organization:us department of justice

Russian agents allegedly used Bitcoin to fund the DNC hack - MIT Technology Review
▻https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/611648/russian-agents-allegedly-used-bitcoin-to-fund-the-dnc-hack

https://cdn.technologyreview.com/i/images/gettyimages-997833174chipsomodevilla.jpg?sw=1200

Among the many new details in today’s indictment (PDF) of 12 Russian intelligence officers for cyberattacks meant to interfere with the US presidential election in 2016, one in particular should stand out to techies: the defendants allegedly used Bitcoin to fund the operation.

A web of dark money: According to the US Department of Justice’s indictment, the defendants “conspired to launder” more than $95,000 “through a web of transactions structured to capitalize on the perceived anonymity of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.” They allegedly mined coins and acquired them “through a variety of means to obscure the origin of the funds,” which were used to finance cyberattacks against Democratic party officials, members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and others.

Cat and mouse: Though the indictment says they used hundreds of different e-mail accounts with fake names to handle Bitcoin payments and cover their tracks, investigators linked messages from “several dedicated email accounts” to corresponding transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. According to the indictment, the defendants also sometimes facilitated Bitcoin payments on the same computers they used to “conduct their hacking activity.”

The takeaway: If you weren’t convinced that cryptocurrencies are a magnet for would-be money launderers, this should help. Beyond that, though: Bitcoin is not anonymous! Using clues from outside the internet, which the Mueller team clearly had, it’s quite possible to follow the money on the blockchain and root out individuals behind the transactions (see “Criminals thought Bitcoin was a perfect hiding place, but they thought wrong”).

#Bitcoin #Argent_sale #Cybersécurité

Briton who stopped WannaCry attack arrested over separate malware claims | Technology | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/03/researcher-who-stopped-wannacry-ransomware-detained-in-us?CMP=twt_gu

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/a02a46561f1c264e9134499188e02d077c777514/131_0_4857_2916/master/4857.jpg?w=1200&h=630&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=crop&crop=faces%2Centropy&bm=normal&ba=bottom%2Cleft&blend64=aHR0cHM6Ly91cGxvYWRzLmd1aW0uY28udWsvMjAxNi8wNS8yNS9vdmVybGF5LWxvZ28tMTIwMC05MF9vcHQucG5n&s=c5b7d4eac1405f9ef81e571ca4113ccc

Marcus Hutchins, the 23-year-old British security researcher who was credited with stopping the WannaCry outbreak in its tracks by discovering a hidden “kill switch” for the malware, has been arrested by the FBI over his alleged involvement in another malicious software targeting bank accounts.

According to an indictment released by the US Department of Justice on Thursday, Hutchins is accused of having helped to create, spread and maintain the banking trojan Kronos between 2014 and 2015.

The Kronos malware was spread through emails with malicious attachments such as compromised Microsoft word documents, and hijacked credentials like internet banking passwords to let its user steal money with ease.

“A lot of us thought of Kronos as crimeware-as-a-service,” Kalember said, since a Kronos buyer would also be getting “free updates and support” and that “implied there’s a large group behind it”.

This could very easily be the FBI mistaking legitimate research activity with being in control of Kronos infrastructure
Ryan Kalember, security researcher

He also warned that the actions of a researcher examining the malware can look very similar to those of a criminal in charge of it. “This could very easily be the FBI mistaking legitimate research activity with being in control of Kronos infrastructure. Lots of researchers like to log in to crimeware tools and interfaces and play around.”

On top of that, for a researcher looking into the world of banking hacks, “sometimes you have to at least pretend to be selling something interesting to get people to trust you”, he said. “It’s not an uncommon thing for researchers to do and I don’t know if the FBI could tell the difference.”

Hutchins, better known online by his handle MalwareTech, had been in Las Vegas for the annual Def Con hacking conference, the largest of its kind in the world. He was at the airport preparing to leave the country when he was arrested, after more than a week in the the city without incident.

#Virus #Cybersécurité #Malware

40 Reasons Our Jails and Prisons Are Full of Black and Poor People
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/40-reasons-our-jails-and-prisons-are-full-of-black-and-poor-people

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) reports 2.2 million people are in our nation’s jails and prisons and another 4.5 million people are on probation or parole in the US, totaling 6.8 million...

Ferguson is what happens when you run a police force as a profit-making business – Quartz
▻http://qz.com/356013/ferguson-is-what-happens-when-you-run-a-police-force-as-a-profit-making-business
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/ferguson-racial-economics.jpg?w=1600

The US Department of Justice investigation into civil rights violations (...) depicts the police and courts as a gang, expropriating money from the city’s black population—with revenue collection as the driving force behind racial discrimination.

Attorney General Eric Holder said there was not sufficient evidence to prove that officer Darren Wilson had willfully committed a civil rights violation when he shot and killed Michael Brown, but that city officials routinely violated citizens’ rights to free speech, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, and equal treatment under the law.

(…) Officers sometimes write six, eight, or, in at least one instance, fourteen citations for a single encounter. [s]ome compete to see who can issue the largest number of citations during a single stop. (...)

This was driven by the city’s desire to use criminal fines as an increasingly large part of its budget, seeking increases in fine revenue of more 30% year over year—not exactly the sign of a functioning criminal-justice system. In 2015, these fines are expected to make up almost a quarter of the city’s general fund, some $3.09 million.

#police #répression #racisme #gang
(& voir le dernier roman de Spinrad)

US Department of Justice’s Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer Alleged Lack of Integrity Source of Grave Concern Amid Newest Revelations Concerning DOJ’s Tony West’s Confederate — Chris Young of Keker & Van Nest

Please see @:
►http://lesliebrodie.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/us-department-of-justices-assistant-attorney-general-lanny-b

How the US Justice Department legally hacked my Twitter account | Birgitta Jónsdóttir | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/11/us-justice-department-legally-hacked-twitter

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/red/blue_pics/2011/11/11/birgittatweet_460x276.jpg

Before my Twitter case, in which the US Department of Justice has demanded that the social media site hands over personal information about my account which it deems necessary to its investigation of WikiLeaks, I didn’t think much about what rights I would be signing off when accepting user agreement in my computer. The text is usually lengthy, in a legal language that most people don’t understand. Very few people read the user agreements, and very few understand their legal implications if someone in the real world would try to use one against them.

►http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/11/11-3

A Virginia district court judge has ruled the U.S. government can collect the private information of three WikiLeaks volunteers from the social networking site, Twitter. The government has subpoenaed all the account information of Icelandic lawmaker Birgitta Jonsdottir, Dutch activist Rop Gongrjip and programmer Jacob Appelbaum. Thursday’s ruling upholds a lower court judgment in March that found the subpoena does not violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.

’40 percent of male foreign tourists on sex tours’ - The Philippine Star » News » Headlines
►http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=729980&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, #Philippines - At least 40 percent of male foreign tourists in the country, including Americans, come for sexual tourism, US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. said yesterday.

“I estimate that maybe up to 40 percent of foreign men who come here come for sexual tourism and that is unacceptable.

And any of them engaged in things that violate the law whether they are American or other foreigner should be prosecuted. That is against human values,” Thomas said during a roundtable discussion on human trafficking organized by the Supreme Court, Philippine Judicial Academy in partnership with the Court of Appeals and US Department of Justice Criminal Division.

Thomas said the US wants the Philippines to refine and strengthen its anti-trafficking law to ensure the conviction of foreigners involved in the crime.

He said he also told President Aquino and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima that the US government is resolved to prosecute any American involved in cybersex and human trafficking.

Thomas said the US provided over $6.6 million to the Philippines for its anti-trafficking program and training.

“I think that the conviction rate improved in the last year and there were record number of 25 convictions… But this is a large country of many provinces and some provinces, some towns no prosecutions, no arrests,” Thomas said.

“And that is unacceptable especially when you have places where you have shelters for victims so you know there is a lot of trafficking going on. It is not up to us to dictate, we just ask that the courts and the legislature work together to strengthen gaps in it so that people and those who commit this crime are successfully prosecuted,” he added.

#tourisme_sexuel