Fill it up

[rogue06]

Wow, so basically the people who can actually afford to pay for their passage into the USA aren't actually as poor and downtrodden as the democrats make them out. The cost for a family of 4 could easily end up costing over $40,000

And considering how often the coyotes merely rape and rob their "customers"...

[Sparko]

And paid well. Border surge sends prices soaring; smugglers can earn $200,000

Wow, so basically the people who can actually afford to pay for their passage into the USA aren't actually as poor and downtrodden as the democrats make them out. The cost for a family of 4 could easily end up costing over $40,000

[rogue06]

That'll make it easier for the drug mules to get paid.

And paid well. Border surge sends prices soaring; smugglers can earn $200,000

[Sparko]

Definitely emerging from the shadows: El Salvador becomes first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender after passing law

That'll make it easier for the drug mules to get paid.

[rogue06]

well the prices are all over the place right now because of China cracking down on bitcoin mining and Elon Musk. But I think most of the illegal transactions are so secret that they don't really affect the prices. I think crypto has moved out of the black market into the main stream enough that it probably won't affect it much.

Definitely emerging from the shadows: El Salvador becomes first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender after passing law

[Sparko]

I gotta wonder how that'll affect the value of cryptocurrencies now that it is obvious that transferences aren't as secret and as secure as they thought.

well the prices are all over the place right now because of China cracking down on bitcoin mining and Elon Musk. But I think most of the illegal transactions are so secret that they don't really affect the prices. I think crypto has moved out of the black market into the main stream enough that it probably won't affect it much.

[rogue06]

US recovers millions in cryptocurrency paid to Colonial Pipeline ransomware hackers


Washington (CNN)US investigators have recovered millions in cryptocurrency they say was paid in ransom to hackers whose attack prompted the shutdown of the key East Coast pipeline last month, the Justice Department announced Monday.


The announcement confirms CNN's earlier reporting about the FBI-led operation, which was carried out with cooperation from Colonial Pipeline, the company that fell victim to the ransomware attack in question.

Specifically, the Justice Department said it seized approximately $2.3 million in Bitcoins paid to individuals in a criminal hacking group known as DarkSide. The FBI said it has been investigating DarkSide, which is said to share its malware tools with other criminal hackers, for over a year.
The ransom recovery, which is the first seizure undertaken by the recently created DOJ digital extortion taskforce, is a rare outcome for a company that has fallen victim to a debilitating cyberattack in the booming criminal business of ransomware.
...

"Following the money remains one of the most basic, yet powerful, tools we have," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Monday during the DOJ announcement, which followed CNN's reporting about the recovery operation. "Ransom payments are the fuel that propels the digital extortion engine, and today's announcement demonstrates that the United States will use all available tools to make these attacks more costly and less profitable for criminal enterprises."
The seizure warrant was authorized through the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California.

"The extortionists will never see this money," acting US Attorney Stephanie Hinds for the Northern District of California said at the news conference at the Justice Department Monday. "New financial technologies that attempt to anonymize payments will not provide a curtain from behind which criminals will be permitted to pick the pockets of hardworking Americans."
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/07/polit...red/index.html

I gotta wonder how that'll affect the value of cryptocurrencies now that it is obvious that transferences aren't as secret and as secure as they thought.

[Sparko]

US recovers millions in cryptocurrency paid to Colonial Pipeline ransomware hackers


Washington (CNN)US investigators have recovered millions in cryptocurrency they say was paid in ransom to hackers whose attack prompted the shutdown of the key East Coast pipeline last month, the Justice Department announced Monday.


The announcement confirms CNN's earlier reporting about the FBI-led operation, which was carried out with cooperation from Colonial Pipeline, the company that fell victim to the ransomware attack in question.

Specifically, the Justice Department said it seized approximately $2.3 million in Bitcoins paid to individuals in a criminal hacking group known as DarkSide. The FBI said it has been investigating DarkSide, which is said to share its malware tools with other criminal hackers, for over a year.
The ransom recovery, which is the first seizure undertaken by the recently created DOJ digital extortion taskforce, is a rare outcome for a company that has fallen victim to a debilitating cyberattack in the booming criminal business of ransomware.
...

"Following the money remains one of the most basic, yet powerful, tools we have," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Monday during the DOJ announcement, which followed CNN's reporting about the recovery operation. "Ransom payments are the fuel that propels the digital extortion engine, and today's announcement demonstrates that the United States will use all available tools to make these attacks more costly and less profitable for criminal enterprises."
The seizure warrant was authorized through the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California.

"The extortionists will never see this money," acting US Attorney Stephanie Hinds for the Northern District of California said at the news conference at the Justice Department Monday. "New financial technologies that attempt to anonymize payments will not provide a curtain from behind which criminals will be permitted to pick the pockets of hardworking Americans."
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/07/polit...red/index.html

[rogue06]

Breaking news!!! The Bacon Supply is SAFE!!!!

Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/jbs-cyberattack-shuts-down-one-fifth-us-beef-production

The shutdowns impacted all nine beef plants, located in Arizona, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wisconsin, Utah, Michigan and Pennsylvania, according to officials from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union, which represents more than 25,000 JBS employees. JBS's US-based pork plants are still operational.

© Copyright Original Source

I'm not saying that a certain group of squirrels secured the bacon supply as a personal favor, but a certain group of squirrels secured the bacon supply as a personal favor Gotta love those guys -- and gals!

[Sparko]

Totally unrelated news:

I have some frozen hamburger meat for sale, 1 pound for only $399.99! 2 pounds for $999.99! Bargain!

[Sparko]

Breaking news!!! The Bacon Supply is SAFE!!!!

Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/jbs-cyberattack-shuts-down-one-fifth-us-beef-production

The shutdowns impacted all nine beef plants, located in Arizona, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wisconsin, Utah, Michigan and Pennsylvania, according to officials from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union, which represents more than 25,000 JBS employees. JBS's US-based pork plants are still operational.

© Copyright Original Source

[Sparko]

And now we see that having been encouraged by the pipeline paying up, hackers have now taken our steak and bacon supply hostage!

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57318965

JBS: Cyber-attack hits world's largest meat supplier


The world's largest meat processing company has been targeted by a sophisticated cyber-attack.



Computer networks at JBS were hacked, temporarily shutting down some operations in Australia, Canada and the US, with thousands of workers affected.

The company believes the ransomware attack originated from a criminal group likely based in Russia, the White House said.

The attack could lead to shortages of meat or raise prices for consumers.

In a ransomware attack, hackers get into a computer network and threaten to cause disruption or delete files unless a ransom is paid.



The White House says the FBI is investigating the attack.
"JBS notified [the White House] that the ransom demand came from a criminal organisation likely based in Russia," White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.
"The White House is engaging directly with the Russian government on this matter and delivering the message that responsible states do not harbour ransomware criminals," she added.

On Wednesday Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told local media the Biden administration had been in contact with Moscow to discuss the cyber-attack.

© Copyright Original Source

[Sparko]

News regarding Dark Side, the outfit that ransomed the pipeline...

Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/darkside-ransomware-servers-reportedly-seized-operation-shuts-down/

[B

DarkSide ransomware servers reportedly seized, operation shuts down[/B]


ByLawrence Abrams



The DarkSide ransomware operation has allegedly shut down after the threat actors lost access to servers and their cryptocurrency was transferred to an unknown wallet.

This news was shared by a threat actor known as 'UNKN', the public-facing representative of the rival REvil ransomware gang, in a forum post first discovered by Recorded Future researcher Dmitry Smilyanets on the Exploit hacking forum.

In the post, 'Unkn' shared a message allegedly from DarkSide explaining how the threat actors lost access to their public data leak site, payment servers, and CDN servers due to law enforcement action.

"Since the first version, we have promised to speak honestly and openly about problems. A few hours ago, we lost access to the public part of our infrastructure, namely : Blog, Payment server, DOS servers," reads the forum post from UNKN.

"Now these servers are unavailable via SSH, the hosting panels are blocked. Hosting support, apart from information "at the request of law enfocement agencies", does not provide any other information."

This news comes a day after President Biden said in a White House press conference that countries harboring ransomware networks must take action to shut them down.

"We do not believe — I emphasize, we do not believe the Russian government was involved in this attack. But we do have strong reason to believe that criminals who did the attack are living in Russia. That’s where it came from — were from Russia," Biden said in a press conference about the Colonial Pipeline attack.

"We have been in direct communication with Moscow about the imperative for responsible countries to take decisive action against these ransomware networks."

Starting yesterday, security researchers and journalists noted that the DarkSide data leak site was no longer accessible, and it was speculated that law enforcement had seized the server.
Feeling the heat from law enforcement, it has also been speculated that the DarkSide ransomware gang may be pulling an exit scam.

After pulling in $9.4 million in ransom payments this week between Brenntag and Colonial Pipeline, they may be stealing the money, so they do not have to pay affiliates and to blame it on a law enforcement operation.
DarkSide shuts down affiliate program


After we published our story, Intel471 gained access to the full message sent to affiliates of the DarkSide ransomware-as-a-service operation.

According to this message, DarkSide decided to close their operation "due to the pressure from the US" and after losing access to their public-facing servers.

The full translated message acquired by Intel471 is below:

Starting from version one, we promised to speak about problems honestly and openly. A couple of hours ago, we lost access to the public part of our infrastructure, in particular to the

blog

payment server

CDN servers

At the moment, these servers cannot be accessed via SSH, and the hosting panels have been blocked.

The hosting support service doesn't provide any information except "at the request of law enforcement authorities." In addition, a couple of hours after the seizure, funds from the payment server (belonging to us and our clients) were withdrawn to an unknown account.

The following actions will be taken to solve the current issue: You will be given decryption tools for all the companies that haven't paid yet.

After that, you will be free to communicate with them wherever you want in any way you want. Contact the support service. We will withdraw the deposit to resolve the issues with all the affected users.

The approximate date of compensation is May 23 (due to the fact that the deposit is to be put on hold for 10 days on XSS).

In view of the above and due to the pressure from the US, the affiliate program is closed. Stay safe and good luck.

The landing page, servers, and other resources will be taken down within 48 hours.

An interesting point in this message is that the affiliates will be provided decryptors for their victims. These decryptors will allow the affiliates to extort those victims on their own without any affiliation with DarkSide.
...

© Copyright Original Source

[Teallaura]

Yeah my next purchase will be a 5TB USB drive which I will periodically copy all of my backups to, so if my backup drive gets compromised I will still have an offline backup.

Added to my shopping list ....

[Sparko]

Your post triggered another thought. The best practice is to have a copy of the backup files (and restore tool) on a drive that is disconnected from the computer and network. Anything on your computer system that is accessible from the internet could be locked by the ransomeware.

Yeah my next purchase will be a 5TB USB drive which I will periodically copy all of my backups to, so if my backup drive gets compromised I will still have an offline backup.