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Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

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Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#381

Post by someguyorother »

corodra wrote: post #260
girvo wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related: https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/qz.com/663152/a-10-million-n... Yep, even nuts get stolen!

Anything and everything has a "dark side". That's why these, "Gasp! Oh my goodness, I can't believe there are such vile people in this world" comments piss me off. It's a clear sign of willful ignorance and naivety. The same goes with, "I can't believe people have offshore accounts. Those terrible rich people. Adam Neumann is so terrible for setting up in his contract to get a 1.7b bailout." Bitch, what would you do…

In Scandinavia, 30%+ tax rates are pretty much where people start, and it doesn't take too high an income to be right up at 35%. Yet those countries don't seem to be collapsing from tax evasion, and surely there must be some Scandinavian readers here.

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#382

Post by SiempreViernes »

feanaro wrote: post #367
ComodoHacker wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Majority of people paid their taxes, but many didn't, many more than today. Think of mafias of all kinds. So law abiding majority had to pay more to cover state expenses. Without computerized record keeping taxes were collected in person, often with support of armed force. And tax evasion could be as simple as hiding in the woods when tax collector comes. It worked, but not so well.

Yet the world itself worked rather well. That must either mean that taxing working well is not necessary for the world to work well or that it worked better than you are implying.

You're aware that depending on where you are in the world you can sample a vast range of development levels, so where exactly do you wish to move to have this well functioning society where people are taxed on trust alone?

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#383

Post by squiggleblaz »

ComodoHacker wrote: post #314
bouncycastle wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you need any citation or reference to know that even as early as 20 years ago there wasn't as much pervasive computerized record keeping and surveillance as there is now. By "worked well" I mean people paid their taxes and the overwhelming majority were law abiding. Here's one example to ponder about: if we had this kind of surveillance earlier, would things like the Civil Rights Movement and generally…

Majority of people paid their taxes, but many didn't, many more than today. Think of mafias of all kinds. So law abiding majority had to pay more to cover state expenses. Without computerized record keeping taxes were collected in person, often with support of armed force. And tax evasion could be as simple as hiding in the woods when tax collector comes. It worked, but not so well.

Have we entirely eliminated tax evasion today? Money laundering continues. Our current approach of criminalising everyone and their dog isn't efficient.

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#384

Post by IAmEveryone »

tomohawk wrote: post #378

Consider this holocaust survivor. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/16/holocaust-surviv... His family is murdered by Nazis but he escapes to the UK. He sets up offshore funds in the event something like the holocaust happens again, but the tax authorities go after him. This is one of many reasons for people to set up offshore accounts that have nothing to do with illegal activities. How many people like this h…

Pay your taxes and you can keep them as far away from any shore as you like.

And I don't really see why you feel the need to invoke the Holocaust in this manner? You're just using it as a sympathetic reason to justify tax evasion. Could I also rob some banks with that justification?

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#386

Post by bboygravity »

antientropic wrote: post #374
bboygravity wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is another interesting part. How can the US "force" a sophisticated wealthy sovereign nation that culturally and morally values banking privacy (not only for the profits), like Switzerland? Two reasons come to mind: 1. Switzerland (like EU countries) depends a 100 % on the US for defense, in the sense it would basically turn into Russia / China overnight if the US wasn't a military power protecting them. This…

> Switzerland (like EU countries) depends a 100 % on the US for defense, in the sense it would basically turn into Russia / China overnight if the US wasn't a military power protecting them. Neither Switzerland nor the EU depend "100%" on the US for defense, far from it. Some EU countries are among the biggest military spenders in the world. It's also difficult to see how Switzerland would "turn into Russia / China o…

China vs France: https://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-comparison-detail....

Russia vs France: https://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-comparison-detail....

Russia vs Germany: https://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-comparison-detail....

The rest of Europe has no military power to speak of. Random example: the Dutch tank force consists of 0 tanks.

> How do you imagine that the Russians or Chinese will come to dominate Switzerland?

Admittedly Switzerland is probably one of the toughest to beat in Europe due to their strategic advantages (mountains, bunkers, infrastructure pre-rigged with explosives, relatively lots of reservists). However, just look at the numbers above. If the US didn't exist, the EU wouldn't be the EU unless they had 10x the military power they have now to defend themselves.

> Note that Switzerland managed to maintain its independence in WWII even though it was completely surrounded by the Axis.

A few facts about that:

1. It did so partly through secret deals with the Nazis. Ever wonder where the stolen gold of the dead jews was stored and smelted? Right... CH

2. The world's current military and political powers aren't comparable in any way to those during the second world war.

3. The Netherlands was neutral during the first world war. In the second world ware they fought the Germans for 3 days before they lost. That's right. 3 days. The fact that a country managed to stay neutral 70+ years ago says absolutely nothing about whether they would achieve the same again now, with totally different potential enemies. And a completely different distribution of military powers.

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#387

Post by squiggleblaz »

sjwright wrote: post #310
bouncycastle wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not talking about dodging taxes. Also, if there happens to be a new tax, I'll pay it, and I'm not a criminal, I just want some privacy.

Well that nicely circles back to the OP article, which shows that privacy is either an illusion or a gamble, depending on your perspective.

Well, privacy has to be gamble. If I do something, I leave a trace. I might directly interact with someone (buying drugs, for instance) or it might be in the privacy of my own room. But I'm always gambling that (a) anyone who I interact with won't dob me in and (b) no third party will detect my actions.

Obviously I hope my bank keeps a record of my assets with them. Perhaps they could merely keep my assets sealed in a box identified with a code and locked by a key, and they cannot open the box without the key, and I keep the only copy of that key. Perhaps the box is an encrypted database record and the key is a nice megabyte long random number which takes an hour to confirm. I can suppose it's secure (for the time being). And it's formally anonymous, since they don't even record that I posses the key.

But I still leave a trace when I access it. It's an intrinsic risk. I also risk dying every time I walk out of my house. I do things that have risk involved because it is necessary. Risk is not an argument against an activity.

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#390

Post by squiggleblaz »

dredmorbius wrote: post #272
fao_ wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> modern book-keeping Can you clarify what precisely you mean by this statement? Most empires historically-speaking have had sophisticated book-keeping methods. Chinese empires used to tax anyone who exited a city on the profits they made during their visit. The Romans when they took over Egypt, taxed the hell out of it and for that purpose kept meticulous records on all of the transactions that happened. The notion…

The general principle of a tax which can be levied fairly, equally, clearly, and with low costs of collection or effort, are not new: The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain, and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, ought all to be clear and plain to the contributor, and to every other person. Where it is otherwise, every person subject to the t…

> Smith's preference was for a tax on land, which is difficult to move off-shore.

I like the idea of land tax, but I like that statement even more. (Land tax, on paper, seems like it would be such a good idea, and transaction taxes are nowadays so invasive, that it's incomprehensible to me why we don't have them.)

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