On Cryptome's front page, the top is occupied by an announcement that they received a letter from the IRS dated September 17th granting them status as a 501(c)(3) charity whose donations are now tax deductible (archived). The date on the letter is only 2 days after the announcement of the revocation of then current Cryptome PGP keys. It is unknown if the events are connected, though the timing raises suspicions.
Category Archives: North America
Judge Dismisses Charges Against Kentucky Drone Shooter
WDRB reports that Judge Rebecca Ward has dismissed all charges (archived) against the Kentucky Man who shot down a drone in defense of his property this July.
FBI Agent Encourages Paying Ransomware Demands
The Security Ledger report at a summit the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s CYBER and Counterintelligence Program at the Boston field office, Joseph Bonavolonta, encourages paying ransomware demands (archived). The quality of the encryption implementations utilized in ransomware is frequently too high for his office to do anything to recover the affected files. As a prophylactic measure he encouraged healthy backup measures so systems could at least be restored to a pre-ransomware state.
Symbolics Quadruples Revenue in FY 2015 on One USG Transaction
The privately held firm Symbolics which holds the remaining assets and intellectual property of the former lisp machine manufacturer Symbolics, Inc is reported on the US Government's spending disclosure site to have quadrupled its revenue over last year. The transaction is reported as being for: Continue reading
Illinois and Pennsylvania Credit Ratings Lowered
Reports have emerged today that the United States regional governments of Illinois (archived) and Pennsylvania (archived) have had their credit ratings lowered joining the embattled municipality of Ferguson as the creditworthiness of the United States and its parts continue sliding due to the structural insolvency of the fiat currency experiment. Illinois was downgraded by Fitch Ratings while Pennsylvania was downgraded by Moody's. Illinois already lead the United States with the lowest credit rating of any State government, and is embroiled in a budgetary dispute between new Governor Bruce Rauner and the legislature run by the opposing political party. The financial situation in Illinois has degraded to the point the self funding state lottery can no longer pay out winning tickets about $600 with ongoing labor unrest including a teacher's strike in East Saint Louis threatening to destabilize some of Illinois most volatile areas. Pennsylvania by contrast was downgraded due to ongoing structural deficits and underfunded pension obligations.
78 Months in Prison for Carl Mark Force IV
In today's sentencing Carl Mark Force IV received a bit of leniency over the 87 months imprisonment recommended by the prosecution. The judge simply flipped the digits relieving him with a sentence of only 78 months.
Well Connected Bezzle "Health" Startup Theranos Collapsing
Theranos, a health startup which features a board comprised of two former US Secretary of State, Numerous former US Defense Officials, a former Senator, and a former Wells Fargo CEO is facing accusations of their signature blood testing service was never accurate to a useful degree and they have withdrawn all but one product from the market (achived). Theranos was at one point reportedly valued at up to 10 Billion dollars, or a little more than a half of Whatsapp at the time of its acquision by Facebook. This suggest that even well entrenched fiat luminaries like Henry Kissenger and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, MD are beyond saving fiat startups they involve themselves with from excessive hype and insufficient competence.
Carl Mark Force IV To Be Sentenced Monday, Prosecutors Request 87 Months Imprisonment
Insubordinate United States Government Drug Enforcement Agent Carl Mark Force IV will be sentenced at a hearing on Monday. Reports are that Prosecutors are only requesting a sentence of 7 years and 3 months of imprisonment for Force IV who committed crimes against the United States Government as opposed to Ulbricht's life sentence for simply seeking the freedom to act outside of the United States Government. Force IV announced his intention to plea guilty back in June.
AP: Hillary Clinton Horrible Sysadmin, Had RDP Open
According to the Associated Press, Hillary Clinton's private email server ran with ports for the Remote Desktop Protocol and other unsecured services open to the public internet (archived). Hillary's sysadmin qualifications had been questioned before when she chose Microsoft Exchange as an email server and when she requested over email a book on the subject of deleting email. It is becoming clear that Hillary Clinton is grossly under qualified to operate technology at an infrastructure level.
Darknet Firearms Seller Pleads Guilty
According to WOOD News in Central Michigan, the local United States prosecutor's office managed to hook allege darknet firearms dealer Ben Cance into entering a guilty plea on charges related to international firearms trafficking and money laundering (archived). Prosecutors secured Cance's plea and his cooperation in other investigations by dropping charges of "machine gun possession" against Cance. The Judge allowed Cance's release on bond to continue so he could continue collaborating with prosecutors and inform on his past customers some of which are alleged to be in the United Kingdom and Poland. The 30 year old Cance is set to be sentenced by Judge Robert Holmes Bell on January 15th in the Grand Rapids United States District Court.