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Crooks Reused Passwords On the Dark Web So Dutch Police Took Over Their Accounts (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Dutch Police is aggressively going after Dark Web vendors using data they collected from the recently seized Hansa Market. According to reports, police is using the Hansa login credentials to authenticate on other Dark Web portals, such as Dream. If vendors reused passwords, police take over the accounts and set up traps or map the sales of illegal products. Other crooks noticed the account hijacks because Dutch Police changed the PGP key for the hijacked accounts with their own, which was accidentally signed with the name "Dutch Police." The second method of operation spotted by the Dark Web community involves so-called "locktime" files that were downloaded from the Hansa Market before Dutch authorities shut it down on July 20. Under normal circumstances a locktime file is a simple log of a vendor's market transaction, containing details about the sold product, the buyer, the time of the sale, the price, and Hansa's signature. The files are used as authentication by vendors to request the release of Bitcoin funds after a sale's conclusion, or if the market was down due to technical reasons. Before the market went down, these locktime files were replaced with Excel files that contained a hidden image that would beacon back to police servers, exposing the vendor's real location. Dutch Police was able to do this because they took over Hansa servers on June 20 and operated the market for one more month, collecting data on vendors.
As a Dutch person I wonder what the legal basis is for all this. They are running illegal marketplaces, hacking into accounts on foreign services using data they got elsewhere, and exchanging data with countries like Thailand where people might get capital punishment for drugs related crimes. While going after black drug exchange markets is a good thing, it all gives the impression that they don't hold back. Dutch prosecutors say they have only done 'internal analysis' on the legality, which means that these actions have not even been approved by a judge. In emergencies this is allowed, but if a judge doesn't agree with any of this, or doesn't agree this was an emergency that enables doing this without court approval, Dutch police are committing a whole range of crimes here without legal backing.
they is?
It is. It's American English, where group nouns usually take singular form in both determined and undetermined form.
British English: Harrods are having a sale.
American English: Macy's is having a sale.
Anaheim: The police ARE cracking heads, yay!
East L.A.: The police IS cracking heads, hide!
Brooklyn The police ARE crackheads, vey!
Usually? No, not really. Not in my experience anyway.
But what do I know? (I've been speaking (American) English for nearly 60 years. That probably doesn't count for much.).
The Dutch police are is the correct usage, IMO.