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FBI, International Law Units Smash Infamous Hacker Bazaar Darkode
coondoggie writes: The FBI in concert with Interpol and other worldwide law enforcement teams say they have taken down the international cybercriminal site marketplace Darkode and arrested 70 people involved with the site. Darkode was an online, password-protected forum in which hackers and other cyber-criminals convened to buy, sell, trade and share malware, ransomware, information, ideas, and tools to facilitate unlawful intrusions on others’ computers and electronic devices, the FBI said.
Not all Hackers are cyber criminals. Despite what CSI:Cyber might say.
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a primarily windows thing?
Most Slashdot readers know that hacker does not correlate to cyber criminal, but that it is sometimes the case.
Imagine an article that says a few black men raped a woman. Would you feel the need to post that not all black men are rapers?
So I say to your post, DUH
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The irony of the FBI, an organization which is demanding the ability to access your data whenever they choose, taking down an organization involved in making similar tools is beyond description.
Being a s'kiddie does not a hacker make.
The thing is, it's now enshrined in law, after hollywood made the case and the security industry cemented it with the "ethical haxx0r" shtick and the hat colour discussion. It's quite clever how they deliberately went for the scare words tactic of cheap marketeering, only to find themselves utterly confused as to who was whom again.
"Hacker" was originally a badge of honour, given and never claimed, for mindbending creativity with great technological skill. Clearly, there isn't enough of that in the computer security industry to warrant its own word. Its overuse leaves us with an empty husk of a word, now stripped of all meaning. The only thing to do is to refuse to use the words "hacker", "hacking", "hacked", etc. until people have forgotten this hollywood-and-security-industry imposed scare-word meaning.
Use precise and accurate words instread. While at it, don't forget to lobby your representatives to get that overly broad "computer hacking" law repealed and replaced with something that has accurate scope and precise wording.
The FBI goes after thoughtcrime, ideas and tools that _may_ be used to commit a crime who would have thought.
How about guns?
Probably they wanted discounts and did not get them. Hence the take-down.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
After Hacking Team got hacked and all of the exploits that they used became known and got patched, they just needed a new source for their "malware, ransomware, information, ideas, and tools to facilitate unlawful intrusions on others’ computers and electronic devices."
When you can simply take what you want, you can't beat the price.
They arrested one of these guys in my area. This is of no real importance, just makes me shudder a little bit. Eric L. Crocker, aka Phastman, 39, of Binghamton, New York,
How many nations are setting up front group "contractors" and "private sector" teams that are a direct link back to their own military counterintelligence units? [emphasis added]
If they are smart, "zero."
If they are smart, national police who set front groups will make sure it's done indirectly enough that it will be hard to tie the "front" group back to the government entity in question.
As to the number of nations whose police forces use private groups as fronts in some way, shape, or form? The answer is probably close to or equal to the total number of nations with police forces. Sigh.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The issue here is criminal intent.
Many jurisdictions have a "criminal tools" statute. Criminal tools are intentionally left vague - the specific circumstances then determine whether a crime exists. A classic example is lock picks owned by a locksmith vs lock picks found on a person at 2 AM while loitering near someone's homer. Criminal tool possession is hard to prove, it normally requires intent to commit a "real' crime. I presume in these cases various computers logs and intercepted emails or phone calls show the necessary intent. I understand that techie types dislike vagueness but the real world isn't just 1's or 0''s.
That first link is to a rootkit proof-of-concept, not Linux malware in the wild.
Also, not like the malware you find in the wild that speaks DNS itself, bypassing the hosts file.
The FBI goes after thoughtcrime, ideas and tools that _may_ be used to commit a crime who would have thought.
How about guns?
Almost all crimes have a thought element. It's not a crime to take someone else's car by accident because you're color blind and someone left the key in it. It's not even illegal to break in and hotwire the car thinking it's yours. (Good luck convincing a jury of that, of course.) Crimes have thought elements.
Tools which are designed to commit crime and are primarily used for that are regulated. I should probably be able to pick up one of those locksmith's guns because they're really cool and I'd enjoy playing with one, but they're still prohibited because they let anyone break into most houses on the block with a minimum of skill and noise. My wanting to play with it isn't a good enough reason to let everyone pick them up at walmart.
Hey, there's nothing wrong with hacking. But a market for malware is about as fucked up as you can get. It's a marketplace for products designed to hurt people without their consent. It's not like bittorrent where there's a legitimate use and an illegitimate one; there's pretty much just an illegitimate one.