Slashdot Mirror
The Rise and Fall of the Bayrob Malware Gang (zdnet.com)
Three Romanians ran a complicated online fraud operation -- along with a massive malware botnet -- for nine years, reports ZDNet, netting tens of millions of US dollars, but their crime spree is now over. But now they're all facing long prison sentences.
"The three were arrested in late 2016 after the FBI and Symantec had silently stalked their malware servers for years, patiently waiting for the highly skilled group to make mistakes that would leave enough of a breadcrumb trail to follow back to their real identities."
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: The group started from simple eBay scams [involving non-existent cars and even a fake trucking company] to running one of the most widespread keylogger trojans around. They were considered one of the most advanced groups around, using PGP email and OTR encryption when most hackers were defacing sites under the Anonymous moniker, and using multiple proxy layers to protect their infrastructure. The group operated tens of fake websites, including a Yahoo subsidiary clone, conned and stole money from their own money mules, and were of the first groups to deploy Bitcoin crypto-mining malware on desktops, when Bitcoin could still be mined on PCs.
The Bayrob group was led by one of Romania's top IT students, who went to the dark side and helped create a malware operation that took nine years for US authorities and the FBI to track and eventually take down. Before turning hacker, he was the coach of Romania's national computer science team, although he was still a student, and won numerous awards in programming and CS contests.
"The three were arrested in late 2016 after the FBI and Symantec had silently stalked their malware servers for years, patiently waiting for the highly skilled group to make mistakes that would leave enough of a breadcrumb trail to follow back to their real identities."
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: The group started from simple eBay scams [involving non-existent cars and even a fake trucking company] to running one of the most widespread keylogger trojans around. They were considered one of the most advanced groups around, using PGP email and OTR encryption when most hackers were defacing sites under the Anonymous moniker, and using multiple proxy layers to protect their infrastructure. The group operated tens of fake websites, including a Yahoo subsidiary clone, conned and stole money from their own money mules, and were of the first groups to deploy Bitcoin crypto-mining malware on desktops, when Bitcoin could still be mined on PCs.
The Bayrob group was led by one of Romania's top IT students, who went to the dark side and helped create a malware operation that took nine years for US authorities and the FBI to track and eventually take down. Before turning hacker, he was the coach of Romania's national computer science team, although he was still a student, and won numerous awards in programming and CS contests.
hackers, and other criminals:
Ensure your collegiate performance is dead average, because after this they will be keeping a file on you if you are top 10-25 percent. Better yet don't go to school at all so they won't have a public record of homework submissions they can mine to look for patterns matching up in your malware code either.
These apply to anyone who teetering on the bring. If you might EVER do a criminal act, you need to start preparing now, because otherwise by the time you do, you won't be able to get away and you will find either imprisoned or permanently conscripted by people you will have even less desire to find yourself working for.
Gone are both the days of anonymity and the wild west attributes of the internet. The gentrification has begun and soon there will be no shady corners to hide around.
I would have considered that standard procedure. At work, it is completely standard for anything confidential.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Loads of Romanians are not part of the ethnic group of gypsies or "Roma". And it's been racists like you who have contributed to a lot of the problems with the ones that are gypsies, or Roma. Members of those groups are doing quite well in a lot of countries. But they are thoroughly marginalized in Romania and other Eastern European countries where they are living below subsistence level and are forced to be criminals just to survive. As this has been going on for centuries, it's become a vicious cycle: they are discriminated against for being criminal when distrust and exile forced them into it in the first place. Or vice versa - who can tell after centuries?
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
The Roma name was applied when they were falsely thought to have originated in Romania. Though at the time, during the Cold War, that nation was unable to object, today's Romania wants no more to do with them than does any other part of Europe.
The English word comes from an even earlier era, when they were falsely thought to have come from Egypt.
Members of those groups are doing quite well in a lot of countries.
LOL! Please tell me 2/two countries where Gypsies integrated / "do quite well" by any standard. That means the majority of the population taking a job, going through the education system, etc.
But they are thoroughly marginalized in Romania and other Eastern European countries where they are living below subsistence level and are forced to be criminals just to survive
Nobody is forcing anyone in Eastern Europe to be criminal, that's a ridiculous claim. So many Gypsies in Eastern Europe live in poverty because those countries are, by European Union standards, quite poor themselves. A lot of people there live in poverty - some of them are Gypsies.
Catalin Braescu
Ofaly.com
Disclaimer: Romanian here.
It's more complicated than this. It is true that Gypsies have been marginalized for a long time. It's not really clear whether the marginalization is a cause or an effect. After studying the subject for quite some time, I am inclined to say it's both - kind of like egg-versus-hen. Nobody could tell which was first.
The bigger problem is that efforts to integrate Gypsies have failed. Particular success cases do exist, but all of them (from what I have researched) are based on a genuine desire of the subject(s) to integrate into civilized society. Western societies tend to cover both habits/traditions and integration challenges under the same blanket, which is wrong. Let me explain.
While it's true that it's more difficult for a Gypsy person to leave poverty behind them, this has nothing to do with their unwillingness to shed bad habits. Speaking loudly in public in their own languages, littering all over the place, listening to loud (bad) music, behaving in primitive ways, being verbally and physically aggressive towards other people, being dirty, urinating in public, disrespecting neighbors - all these can't be explained by "I am poor and marginalized". A 50 cent soap is much cheaper than a thousand dollar phone blaring "manele" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manele) or the thick, genuine gold-made necklace. When you build a million-dollar house which has no running water or toilet and keep your horses and carriages in the yard, poverty is no excuse.
Check these Gypsy house images below from the village of Buzescu, Romania:
https://www.google.com/search?...
And then tell me they are poor and marginalized. And no, this village is not an exception, it's just the most prominently-displayed.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)