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DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin stash seized

krebsonsecurity.com

471–480 of 623 posts

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

#471
post #50

DarkSide's English is incredibly good for some supposed Russians. It even has the correct use of the apostrophe in "clients'". I know nothing, but my hunch is that this was written by a well-educated person who grew up in the US or Canada.

The lack of thick accents, hammer and sickle symbols, and hardbass leaves me seriously questioning the plausibility of this "Russian" theory.

I also took note of the apparent lack of tracksuits, vodka, AK-47s, and bears.

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

#473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just causing terror doesn't make it terrorism. Causing terror as a means to further some political (or religious) goal would make it terrorism.

Not sure why you're getting downvoted. That's literally the Oxford dictionary definition. https://www.google.com/search?q=define+terrorism

FTFY: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=define+terrorism+oxford

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

#474
post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$500,000 salary? Let me know where these jobs are because I'd like to submit my resume.

A 500k isn't all that unusual in tech I feel like.. Like a senior engineer at a FANG is probably making that much or more all in. Entry level salary for tier one firms across finance and tech is probably around 250-300k. Not hard to get to 500k with some experience.

It is very, very unusual. Unusual even in California: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151256.htm

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

#475
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this sarcastic? Because you’re a native Russian speaker and yet your English isn’t recognizably Russian…

Nope, it's not. I always try to polish my English as much as I can, but after more than 8 years living in US, I still occasionally get messages from co-workers saying like, "hey dude, not to be pedantic, but ..." If I were to write a long piece, you'd almost certainly notice that I'm not a native speaker. I'm subscribed to a few Telegram channels led by Russian speaking people and I always spot minor mistakes in thei…

> I observe similar pattern

I think a native English speaker would have written either "I observe a similar pattern" or "I observe similar patterns". Your choice of words in that sentence feels russian to me (although I may be influenced knowing what you told earlier).

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

#476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it was about making a statement. I had gotten into an argument with a professor on a discussion board. He used derogatory terms to refer to me, which pissed me off. I sent him a virus that was supposed to just damage files and delete some random files. It turns out it propagated onto their main network and crashed the entire universities network. Suddenly, you feel untouchable (even though the virus had gotten…

> It turns out it propagated onto their main network > the virus had gotten out of control, which I didn't mean it to do This isn't just a whoops, how do you "accidentally" create a virus that leaves the boundaries of the computer and traverses their network?

Off the top of my head: Mounted network drives

Save the malware there, then anybody on the network with access can run it.

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

#477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Terrorism has to have some ideological agenda, which is what makes it dangerous - I doubt you'll see suicide bombers for hire.

Not more than once, anyway.

Only the ones who are bad at it.

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

#478

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.

This is the most puzzling part of the story. These guys were evidently pretty skilled. I can see their servers being seized but I am struggling to figure out how they lost their currency. Did the Kremlin put a gun to their head and say “unlock the wallet”? This seems especially fishy.

> Did the Kremlin put a gun to their head and say “unlock the wallet”?

You ask that like it seems implausible. To me, given what we know, it sounds light-handed for them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/world/europe/russia-chech...

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

#479
post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is also why they need a $15-50 million dollar fine on top this

I'm curious about the potential legal basis for such a fine.

SOX. SOX mandates that you have reasonable controls to secure financial information and it appears they didn't. Every SOX audit I've been through has a IT security portion.

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

#480

Once I had the fortune of seeing the three cups and a ball scam live, on the street. One guy does the trick, another encourages the victim, and a third one watches the crowd disguised as a random onlooker. If something makes the onlooker nervous, he will signal the others and they will grab their things and disappear in less seconds than your hand has fingers. This sudden quit seems similar, specially with the withdr…

How does the scam work ? You got me curious...

Aka "three card monte". People get tricked because they don't realize it's a team of people, not just one.

And if you notice the trick? Well, they out number you. You probably won't win in a fight either.

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