FBI, International Law Units Smash Infamous Hacker Bazaar Darkode 56
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.
Hackers (Score:5, Informative)
Not all Hackers are cyber criminals. Despite what CSI:Cyber might say.
Why even say that? (Score:1)
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
Re: (Score:1)
Absolutely not. If they sell their exploits to governments, they become security professionals or even law enforcement officers! Unless they sell to the wrong government, in case of which they become terrorists or enemy combatants.
Then again, in reality hackers are people who can manipulate systems (locks, vending machines, humans, computers) in unconventional and unforeseen ways with minimum effort. But who cares about definitions.
Criminal intent (Score:1)
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 call
In fact, basically none are (Score:1)
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, th
Re: (Score:1)
"Hacker" was originally a badge of honour, given and never claimed, for mindbending creativity with great technological skill.
I thought it was a term given to trial-and-error programmers, who just kinda "hack things together" when there is no documentation or direction.
Re: (Score:3)
Not any remote controlled toy airplanes are drones, but put that one in the dictionary with hackers and move on.
Re: (Score:1)
I'm proud to say I have no clue what CSI:Cyber says.
Arent botnets (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Mac and Linux don't get malware.
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
I guarantee if the market share of Windows and Linux were switched, you would see just as much malware.
Re: (Score:2)
No, he's probably right. Don't forget that things like a Raspberry Pi and Beaglebone Black and TiVos and smartphones and so forth and so on all run some flavor of Linux as well. It could very well easily be billions when you include all of the platforms from the simplest device (that could have done with a simpler microcontroller but using a more beefy chip meant cost savings on not having to use a separate display driver and running a lightweight Linux distro on there seemed like a perfect fit) to superc
More proof that the goverment hates competition. (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:More proof that the goverment hates competition (Score:5, Funny)
Probably they wanted discounts and did not get them. Hence the take-down.
Thought crime (Score:4, Insightful)
The FBI goes after thoughtcrime, ideas and tools that _may_ be used to commit a crime who would have thought.
How about guns?
Most crime is thought crime (Score:2)
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
New tools needed (Score:2)
When you can simply take what you want, you can't beat the price.
Re: (Score:2)
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?
Watching diverse state and federal police forces offer complex tenders for and accepting code thats then used live around the world.
Front door, back door, trap door, skylight.... just watching day to day network use would be useful to see what is been whitelisted, tracked or allowed to go under patched for week, month
National police and private contractors (Score:1)
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.
Re: (Score:1)
This happened in my neighborhood. (Score:2)