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RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#171

Post by projektfu »

layer8 wrote: post #108
PheonixPharts wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can see the full paradox at work here. The parent clearly states: > how often people who know each other randomly run into each other in an airport. > I mean, what are the odds? This is explicitly stating "any two people" (and it's at an airport not a plane, so more people). But then follows up with changing the framing of question they're asking: > I only had it happen once, but it was nuts. The birthday paradox…

The OP however isn’t surprised by the actual odds of any two people randomly running into each other, but by the fact that it happened to them or acquaintances. They actually don’t know what the odds would be for the whole airport or plane. With the birthday paradox, on the other hand, the thing that people are surprised about is not how often it happens to them, but the actual odds for a given group size of people.

Yes, but if it happened to someone else, that person might be on here expressing surprise and OP would be amusedly reading it.

I was in two classes where the birthday paradox was discussed, at different universities. Both times it was my birthday that was shared with someone else. What are the odds?

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#172

Post by smoe »

sofixa wrote: post #110
vmception wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not really the sharpest knife in the drawer, to do things like this and then to go holidaying in the USA with incriminating stuff on your person... The US could have gone after him any time it wanted in nearly any country, including his home in Portugal. They actually arrested him in the UK. This issue with the warrant when he entered was a procedural thing that appeared out of convenience. They could have cooperat…

I don't know if Portugal is like that too, but e.g. France doesn't extradite French citizens ( that's why Polanski run away here). Also i think it's a general EU rule not to extradite to countries with risk of torture and execution, and the US are experts at that. So it might not be as simple.

Yes, Portugal is among the countries that does not extradite own citizens

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extradition#Own_citizens

Edit: Actually Portugal seems to make an exemption for terrorism or international organised crime. The second one might apply here.

https://fra.europa.eu/en/law-reference/constitution-portugue...

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#173

Post by toyg »

PheonixPharts wrote: post #78
meowface wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the following paragraph: >“In an attempt to retrieve his items, Coelho called the lead FBI case agent on or around August 2, 2018, and used the email address unrivalled@pm.me to email the agent,” the government’s affidavit states. Investigators found this same address was used to register rf.ws and raid.lol, which Omnipotent announced on the forum would serve as alternative domain names for RaidForums…

> These people tend not to be the brightest. If they were, they'd generally find legitimate employment, A bit of survivorship bias at work here. Criminal activity is more so a function of risk tolerance than intelligence. However getting caught is certainly a function of intelligence. So your impression is that most criminals you read about being apprehended are people that seem to make many stupid mistakes. But this…

Intelligence is but one of many factors.

Read Crime and Punishment by Dostoevskji.

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#174

Post by lexpar »

sofixa wrote: post #111
ribosometronome wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like he was already on their radar if they were able/desired to obtain a warrant to search his devices.

So they even need a warrant? I was under the impression that no US constitutional protections apply to foreigners, and when entering the country you need a visa or equivalent preauthorisation, and there you certainly agree they can do whatever they want with you.

That sounds mostly right to me.

I think many constitutional protections do apply in case the USA is prosecuting an individual, eg even as a non American you could take the 5th if an American court was trying to convict you.

However, when you're asking to enter the country as a non US citizen your options are essentially to do whatever the border services agents ask you to do or turn around and go home.

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#175

Post by doldols »

jacquesm wrote: post #88
doldols wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What steps were those? How are they distinguishable from the steps you would take to protect your website from being taken down because of abuse reports from upset people? Trading in hacked data might not be illegal unless it’s credit card information, but your average hosting provider probably isn’t going to care about such nuances.

> Trading in hacked data might not be illegal unless it’s credit card information Dangerous nonsense. Trafficking in stolen data is illegal, please read the full indictment.

But it really isn’t… The indictment mostly sticks to payment information for a reason.

And besides, indictments are not law.

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#176

Post by toyg »

skilled wrote: post #6

Interesting tweet here[0] saying the site was used to phish credentials since late February this year. Also, who was hosting these guys? I remember in early 2000s (back when milw0rm was a thing) - a lot of sites like this struggled to stay online because nobody wanted to host them. Anyways, that's a pretty stupid way to go out. And, not just because he is at fault or whatever, it sounds like they turned that site int…

I reckon the move to automated deployments in the cloud, must have made it relatively easy to cycle through accounts.

Any mid-size hosting companies these days has an api, so you write scripts to deploy your (pretty simple) services on Host A with account A, and when the ban happens, move to Host B with account A, then back to Host A with account B, then host B with account B, then host A with account C, etc etc.

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#177

Post by hypertele-Xii »

isk517 wrote: post #92
tyingq wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>These people tend not to be the brightest. Well, for those that are bright, you don't hear anything at all. So it's hard to characterize all of them. I hear something similar on shows like Dateline about how not-bright the murderers are. Yet only about half of homicides are solved in the US every year.

You only need to be slightly more intelligent than the people trying to track you in order to not get caught. I heard and read enough true crime stories to noticed that successful serial killers and incompetent law enforcement tend to go hand-in-hand.

No, you have to be more intelligent than anyone who is ever going to investigate you, because any traces you left behind at any point could lead back to you.

When you're doing low-level crime barely on anyone's radar, this matters little. But if you ever scale up, any mistake you may have made in the past could be used against you in the future.

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#178

Post by tyingq »

hutzlibu wrote: post #167
tyingq wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would guess that things like search history, email records, cell phone records and security cameras are a huge crutch for police these days. So avoiding those things probably gets you most of the way there.

" So avoiding those things probably gets you most of the way there." How do I get anonymous internet access, from inside my cave? More serious, the "best" way to do crime, is probably doing crime no one (in your jurisdiction) bothers enough to demand police action. Which is why most(?) cyber gangs are operating from russia, kasachstan, etc. against the west. Also your list misses IP logging from ISPs.

Uh, meaning don't discuss your crime, search for crime related things, etc, on your phone or home pc, etc. Not living in a cave.

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#179

Post by raxxorraxor »

4043D wrote: post #145
meowface wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the following paragraph: >“In an attempt to retrieve his items, Coelho called the lead FBI case agent on or around August 2, 2018, and used the email address unrivalled@pm.me to email the agent,” the government’s affidavit states. Investigators found this same address was used to register rf.ws and raid.lol, which Omnipotent announced on the forum would serve as alternative domain names for RaidForums…

having the ability to get an infosec job isnt = intelligence. tbh most of the people ive met in the last 5 years who were working corprate infosec / cyber are not particularly skilled or creative just good at filling out reports doing the greyface suit thing.

And these are the good ones. It is not that infosec hasn't its own snake oil problem.

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#180

Post by throwaway0a5e »

PheonixPharts wrote: post #78
meowface wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the following paragraph: >“In an attempt to retrieve his items, Coelho called the lead FBI case agent on or around August 2, 2018, and used the email address unrivalled@pm.me to email the agent,” the government’s affidavit states. Investigators found this same address was used to register rf.ws and raid.lol, which Omnipotent announced on the forum would serve as alternative domain names for RaidForums…

> These people tend not to be the brightest. If they were, they'd generally find legitimate employment, A bit of survivorship bias at work here. Criminal activity is more so a function of risk tolerance than intelligence. However getting caught is certainly a function of intelligence. So your impression is that most criminals you read about being apprehended are people that seem to make many stupid mistakes. But this…

>Criminal activity is more so a function of risk tolerance than intelligence.

Not if you have a world view that all risk is to be avoided and anyone who takes risk is a fool.

(and just to be clear, I think people with that world view are a major impediment to societal progress)

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