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DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin stash seized

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin stash seized

#271

Post by tartoran »

ac29 wrote: post #255
RandallBrown wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you store your coins on a hard drive there's nothing the government can do to get them right? They would need your private key and your hard drive?

If you anger a sufficiently powerful nation-state, you should assume all options are on the table for recovering you, your hard drives, and your keys.

The hiding crypto from government entails im large part avoiding taxes, yet it seems like the government does not do much to recover lost taxes on current schemes such as fiscal paradises and so on. I doubt the governemnt would go as far as locating a harddrive, seizing it just for tax purposes. Something else must raise their flags for them to go that route. Also this route is very hit and miss in my oppinion and on a case by case basis

Re: DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin stash seized

#272

Post by [deleted] »

KZZ wrote: post #256
aazaa wrote: post #212

> The crime gang announced it was closing up shop after its servers were seized and someone drained the cryptocurrency from an account the group uses to pay affiliates. If so, this is either: 1. one heckuva Mickey Mouse operation 2. a smokescreen The statement never mentions Bitcoin, but let's assume that this is the "cryptocurrency" being referred to. That Bitcoin private keys were being stored on a "server" strains…

$5 million is 1/10 the annual salary of some developers?

[deleted]

Re: DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin stash seized

#273

Post by aaronAgain »

21eleven wrote: post #254
this_user wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that their coins were apparently easily stolen also debunks another favourite talking point of the crypto people that it secures your money from government access. Clearly, ways and means have been developed to do just that if necessary.

Or one of the members of the criminal gang ran off with all the cryptocurrency and then made a public post claiming some form of law enforcement seized the crypto.

This. Exit strategy all along. Or they were sloppy enough to get monitored accessing the coin wallet and exposing their private keys/passwords.

Re: DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin stash seized

#274

Post by CobsterLock »

KZZ wrote: post #256
aazaa wrote: post #212

> The crime gang announced it was closing up shop after its servers were seized and someone drained the cryptocurrency from an account the group uses to pay affiliates. If so, this is either: 1. one heckuva Mickey Mouse operation 2. a smokescreen The statement never mentions Bitcoin, but let's assume that this is the "cryptocurrency" being referred to. That Bitcoin private keys were being stored on a "server" strains…

$5 million is 1/10 the annual salary of some developers?

I could see 10 developers costing that much

Re: DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin stash seized

#275

Post by thanhhaimai »

RandallBrown wrote: post #248
this_user wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that their coins were apparently easily stolen also debunks another favourite talking point of the crypto people that it secures your money from government access. Clearly, ways and means have been developed to do just that if necessary.

If you store your coins on a hard drive there's nothing the government can do to get them right? They would need your private key and your hard drive?

Opinions are my own.

There is something called the "gun test". The crypto on an encrypted hard drive is not more secure than the gold bars in a locked safe. Its security is a function of how the secret holder response to gun-on-their-head events. In this case, since the government is directly involved (and angry), a lot of criminals may pick personal safety over assets.

Frankly, I think a large portion of cryptocurrency proponents are overly confident in its "decentralization" and "safety". Cryptocurrency is only as safe as gold bars in a locked safe; and worse if you use a public exchange.

Re: DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin stash seized

#276

Post by rebelde »

culturestate wrote: post #224
rebelde wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am just saying that it is idiomatic North American English. I, for instance, could not write in idiomatic British English if I tried. For instance, your use of "state" in your username and "anglosphere" in your one sentence strongly hints to me that your English is not purely North American. (I see your profile, too.) The vast majority of Americans would use different terms.

Looking only at the parts quoted in krebs’s post, it doesn’t really stick out to me as either American or British English. They use double quotation marks, for example - American - but leave the trailing comma outside, which is British. Other than that, there are no giveaway spellings or idioms. It could just as easily be someone whose exposure to English is dominated by technical documentation, which tends to use mo…

You have a good point about the comma. I am not sure what the use of the word "funds" tells me. I think in the US, only the highly-educated or those in the financial industry would use that term instead of "money" (bitcoin?). It very well could be much more common in other parts of the, umm, anglosphere.

Re: DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin stash seized

#277

Post by max__d »

RandallBrown wrote: post #248
this_user wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that their coins were apparently easily stolen also debunks another favourite talking point of the crypto people that it secures your money from government access. Clearly, ways and means have been developed to do just that if necessary.

If you store your coins on a hard drive there's nothing the government can do to get them right? They would need your private key and your hard drive?

In general, you store the keys of your coins, not the coins themselves. Everything is inside the blockchain and the blockchain makes possibile to be sure that you have what you should have, thanks to consensus.

Re: DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin stash seized

#278

Post by citizenkeen »

TrackerFF wrote: post #202
bredren wrote: post #45

It was a mistake to attack the business side of the oil company, because it created what could be sold as reasonable doubt to shut down the pipeline. As a result, the ransom had the optics of an attack on infrastructure. As evidenced by the coverage of Americans desperately filling up containers. This created the impetus for the US to treat this as an incident far and above the ambient ransomware activities leading u…

I got downvoted for saying that maybe it's time to treat serious ransomware attacks (infrastructure, security, health, etc.) as terrorism - as in the sense that they're a threat to the national security. But this kinda shows the response I was referencing to. A lot of people like to think of ransomware attacks as the ultimate stress test as far as security goes, and thus a good thing - but let's not get too blinded b…

"Intentional threats to national security" are not ipso facto terrorist acts, but they should be addressed with the same level of severity.

Re: DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin stash seized

#279

Post by jascii »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #214
onetimemanytime wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very few doubt that FSB and Russian mafia are one.

Even if it's true that very few doubt it, that doesn't mean it's true that they are. See also: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum

https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2019/12/16/gangs-and-gulags-how-vla...

Re: DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin stash seized

#280

Post by fake-name »

vasco wrote: post #258
rini17 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a mistake to attack overtly . I believe $5 million can be easily drained covertly and inconspicuously from megacorporations. I'm pretty sure it's actually happening we just don't hear about it.

It didn't work in Office Space.

You do know office space is fictional, right?
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