Encrypted apps, AI, and cloud surveillance in policing

When Australia’s High Court unanimously backed the use of a covertly operated encrypted messaging app in October 2025, it did more than settle a hotly contested legal question. It signalled a broader recalibration of how police across Australia and New Zealand deploy technology to disrupt organised crime, cyber‑enabled fraud and violent offending. The decision — centred on the Australian Federal Police’s (AFP) use of the AN0M platform in Operation Ironside — has cleared the way for hundreds of prosecutions and set a precedent that will shape the next decade of digital policing.

This article examines what the ruling means, how agencies are extending technological capabilities beyond AN0M, and the legal‑ethical guardrails developing in parallel. It draws on recent judicial findings, operational updates and policy frameworks across both countries to provide a vendor‑neutral, practitioner‑focused view for government technology leaders.

A legal inflection point: High Court backs AN0M

The AN0M saga began as a joint AFP–FBI effort, seeded after the 2018 takedown of Phantom Secure. Operatives distributed stripped‑down smartphones running an encrypted messenger that criminals believed was safe; in reality, messages were duplicated and routed to servers accessible to law enforcement. In June 2021, coordinated raids culminated in more than 220 arrests nationally and the seizure of cash, guns and multi‑tonne drug quantities under Operation Ironside.

Defendants challenged the admissibility of AN0M communications, arguing authorities had unlawfully ‘intercepted’ messages without appropriate telecommunications warrants. The test case first went through the South Australian Court of Appeal, which held in June 2024 that the app’s architecture did not constitute interception under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act and that AFP authorisations were valid. The matter progressed to the High Court, where in October 2025 the full bench endorsed the approach and rejected a companion constitutional challenge to retrospective legislation designed to ‘confirm’ the legal basis for the operation. In practical terms, the ruling allows prosecutors to rely on AN0M evidence, and several accused subsequently entered guilty pleas or proceeded to trial with convictions following.

For policing, this outcome is consequential. It affirms the courts’ willingness to recognise innovative technical constructs — where a message copy is generated and transmitted in parallel — to enable lawful access in complex investigations. It also validates the Commonwealth’s policy choice to legislate with retrospective effect to preserve prosecutions in a once‑in‑a‑generation operation. Yet it does so without brushing aside civil liberties: the judgements grappled explicitly with constitutional limits and institutional integrity, and their reasoning will inform future oversight.

From encrypted stings to a broader toolkit

While AN0M is the headline, the tech fight against crime in Australia and New Zealand spans three rapidly maturing domains: AI‑enabled policing, cloud‑based surveillance and cyber‑financial disruption.

AI‑enabled policing in New Zealand (and lessons for Australia)

New Zealand Police have been exploring AI‑assisted tools to improve frontline safety and investigative throughput. SearchX analyses connections among suspects, locations and criminal charges to provide real‑time risk assessment for officers responding to incidents. BriefCam accelerates video review by extracting objects, faces and number plates from CCTV, shrinking analysis windows from months to hours. Cellebrite tools support lawful extraction of mobile device data for serious crime investigations.

These deployments have prompted public debate about intrusiveness, data retention and algorithmic bias — especially where facial recognition and network analysis may disproportionately affect certain communities. In response, agencies across Australasia are developing ethics frameworks. The Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency (ANZPAA) has published Responsible and Ethical AI principles to guide procurement, testing and operational use, emphasising lawfulness, necessity, proportionality, explainability and auditability.

Cloud surveillance: IRAP‑assured platforms and public–private collaboration

Cloud‑native video and vehicle intelligence platforms are reshaping situational awareness for police and councils. In 2025, Genetec became the first vendor in the Australia–New Zealand region to achieve IRAP assessment for a full cloud security suite, enabling sensitive deployments in government. Two capabilities stand out:

• Cloudrunner: combines registration plate recognition with vehicle make, model, colour, speed and direction metadata to accelerate offender and vehicle‑of‑interest searches.
• Community Connect: a governance framework and secure ‘tunnel’ approach for real‑time video sharing between private camera owners (shopping centres, transport hubs) and public agencies, preserving owner control while enabling rapid incident response.

Cyber‑financial disruption: stopping scams and laundering at scale

The AFP’s Joint Policing Cybercrime Coordination Centre (JPC3) has coordinated national efforts against ransomware and mass‑phishing infrastructures, with operations that dismantled platforms used to compromise tens of thousands of Australians’ credentials and prevented tens of millions of dollars in losses. These campaigns increasingly blend offensive cyber, digital forensics and traditional policing, reflecting how fraud and organised crime have converged online.

In parallel, financial institutions in Australia and New Zealand are adopting AI‑driven anti‑money laundering (AML) and fraud detection to counter deepfake‑enabled scams and account takeover. Sector reports in 2025 highlight evolving typologies — synthetic identity rings powered by generative AI, voice‑clone ‘CEO’ scams that bypass callback controls, and real‑time payment laundering across multiple fintechs.

Encryption, lawful access and the regulatory environment

One reason the AN0M ruling matters is that it sits within a broader lawful access framework. Australia’s Assistance and Access Act 2018 created mechanisms (Technical Assistance Requests/Notices) to require providers to assist agencies in accessing data, with explicit safeguards that prohibit systemic backdoors and require proportionality and oversight.

Critics argue that these powers risk undermining encryption, while government emphasises the necessity of targeted access where serious harm is at stake. The High Court outcome in 2025 does not expand these powers; rather, it clarifies how a specific technical operation can be conducted lawfully and adjudicated fairly.

The road ahead

The High Court’s endorsement of AN0M‑derived evidence does not grant police carte blanche. It does, however, confirm that creative, technically sophisticated operations can pass legal muster when designed with care and authorised properly. Combined with maturing AI, IRAP‑assured cloud platforms and cross‑industry cyber defences, agencies across Australia and New Zealand have a robust toolkit to push back against organised crime and fraud.

The challenge now is execution with integrity: deploying powerful technologies in ways that are targeted, accountable and explainable; preparing for inevitable legal tests; and maintaining the social licence that enables public‑sector innovation. If agencies get that balance right, the digital transformation of policing will remain both effective and legitimate.

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