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Netherlands Seizes 800 Servers, Arrests 2 for Aiding Cyberattacks

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Re: Netherlands Seizes 800 Servers, Arrests 2 for Aiding Cyberattacks

#31

Post by cpursley »

dist-epoch wrote: post #22
efitz wrote: post #10

I’ve been on the defender side of security my whole career. I know in some markets crime pays more than legitimate work, but it never ceases to amaze me how much thought, effort, planning, and engineering goes into providing infrastructure IT services for cybercriminals. The people involved definitely have the skills to be profitable at legitimate work; it just puzzles me that they choose to support criminals.

You fail to take into account the ideological angle. Some people are ready to die for their beliefs. Others just to run businesses supporting their causes. 3 of the 4 persons named have russian links (a large number of Moldovan citizens are ethnic russians).

What point are you trying to make other than bigotry? Ethic Russians are not the only Eastern Europeans perpetuating cyber crime. Anyways, Nesterenko is a Ukrainian surname - at least get your racism correct.

Re: Netherlands Seizes 800 Servers, Arrests 2 for Aiding Cyberattacks

#32

Post by r_lee »

thewebguyd wrote: post #21
efitz wrote: post #10

I’ve been on the defender side of security my whole career. I know in some markets crime pays more than legitimate work, but it never ceases to amaze me how much thought, effort, planning, and engineering goes into providing infrastructure IT services for cybercriminals. The people involved definitely have the skills to be profitable at legitimate work; it just puzzles me that they choose to support criminals.

It's not easy to go legit, especially in today's job market, depending on where you live in the world also. The US is unique with its high salaries for tech work (on the lower end of those of high salaries is pure ops work like this though). If you're in a country where the average sysadmin salary is substantially lower (to pick on Eastern Europe for a minute, you're looking at the equivalent of ~$30-35k USD/year), i…

why is this downvoted?

Re: Netherlands Seizes 800 Servers, Arrests 2 for Aiding Cyberattacks

#33

Post by pocksuppet »

We should note these are not even slightly legitimate hosting companies, lest anyone worry too much about their non-KYC offshore servers. These aren't hosting companies that ask little, they are just directly front companies for Russian intelligence, owned by members of Russian intelligence, they don't do anything else, they don't provide hosting service to regular people even if you want it (I have tried).

Unlike in Germany where I lost several social media accounts because my email service provider (pissmail) went to jail because someone signed up for his service and sent spam.

Re: Netherlands Seizes 800 Servers, Arrests 2 for Aiding Cyberattacks

#34

Post by seibelj »

SoftTalker wrote: post #24
efitz wrote: post #10

I’ve been on the defender side of security my whole career. I know in some markets crime pays more than legitimate work, but it never ceases to amaze me how much thought, effort, planning, and engineering goes into providing infrastructure IT services for cybercriminals. The people involved definitely have the skills to be profitable at legitimate work; it just puzzles me that they choose to support criminals.

Some people are just born into it. Mafia families, etc. There were some very smart people in the American mob, running scams that were immensely profitable. Eventually they get caught though, and with the ease and pervasivness of electronic surveillance today, it's pretty much impossible to do it anymre at least if you're anywhere where the authorities care about it (edit to add: and aren't in on it).

[dead]

Re: Netherlands Seizes 800 Servers, Arrests 2 for Aiding Cyberattacks

#35

Post by davidwritesbugs »

efitz wrote: post #10

I’ve been on the defender side of security my whole career. I know in some markets crime pays more than legitimate work, but it never ceases to amaze me how much thought, effort, planning, and engineering goes into providing infrastructure IT services for cybercriminals. The people involved definitely have the skills to be profitable at legitimate work; it just puzzles me that they choose to support criminals.

In a previous life I've employed contractors and software engineers to run a criminal website. Motivations for my guys were that it was well paid work that was technically challenging in order to evade enforcement agencies, and was 'fun' in that respect; they were "sticking it to than man (my service was regarded as moral by all my users & others); and there wasn't so much work about that they could pick and choose; lastly, I was a good employer because I had to be!!

Re: Netherlands Seizes 800 Servers, Arrests 2 for Aiding Cyberattacks

#36

Post by nalekberov »

pocksuppet wrote: post #33

We should note these are not even slightly legitimate hosting companies, lest anyone worry too much about their non-KYC offshore servers. These aren't hosting companies that ask little, they are just directly front companies for Russian intelligence, owned by members of Russian intelligence, they don't do anything else, they don't provide hosting service to regular people even if you want it (I have tried). Unlike in…

Any source to back up your claims? Otherwise it seemed pretty much a conspiracy theory to me.

Re: Netherlands Seizes 800 Servers, Arrests 2 for Aiding Cyberattacks

#37

Post by quantummagic »

kirubakaran wrote: post #28
kspacewalk2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As far as I can make sense of it, he enjoyed the thrill of feeling superior to others: Evading the law, exploiting people who viewed as stupid, and enriching himself in the process. I sadly see this pattern of thinking far more often than I want to in my fellow eastern Europeans.

Let's not generalize, even if you feel like you can say that because you're a member of a group you're generalizing. It's unfair to most of the people in any group being generalized.

[flagged]

Re: Netherlands Seizes 800 Servers, Arrests 2 for Aiding Cyberattacks

#38

Post by KellyCriterion »

Aurornis wrote: post #14
efitz wrote: post #10

I’ve been on the defender side of security my whole career. I know in some markets crime pays more than legitimate work, but it never ceases to amaze me how much thought, effort, planning, and engineering goes into providing infrastructure IT services for cybercriminals. The people involved definitely have the skills to be profitable at legitimate work; it just puzzles me that they choose to support criminals.

I watched the downfall and eventual jailing of someone who had a great job, career, and family after he started getting involved in cybercrime. As far as I can make sense of it, he enjoyed the thrill of feeling superior to others: Evading the law, exploiting people who viewed as stupid, and enriching himself in the process. He got caught through a mistake that was really dumb in retrospect. I think he believed his in…

sounds like Markus Braun & Jan Marsalek / Wirecard, the fraudsters :-D

Re: Netherlands Seizes 800 Servers, Arrests 2 for Aiding Cyberattacks

#39

Post by KellyCriterion »

r_lee wrote: post #32
thewebguyd wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not easy to go legit, especially in today's job market, depending on where you live in the world also. The US is unique with its high salaries for tech work (on the lower end of those of high salaries is pure ops work like this though). If you're in a country where the average sysadmin salary is substantially lower (to pick on Eastern Europe for a minute, you're looking at the equivalent of ~$30-35k USD/year), i…

why is this downvoted?

...because on HN, experiences which somehow contradict the perspective when salaries are highly varying across countries, esp. when someone decides to pick an explicit example, which, even if it shows the truth, is against the base-assumption of the reader of a comment.

To put it somehow dimplomatic :-D

Re: Netherlands Seizes 800 Servers, Arrests 2 for Aiding Cyberattacks

#40

Post by cm2012 »

Aurornis wrote: post #14
efitz wrote: post #10

I’ve been on the defender side of security my whole career. I know in some markets crime pays more than legitimate work, but it never ceases to amaze me how much thought, effort, planning, and engineering goes into providing infrastructure IT services for cybercriminals. The people involved definitely have the skills to be profitable at legitimate work; it just puzzles me that they choose to support criminals.

I watched the downfall and eventual jailing of someone who had a great job, career, and family after he started getting involved in cybercrime. As far as I can make sense of it, he enjoyed the thrill of feeling superior to others: Evading the law, exploiting people who viewed as stupid, and enriching himself in the process. He got caught through a mistake that was really dumb in retrospect. I think he believed his in…

Sounds like Breaking Bad
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