

In 400+ submissions many worthy and noble (also some dastardly and evil) men (and orcs and elves and hobbits and the like) were admitted to our fair Tourney.

These are... not them.

No indeed, 20 men (and one... unit?) of those submitted failed to qualify for the tournament, for diverse reasons. They were therefore turned away and tossed on the Near Misses Pile. But the spirit of competition still burns within them, and they have erected a makeshift tilt on the outskirts of the Tourney Grounds.

In the first round, our 21 competitors faced off, in two polls of 11 and 10 respectively. The four highest voted contenders from each side have advanced and will also face off in two polls of 4 and 4.

The two highest voted from each poll will advance, while the rest will be sent home in final disgrace. We wish them the best of luck in their fruitless endeavour!!!

Row 1: Captain Killian "Hook Jones [Colin O'Donoghue], Once Upon a Time (2011-2018) Tristan Thorn [Charlie Cox], Stardust (2007)

Row 2: Kala Bhairava [Ram Charan], Magadheera (2009) William Shakespeare [Joseph Fiennes], Shakespeare in Love (1994)

[girl-drink-drunk]

[buckypascal]

Mariah…I just still can’t believe that Pedro, Oscar, Charlie, Sebastian, and Joseph are all in the MCU

I need a movie or show of just their characters interacting. Even just one scene 😫🥵

No but like literally though. Any of their characters interacting is gonna send me over the edge. So many good possibilities too 😭

Oscar and Charlie's characters? Genius.

Oscar and Pedro's characters? 🤭

Sebastian and Joseph's? Please 😭

[sticktodaydreams]

Marvel Lovers 🩷 pt. 2

[gmax-centiskorch]

he daring on my devil til I’m born again

[letterboxd-loggd]

What a Feeling (2024) Kat Rohrer

January 11th 2025

[vikingagesource]

Stills from Season 1 Episode 1 of The Last Kingdom

Courtesy of the FarFarAwaySite

[annmaximoff18]

Mayores Of Becky G describes my love for older men