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DOJ seizes $2.3M in cryptocurrency paid to the ransomware extortionists Darkside

justice.gov

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Re: DOJ seizes $2.3M in cryptocurrency paid to the ransomware extortionists Darkside

#61

Post by vmception »

mortehu wrote: post #47
shiado wrote: post #24

This story makes absolutely no sense at all. The errors present by these hackers are so comical it's simply unbelievable. I'm supposed to believe some elite Russian hacking group keeps their crypto wallets running on a US host where the FBI just logs right in and snatches the private key? I'm starting to entertain the conspiracies that the future of commodities price manipulation is fake ransomware attacks. There nee…

This could have been far downstream from the hackers themselves. They might just have been monitoring the bitcoins and waiting for some to land in one of many addresses for which they have the private key. Presumably FBI is continuously scooping up whatever private keys they can.

Yeah Elliptic and Chainanalysis make all their money by convincing people that all transfers are of the same Ultimate Beneficial Owner until it hits an exchange

As long as the ignorance stays high, they get government contracts

Re: DOJ seizes $2.3M in cryptocurrency paid to the ransomware extortionists Darkside

#63

Post by qeternity »

sneak wrote: post #35
shiado wrote: post #24

This story makes absolutely no sense at all. The errors present by these hackers are so comical it's simply unbelievable. I'm supposed to believe some elite Russian hacking group keeps their crypto wallets running on a US host where the FBI just logs right in and snatches the private key? I'm starting to entertain the conspiracies that the future of commodities price manipulation is fake ransomware attacks. There nee…

It always struck me as improbable that all these high profile (and notoriously hard/impossible to attribute) attacks on “critical infrastructure” or whatever are always instantly and authoritatively pinned (by US authorities) on groups operating in the US’s geopolitical enemies. “Russian hackers” once again, eh?

It’s well known that the Kremlin is very hospitable to cyber criminals as long as the stay away from the Soviet bloc. It also just so happens that a country with that sort of reckless policy, has lots of other bad policies which make them an enemy of the US and many other countries…

It’s not a conspiracy. You just have the cause and effect backwards.

Re: DOJ seizes $2.3M in cryptocurrency paid to the ransomware extortionists Darkside

#65

Post by ChuckMcM »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #38
shiado wrote: post #24

This story makes absolutely no sense at all. The errors present by these hackers are so comical it's simply unbelievable. I'm supposed to believe some elite Russian hacking group keeps their crypto wallets running on a US host where the FBI just logs right in and snatches the private key? I'm starting to entertain the conspiracies that the future of commodities price manipulation is fake ransomware attacks. There nee…

Who says they're elite? I know that ironically many hackers have poor security practices themselves.

I think this is accurate.

If you imagine the extremely unlikely scenario where the DOJ put out a statement that anyone in the US who happened to extract money out of persons or companies in Russia would not be prosecuted or hindered by US law enforcement, what sort of people would jump in to try their hand at that. It seems to me it would certainly be an attractive idea for script kiddies to jump on to if they felt it was low/no risk.

Re: DOJ seizes $2.3M in cryptocurrency paid to the ransomware extortionists Darkside

#66

Post by sneak »

staticassertion wrote: post #46
sneak wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are assigning too much “us vs them” to the ransomware marketplace. With ransomware criminals, “us” is the attacker, and “them” is everyone with a computer who might pay. Political boundaries don’t factor in to it at all. It is by nature an anonymous attack, hence the term “ransom”. It is strange to me that almost all high-profile ransomware attacks that have been publicized in the US are claimed by the FB…

When your government greenlights criminal activities against their enemies it helps a lot. Many* cyber criminals act as mercs for hire, and are in fact hired for official government operations against the US. It's simply not true that political boundaries don't factor in. They're a massive part - most obviously, consider extradition or whether the attacker's government will cooperate with the US. * I say many, but it…

It is absolutely trivial for an attacker in the US or anywhere to make their ransomware attack appear to come from Russia (to someone who doesn’t know that).

Re: DOJ seizes $2.3M in cryptocurrency paid to the ransomware extortionists Darkside

#68

Post by yamrzou »

h3cate wrote: post #62

Rather than the us just "having" the key, could it not be a possibility that they in fact managed to somehow crack it? If any power could surely it's the us right?

I wondered the same thing, so I went looking for answers and found this excellent video by 3Blue1Brown:

How secure is 256 bit security? : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9JGmA5_unY

Re: DOJ seizes $2.3M in cryptocurrency paid to the ransomware extortionists Darkside

#69

Post by rhodozelia »

AJ007 wrote: post #42
SavantIdiot wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Script kiddies" got their name because 20 years ago any kid could download some code and create a DDoS attack by running a pre-written script. Ransomware hacks seem a bit more sophisticated, even with today's highly modular malware. I think it is an interesting proposal: a fake attack as shown by the disparity in savvy between the attack and the payment, or a really dumb screw up. EDIT: as "koheripbal" says below, m…

How much sophistication does it take to attack a computer system running software that hasn’t been patched in years?

./nestea.o
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