Your average criminal is not making their own and have to trust some third party regardless. Law enforcement agencies have been known to have wide spread honey pot secure messaging apps before.
All they really need is a program that turns cleartext into ciphertext and back, an open communication channel to transmit ciphertext, a secure way to exchange keys, and good operational security. There are plenty of cybersecurity experts with good skills and flexible morals, except NK and Russia probably pay better than the local meth lord.
No, but by making their own they can ensure there isn't one. Or something like that.
Your average criminal is not making their own and have to trust some third party regardless. Law enforcement agencies have been known to have wide spread honey pot secure messaging apps before.
Yes. Most are likely still on provenly compromised platforms like whatsapp or telegram.
All they really need is a program that turns cleartext into ciphertext and back, an open communication channel to transmit ciphertext, a secure way to exchange keys, and good operational security. There are plenty of cybersecurity experts with good skills and flexible morals, except NK and Russia probably pay better than the local meth lord.