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Former Hacking Team Members Are Now Spying on the Blockchain for Coinbase (vice.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Last week, cryptocurrency industry giant Coinbase sparked outrage when it announced that it had purchased a small startup called Neutrino. Normally, such an acquisition wouldn't make many waves, but Neutrino isn't your average startup. The company was founded by three former employees of Hacking Team, a controversial Italian surveillance vendor that was caught several times selling spyware to governments with dubious human rights records, such as Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. Neutrino develops technology for law enforcement and financial institutions to investigate and track transactions on the blockchain, the shared public ledger that tracks the movement of tokens in the ecosystem. Coinbase is one of the largest platforms for buying and selling cryptocurrencies in the world, so it sees a lot of transactions on its exchange.
The company claims to be able to monitor and track not just Bitcoin -- a relatively straightforward endeavor -- but also supposedly privacy-oriented (and harder to track) coins such as Monero. In 2017, the company was able to conclude that the North Korean hackers behind the destructive ransomware WannaCry cashed out their Bitcoin and turned it into Monero. [...] In a statement to Motherboard, a Coinbase spokesperson said that the company "does not condone nor will it defend the actions of Hacking Team." "We are aware that Neutrino's co-founders previously worked at Hacking Team, which we reviewed as part of our security, technical, and hiring diligence," the spokesperson said. But Neutrino's technology was just too important for Coinbase to pass on, the spokesperson explained.
The company claims to be able to monitor and track not just Bitcoin -- a relatively straightforward endeavor -- but also supposedly privacy-oriented (and harder to track) coins such as Monero. In 2017, the company was able to conclude that the North Korean hackers behind the destructive ransomware WannaCry cashed out their Bitcoin and turned it into Monero. [...] In a statement to Motherboard, a Coinbase spokesperson said that the company "does not condone nor will it defend the actions of Hacking Team." "We are aware that Neutrino's co-founders previously worked at Hacking Team, which we reviewed as part of our security, technical, and hiring diligence," the spokesperson said. But Neutrino's technology was just too important for Coinbase to pass on, the spokesperson explained.
When is the ICO
The ability to see them cashing in Bitcoin for Monero is not the same thing as being able to track Monero...
That's what all the malware coinage produces...
If Monero can be tracked, then the tracker is not evil. It means Monero's so called privacy orientation sucks and that the coin is crap.
You may have moral objections to this point of view, but face it: This is the world we live in. Privacy is not something that is given, privacy is something that you have to take. Just like freedom.
So, shady assholes keep being shady assholes then?
Sorry, if you sell shady software to governments with highly questionable ethics, don't go around acting like you were just doing your job ... you're a sack of shit, and I hope you find yourself on the wrong side of your own bullshit.
Spyware writing douchebags don't get sympathy, and should have zero expectation of anything like privacy or the benefit of the doubt.
That shit should follow you for the rest of your life.
don't worry. ... tech.
not even https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... gets it right.
go use a hammer
YABBA DABBA DO
Ya Another Bloody Blockchain Article
Didn't Ask But Blockchain Aficionado Drafted One
Please God, make them stop.
Since they can even track "privacy-oriented" cryptocurrencies!!!
Hey let's not mention that they're also selling to the United States, a country that has engaged in kidnappings (which they call "renditions"), rape, torture, and murder in their own CIA prisons around the world.