Ransomware Discussion Thread

[ötzi]

Hookers and blow. Accepted everywhere.

[pureantigravity]

Just when we thought that ransomware getting into hospitals and oil pipelines was bad. Imagine if it got into the nuclear reactor control systems.

"Despite losing some steam in recent times, the cryptocurrency mining craze is still alive and kicking. Ukrainian local media reports that workers at a nuclear power plant have been caught mining cryptocurrency using the electrical power “freely” available to them from the very nuclear plant they worked at."

https://hotforsecurity.bitdefender.c...ncy-21468.html

[gravitylover]

Lol

[pureantigravity]

https://globalnews.ca/news/7928412/c...som-recovered/

How did they "recover" it? Was the address on an exchange? Doesn't sound like it. Then they traced it to a wallet at a physical address ... and then what? This will turn out to be very interesting how they recovered it - perhaps by recovering the keys to the wallet that were at that address. What else could it be?

[old goat]

Hope the Feds keep the money and use it to fight more cybercrime. Colonial doesn't deserve to get it back.

[Flounder]

https://globalnews.ca/news/7928412/c...som-recovered/

How did they "recover" it? Was the address on an exchange? Doesn't sound like it. Then they traced it to a wallet at a physical address ... and then what? This will turn out to be very interesting how they recovered it - perhaps by recovering the keys to the wallet that were at that address. What else could it be?

Perhaps they were communicating the keys via the ANOM encrypted app. Pretty smooth move by law enforcement.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akgk...-phone-network

[RShea]

They did the cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) transfer to the account and from what I heard, it was left in the account and not moved out. How the FBI got the access to move it after finding it was still sitting there, maybe never known so that it could be tried again.

[pureantigravity]

Good video of official statement.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/07/polit...red/index.html

[MakersTeleMark]

They did the cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) transfer to the account and from what I heard, it was left in the account and not moved out. How the FBI got the access to move it after finding it was still sitting there, maybe never known so that it could be tried again.

They had the private key and a search warrant. Simple shit.

[pureantigravity]

They had the private key and a search warrant. Simple shit.

They probably found a guy at the address with a Ledger Nano shoved up his ass. After making him drink castor oil and sitting him on one of those cans, they simply showed him the $5 wrench that they picked up at Lowes in the way there. Voila!

It is amazing how fast someone can remember an access pin to a hardware wallet! I hope they don't come after the private key to my Dogecoin donations wallet!

[old goat]

After the success of the encrypted app the FBI used to sting worldwide criminals, maybe they could set up their own crypto wallets for ransomwarers to deposit their ill-gotten gains into. Or a digital tag that enables the FBI to track the bitcoins or even directs them into a fake wallet. Could there be some way to mark bitcoin payments--like the way they put exploding dye packs in stolen money. Make it illegal to possess such BTC even if you weren't the hacker. As a computer and bitcoin idiot I have no idea if any of this is possible, and if it is, no doubt someone has already done it.

[MakersTeleMark]

Yes, it's possible to flag bitcoin. It is also possible to deposit said bitcoin into an investor pool and swap out for clean coins.

There is even a very healthy secondary market for "virgin" coins that have never been traded directly from miners. The greenies are trying to save face by knowing the source of their holdings and the percentage of "green" energy use for minting.

[pureantigravity]

Yes, it's possible to flag bitcoin. It is also possible to deposit said bitcoin into an investor pool and swap out for clean coins.

There is even a very healthy secondary market for "virgin" coins that have never been traded directly from miners. The greenies are trying to save face by knowing the source of their holdings and the percentage of "green" energy use for minting.

Sure. But if a 'clean coin' comes out of an investor pool that accepted dirty coins, then is it truly a clean coin? Integrity demands a clean provenance too.

After the success of the encrypted app the FBI used to sting worldwide criminals, maybe they could set up their own crypto wallets for ransomwarers to deposit their ill-gotten gains into. Or a digital tag that enables the FBI to track the bitcoins or even directs them into a fake wallet. Could there be some way to mark bitcoin payments--like the way they put exploding dye packs in stolen money. Make it illegal to possess such BTC even if you weren't the hacker. As a computer and bitcoin idiot I have no idea if any of this is possible, and if it is, no doubt someone has already done it.

A surprisingly large number of project wallets do not have reproduceable builds. People trust the build because it is signed by a commercial certificate. What they don't know is if the software is bugged by a bad 'secure random' generator or 'bad clock' or other attempt to make the private keys it produces guessable by the FBI. Until builds are 100% reproduceable and the code has NO external dependencies, then I'd assume that the gov has feels into the wallet addresses and keys it produces. Same goes for hardware wallets.

[MakersTeleMark]

Sure. But if a 'clean coin' comes out of an investor pool that accepted dirty coins, then is it truly a clean coin? Integrity demands a clean provenance too.

STFU, Donny.

[liv2ski]

If I am writing the Hollywood action movie script for this the shit heads doing this are nuked from orbit and seals go in to behead the remains.

[pureantigravity]

If I am writing the Hollywood action movie script for this the shit heads doing this are nuked from orbit and seals go in to behead the remains.

Most certainly a suitable outcome.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANOM_sting_operation

Perhaps in order to facilitate the coordinated stings in different countries, they had to remove the options for leaking the events as they unfolded .... hence the Fastly Cloud provider internet outage.

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/08/10043...twitter-reddit

[pureantigravity]

If someone was to use a service like Shapeshift, but the server was compromised, then the funds could be seized. Likewise if a tumbler service was compromised, then the funds could also be seized. All chain-hopping is done with full trust to the system that receives BTC and then credits in whatever tokens. For BTC there isn't any way other than to use such a service that must be trusted to chain-hop. I suspect the first thing the thieves did was try to move it to other wallets (split it up a few times) and then to switch the funds to other chains to clean the funds. I doubt it would be a challenge for the FBI. Tracking washed tokens across chains is probably old school for them now.

[MakersTeleMark]

If someone was to use a service like Shapeshift, but the server was compromised, then the funds could be seized. Likewise if a tumbler service was compromised, then the funds could also be seized. All chain-hopping is done with full trust to the system that receives BTC and then credits in whatever tokens. For BTC there isn't any way other than to use such a service that must be trusted to chain-hop. I suspect the first thing the thieves did was try to move it to other wallets (split it up a few times) and then to switch the funds to other chains to clean the funds. I doubt it would be a challenge for the FBI. Tracking washed tokens across chains is probably old school for them now.

No, they were just morans actually.

[carpathian]

I heard the ransom ware ‘attack’ was preconceived false flag event created as reason for letting the feds gain control of BTC.

Yes? No? Maybe?

[pureantigravity]

I heard the ransom ware ‘attack’ was preconceived false flag event created as reason for letting the feds gain control of BTC.

Yes? No? Maybe?

No + Maybe. We will never know.

------------

In other news, most of it behind a paywall:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/inve...-isnt-all-its/

"Think about it: If bitcoin really were a well-functioning system for conducting above-board transactions, the Justice Department’s announcement should have had no effect on its price."

[schuss]

I heard the ransom ware ‘attack’ was preconceived false flag event created as reason for letting the feds gain control of BTC.

Yes? No? Maybe?

Whatever you're smoking, you should probably stop. BTC has no central authority, that's the whole point. Theoretically a state actor COULD subvert the ledger if they threw enough compute at it, but that's unlikely. If you're talking like this - you have no idea how cryptocurrency works.

[MakersTeleMark]

Whatever you're smoking, you should probably stop. BTC has no central authority, that's the whole point. Theoretically a state actor COULD subvert the ledger if they threw enough compute at it, but that's unlikely. If you're talking like this - you have no idea how cryptocurrency works.

Well, duh.

[RShea]

If you can't trust a good scammer, then whom can you trust?

[carpathian]

Whatever you're smoking, you should probably stop. BTC has no central authority, that's the whole point. Theoretically a state actor COULD subvert the ledger if they threw enough compute at it, but that's unlikely. If you're talking like this - you have no idea how cryptocurrency works.

I guess 'control' is the wrong word. How about 'make excuse to make illegal'...? However that might work. Shutting down exchanges won't work. I don't know. At what point do the Feds consider BTC as a hostile threat to USD and take some sort of action?

[pureantigravity]

I guess 'control' is the wrong word. How about 'make excuse to make illegal'...? However that might work. Shutting down exchanges won't work. I don't know. At what point do the Feds consider BTC as a hostile threat to USD and take some sort of action?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQByvmX6QGY&t=126s

It think that answers all your questions.