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Justice Department Indicts Two Iranians Over SamSam Ransomware Attacks (techcrunch.com)
Two Iranian officials have been indicted by U.S. federal prosecutors for creating and deploying the notorious SamSam ransomware, which exploits a deserialization vulnerability in Java-based servers. TechCrunch reports: Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, 27, were indicted by a federal grand jury in New Jersey on Monday on several counts of computer hacking and fraud charges. The case was unsealed Wednesday, shortly before a press conference announcing the charges by U.S. deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein. In total, SamSam has generated some $6 million in proceeds to date -- or 1,430 bitcoin at today's value. In a separate announcement, the Treasury said it had imposed sanctions against two bitcoin addresses associated with the ransomware. The department said the two addresses processed more than 7,000 transactions used to collect ransom demands from victims. "The Iranian defendants allegedly used hacking and malware to cause more than $30 million in losses to more than 200 victims," said Rosenstein. "According to the indictment, the hackers infiltrated computer systems in ten states and Canada and then demanded payment. The criminal activity harmed state agencies, city governments, hospitals, and countless innocent victims."
One of the victims was the City of Atlanta, which was knocked offline earlier this year and spent a projected $2.6 million in recovery. "It was later discovered that the city's computers had long been vulnerable to leaked exploits developed by the National Security Agency -- later stolen and leaked online for anyone to use," reports TechCrunch.
One of the victims was the City of Atlanta, which was knocked offline earlier this year and spent a projected $2.6 million in recovery. "It was later discovered that the city's computers had long been vulnerable to leaked exploits developed by the National Security Agency -- later stolen and leaked online for anyone to use," reports TechCrunch.
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Sounds like the US got off easy. What did Stuxnet cost the taxpayers of Iran?
Karma is a bitch, huh?
I actually went to college with Mehdi Mansouri. I can't say I remember much about him, he wasn't a friend of mine and we didn't hang out so he was rather forgettable (no offense!). Just another face in the crowd, really. Anyhow, one time I was at brazilian spa having my crotch, taint, and ass defoliated. I looked over the the table next to me and it was Mehdi. I believe in the bro code so we just nodded and that was the end of it.
Weird headline, WTF? I think name and shame is idiotic bait and capture is the only thing that makes any sense in countries without extradition. Of course the priority should be to establish good enough ties for extradition from countries but of course YOU CANT DO THAT IF YOU ARE COMMITTING CRIMES IN THE COUNTRY CAN YOU.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
...from the United States. Cuz is not like the United States wouldn't be at war with somebody by the end of the week if someone sabotaged Los Alamos.
We will bomb them mercilessly into eternity
Authoritarians need to fuck off and stop trying to control the world. Smarten up and secure your computer and stop blaming others for your own failures.
And really... you are going to punish the victims of blackmail? Sanctioning two Bitcoin addresses doesn't stop people and using it against those who probably don't even know about the sanctions is just morally fucked up.
We need to end government mot enlarge it. If I had an option for hiring my own security force I can assure you I wouldn't be hiring our current law enforcement.
I can only hope in the coming years the Free State Project is as successful as it has been this year. Twice as many people moved this year as the prior.
The United States has an advantage in prosecuting foreign individuals that other countries don't have. Foreigners actually want to park their wealth in US assets, visit the United States or live here so banning them by way of convicting them of a crime in US Federal Court is actually a fairly powerful deterrent. Could Iran convict Americans in Iranian Court? Sure, but who actually wants to go to Iran? Certainly not many Americans, so it's not effective to "ban" Americans from visiting or living in Iran or parking their wealth in a worthless foreign currency, like the Iranian Riyal. The mere suggestion that many Americans would want to do any of these things is laughable. In fact, it would be a punishment to be forced to visit or live in Iran or to invest in their worthless currency.
Any indictment coming soon for those in a taxpayer-funded federal agency who did not report security holes in critical US infrastructure, but instead developed tools to exploit them, which were later "lost" and ended up in the hands of anyone with an Internet connection? These guys probably reside on US territory and can actually be arrested.
These Iranians are two small-time thugs. What about the Chinese government—do you think they did not duly download the tools and put them to good use?
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
So I suppose all Americans who do go to Iran must be spies or something?
Let's just remember this the next time some politician screams that encryption keys should somehow be made available to the FBI: If the NSA cannot protect malware that it developed (for nefarious but presumably legal in the USA purposes) from being stolen and used for nefarious purposes that are illegal everywhere, then what chance does the FBI have to protect keys that would allow them to crack my phone from being stolen by some hacker?
I don't know, they could be filmmakers shooting a sci-fi flick. About these pirates and rogue droids stranded on a desert planet...
FTFY. Good luck being an international investor without being linked to the petrodollar, or a banking system that the USG can ban you from/seize your assets on a whim.