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US Marshals Accidentally Reveal Potential Bidders For Gov't-Seized Bitcoin
jfruh (300774) writes "When the U.S. government shut down the Silk Road marketplace, they seized its assets, including roughly $18 million in bitcoin, and despite the government's ambivalence about the cryptocurrency, they plan to auction the bitcoin off to the highest bidder, as they do with most criminal assets. Ironically, considering many bitcoin users' intense desire for privacy, the U.S. Marshall service accidentally revealed the complete list of potential bidders by sending a message to everyone on the list and putting their addresses in the CC field instead of the BCC field."
Lelelelel
Much infosec fail.
This is what happens when you have a single point of failure like a stupid, technically illiterate secretary added to the mix.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
...for gubbermint work
No, wait... Bahahahahahahahahahahaha
ezmlm works fine for me.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
So who would stan to gain from such an event occuring?
DJB writes great concept code, but not really good supportable practical code. Because of that qmail which used to be the number one MTA has fallen from that perch. EZMLM works with qmail and it suffers from the same fate. There are various alternatives but not to get offtopic.
The US Marshal's Service, like the rest of the polluted fat beaurocratic obsolete US Government users have Windows on their desktop. Nobody created a list for the simple reason that this was a one-time operation. So whomever was using Windows (likely with Outlook) just typed the names in. CC, BCC, they don't even know what CC or BCC means let alone what a "carbon copy" is.
Hanlon's Law: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Mark
"considering many bitcoin users' intense desire for privacy".
considering how ISPs are required by law to keep years worth of logs from most connections, to say nothing of governments making their own lists; And every bitcoin since it's inception has its complete transaction history for it 'forever', bitcoin would seem to me to be one of the least private forms of currency. CASH PLEASE.
On the plus side, I suppose, if ever the law does start supporting bitcoin or similar, stolen bitcoins could easily be blacklisted(blocked from legitimate transactions) and or when intercepted potentially returned to the original 'owner'.
I once compared the bitcoin forums to Tartuga from Pirates of the Caribbean. Everyone agreed. Everyone scams everyone, nobody follows the laws, and you have to be smart to not get burned. Those are the people bidding on these. The last thing you want to do is expose their contact info to each other. They just started World War III in the bitcoin world. Close up your storm shutters because there's a shitstorm blowing in.
In theory you know of all interested people and know they now know of each other.
Bait (with coin sale), catch looking for each others coins, release as informants.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Am I the only one who gets disturbed every time it's blithely mentioned that this or that police agency gets to take spoils for themselves? It seems a little... inherently corrupt.
If you think that the leak is a failure, well, it's a PLANNED FAILURE
The Fed doesn't like bitcoins, feels very threaten by bitcoins, and hope that nobody will deal in bitcoins
With the sale of those bitcoins of course they will execute a planned failure that will look to the world at large as a "leak"
It is never a leak, it is a PLANNED LEAK
I'm not so sure. I'm thinking that Hanlon's Razor should be applied here.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
I don't get it, why are they auctioning money? Why don't they just exchange them for USD? They will necessarily get less than the market value for them, because nobody would buy money for more than it's worth...
Yep. There are no accidents in politics.
dudes been good at a lot of crap lately, ask about the river trip special.
If you think any govt feels threatened by a LOLbertarian idiot toy, you are an even bigger moron.
What a FUCKING surprise. This is what we vote for, idiots.
If you think that the leak is a failure, well, it's a PLANNED FAILURE
The Fed doesn't like bitcoins, feels very threaten by bitcoins, and hope that nobody will deal in bitcoins
With the sale of those bitcoins of course they will execute a planned failure that will look to the world at large as a "leak"
It is never a leak, it is a PLANNED LEAK
And the printing of billions of dollars every month in a pathetic attempt to keep the dollar stable is such a confidence booster.
And I'm sure the "Fed" does feel threatened. Lots of printing press jobs there. Lots.
I don't think it was an accident. How stupid!
Revealing bidder identities is against the Law - a Felony actually.
Let's see how long it takes for someone to be held accountable! Hahahahahahahahaaaaahaahaahah!
So they can go out of their way to try and stifle information on stingrays, but they can't make the BCC field work?
If you think that the leak is a failure, well, it's a PLANNED FAILURE
The Fed doesn't like bitcoins, feels very threaten by bitcoins, and hope that nobody will deal in bitcoins
With the sale of those bitcoins of course they will execute a planned failure that will look to the world at large as a "leak"
It is never a leak, it is a PLANNED LEAK
loony. Seek help.
Because my relatives always use CC instead of BCC, especially when they're forwarding some lame-ass joke to me. There are dozens of recipients!
All us /.-ers, being highly experienced software jocks, know perfectly well that anything sent in an email might as well be posted up in Times Square. It might have made it a bit more difficult for the bidders to find out the names of the other bidders, but even if each one were sent a separate, one-address, email, the info is on servers all over the place (insert lame joke about asking the NSA for the other bidders' emails).
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Don't ascribe to malice what can be attributed to incompetence. Or maybe a variant thereof. Who knows, maybe people have become so used to social media, that secrecy becomes an afterthought. Maybe the person in charge thought email is just the pre-Facebook version of posting a status update?
Suggestion for three-letter agency recruiters: screen for applicants who aren't Facebook/Twitter/Instagram addicts.
And these are the people we want to trust making decisions about our healthcare?
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I'll be in the minority and say I don't see a problem with this. The Government doesn't see it as currency and simply as another asset to sell off. They treat it no different then if they seized a boat. It goes up for auction and it doesn't matter if the bidders know each other. The IT crowd has an uproar because we understand it's intended use and feel like this method defeats part of it's intended purpose but that's because we see it as currency. The government chooses not to and thus treats it no different then a large batch of boats, cups, pens, whatever.
Hmm, incompetence or malice?
Why not both?
At least it won't be a silent auction then because you'll know your competition.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Doubtful. Despite the overinflated sense of self importance some people in the BTC community have, the federal government does not care all that much, They just want BTC trading to follow the same rules as other commodities, that is pretty much it.
Since I have never been involved in government auctions and I am not seeing anyone comment, what is the standard here? Is there an expectation of privacy? I have never heard of these auctions billed as being anonymous before. So are we basically talking about little more then a minor social mistake?
The corollary? Nothing is provable; everything is permissible.
Your adage is one of a pushover. You are a sucker, and you promote being one.
According to CMU-SEI data, over 70% of all software organizations are at Level 1 (Chaotic) of the Capability Maturity Model. In reality many may lie below the merely chaotic, but no lower levels exist in the CMM.
This article defines and describes lower maturity levels and their associated Kounter Productive Attitudes (KPAs). Of course in the SEI's CMM, KPA stands for Key Process Area.
The 4 levels of Immaturity:
Ethics II Axiom 2. "Man thinks." B. Spinoza
Hanlon's Razor is a useful tool...but it cuts both ways. I use it sometimes myself. "Whoops, I didn't realize I was logged into production when I deployed that critical bug fix that isn't scheduled to go until next week! Oh well, at least we won't get called on the weekend about the error that was prematurely fixed..."
Why would anyone want to buy bitcoins from feds, especially since they can be tracked fairly well afterwards? Ok, if you mistrust "bitcoin specific exchanges" and you don't want to use something like localbitcoins, you still have well established and safe places where you can buy your bitcoins using credit/debit cards, ewallets (skrill), paypal etc (e.g. http://www.virwox.info)
The corollary? Nothing is provable; everything is permissible. Your adage is one of a pushover. You are a sucker, and you promote being one.
Are we having a bad day? Did mommy make you leave the basement or clean your room?
Your statement may be a corollary to something, but not Hanlon's Razor. Given the rest of your blather, I attribute your poorly written and rather emotional post to both stupidity *and* malice.
My name isn't Hanlon, and it;'s not my adage.
I'm sorry you're dumb. I'm sorry you're angry. I feel pity for you. At the same time, you're still an asshole, which is certainly provable (you did that yourself) and while I do support free speech, I imagine you'd be less of a fucktard if we were having this conversation in person.
Oops. I guess you disproved your own bullshit.
Have a great day!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
Alright, they flubbed up and leaked everyone's email address; where is the list? Surely it's been posted somewhere, I'd like to take a look at it myself.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
Reminds me of the time I got a recruiting email from MENSA where they made the same mistake. Nice job, geniuses!
Most linux users don't know this, but the man pages were named after Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris fsck'ing hates noobs!
Not to worry. They'll lose the email and shred the drive in a couple of months.
So funni!
clik to c the pic