This week former Twitter engineer and microcelebrity Moxie Marlinspike unleashed a torrent of criticism against the Gnu Privacy Guard encryption software, which he loosely justified by confusing an etiquette problem with a technical problem. Continue reading
Your Cellphone Is A Tracking Device That Relays Your Conversations In Plaintext
In case you still thought otherwise, it's not just international men of mystery and Jersey mobsters who need to be mindful of what they say via cellphones these days, it's regular private citizens like you and I. Continue reading
BitGo Offers Insurance The FDIC Way
BitGo, a company which offers bitcoin hot wallet and cold storage solutions for both individuals and enterprises, has annouced they will now be offering an insurance policy for paid customers. The company prides itself in having the "best" bitcoin web wallet. In fact, their website displays in a large heading "More than just a wallet" offering "Advanced Security", and "24×7 monitoring" for the "World's leading Bitcoin Companies" which includes the known scam Bitcoin Shop and Bitstamp. One of Bitstamp's operational hot wallets was hacked earlier this year, but the hot wallets are now managed by BitGo's enterprise services as indicated by a testimonial on the front page by Bitstamps's CEO: Continue reading
NY "Environmental Protection" Raid Drives Suicide
Yesterday Dell's Maraschino Cherries in Brooklyn was raided by the New York Department of Environmental Protection and the Brooklyn District Attorney's office under the pretext of searching for violations of environmental protection regulations. The pretext was used because law enforcement had "received a tip" that the thriving cherry business was being used as a front for an operation engaging in marijuana commerce. The "tip" however was insufficiently credible to justify a search warrant from a judge. Continue reading
US Offers Reward For Capture Of Retailer Of Cryptolocker Related Botnet
The U.S. State Department has announced a reward of up to USD $3 million1 for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Russian national Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev. Bogachev is wanted by the FBI for numerous alleged cybercrimes including an association with a botnet named Gameover ZeuS. Continue reading
Payable in bezzlars, not bitcoin. ↩
Australian Drug Trafficker Pleads Guilty
An Australian man, who was a member of the Rebels MC at the time of his arrest, today plead guilty to charges of drug trafficking after he was arrested in 2014 for the importation of MDMA, cocaine and amphetamines despite the drugs being intercepted by police in the Australian states of Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. Continue reading
Europol Uses Kiddy Porn Hysteria To Attack Bitcoin
A report by Europol's European Cybercrime Centre makes the claim that, despite much of the evidence being anecdotal1, Bitcoin is increasingly being used to pay for the live streaming of kiddy porn2. The report was produced with the supposed intention of assisting law enforcement and the private sector to reduce and prevent such crimes from occurring, but it reads as nothing more than an attack on Bitcoin itself. Continue reading
"Although much of the evidence is still anecdotal, concerns have been expressed by LE and financial experts in the wider international environment that commercial CSE online, among other criminal activities, is moving to a new unregulated, unbanked digital economy. Payment mechanisms providing a certain degree of anonymity are always open to abuse by those with criminal intentions, as developments in the use of Bitcoin show." ↩
It is recommended by organisations such as Europol that the term Child Abuse Material or CAM is better suited to describe such material as the word pornography implies that the children were willing participants and paid, but if Europol cannot be reasonable and differentiate between a paedophile and the use of Bitcoin, I cannot be expected to know the difference between the words kiddy porn and CAM. ↩
Half Million Dollar Ransom Made In Bitcoin
For one Canadian expatriate the term "Ransomware" has taken a more literal turn. According to The Tico Times Ryan Piercy was allegedly kidnapped and held for roughly a month by attackers who demanded a half million dollar ransom to be paid in Bitcoin. Piercy arrived home Saturday via taxi, so if Piercy was indeed held for ransom it seems incredibly likely the ransom was paid and the scheme worked as advertised.
Bitrated Launches Web of Trust Abomination
Bitrated.com originally started as an arbitrage service to provide consumers with the “protection" of what they have come to expect. The Bitrated Payment System allows for users and merchants to make reversible e-commerce transactions, since GPG contracts are apparently too hard to grasp. The two parties doing business each nominate and agree on a third party to act as a trust arbiter. A transaction is then structured through the payment system requiring 2 of 3 of parties wallet signatures to release the funds to an address. Continue reading
Court: No Surveillance Records for FBI Terrorist
The United States Supreme Court without comment denied Adel Daoud, a 21 year old FBI trained terrorist, access to secret court orders which authorized electronic surveillance against him. Without access to the documents authorizing surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act there is no practical means for Daoud to mount a legal defense against the legality of the surveillance he was placed under. Daoud was arrested for triggering a device outside of a Chicago bar which was provided to him by the FBI and which the FBI swears they told him was a bomb. Continue reading