Police Resurrect Lockbit's Site and Troll the Ransomware Gang (techcrunch.com) 15
An international coalition of police agencies have resurrected the dark web site of the notorious LockBit ransomware gang, which they had seized earlier this year, teasing new revelations about the group. From a report: On Sunday, what was once LockBit's official darknet site reappeared online with new posts that suggest the authorities are planning to release new information about the hackers in the next 24 hours, as of this writing. The posts have titles such as "Who is LockBitSupp?," "What have we learnt," "More LB hackers exposed," and "What have we been doing?"
In February, a law enforcement coalition that included the U.K.'s National Crime Agency, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as forces from Germany, Finland, France, Japan and others announced that they had infiltrated LockBit's official site. The coalition seized the site and replaced information on it with their own press release and other information in a clear attempt to troll and warn the hackers that the authorities were on to them.
In February, a law enforcement coalition that included the U.K.'s National Crime Agency, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as forces from Germany, Finland, France, Japan and others announced that they had infiltrated LockBit's official site. The coalition seized the site and replaced information on it with their own press release and other information in a clear attempt to troll and warn the hackers that the authorities were on to them.
Cops, don't let your ego shape policy (Score:2)
Bad idea! Many of those type enjoy the challenge. "You think your bacon servers are safe? We'll make you squeal, little piggies!..."
Best to stay stealth.
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Cops are dumbasses, why aren't they arresting them instead of trolling them? Could it be they don't know who they are?
Re:Cops, don't let your ego shape policy (Score:4, Insightful)
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> Arresting them? How? they are mostly in [unfriendly countries]
The Tinted One would probably threaten to send cruise missiles after them to look "strong on law enforcement". Whether he would or not is hard to know with him. In the past, his staff often either talked him out of dodgy ideas, or found a way to distract him so that he forgot about it. However, in his second term, he has threatened to put in more loyalists, which we usually call "yesmen" (or "yespeople").
I suspect they'd talk him down into a
Re:Cops, don't let your ego shape policy (Score:5, Funny)
"I'll just make one phone call to Putin, a very great guy. Strong, very strong. But one call and Putin will tell the hackers to stop. It's that simple. A simple call, a perfect call even. Please send me more money,"
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Then they need to quit wasting money trolling criminals they can't catch. They sound like typical cops.
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Arresting them? How? they are mostly in Russia, and maybe China or NK, good luck
Perhaps all the more reason “professional” cops shouldn’t act like child trolls online, prodding a bear far beyond their jurisdiction?
They act like their content posted online, is actually intimidating anyone when it’s about as intimidating as a Texas redneck getting a warning from North Korea about how they’re going to confiscate his guns.
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>>new posts that suggest the authorities are planning to release new information about the hackers in the next 24 hours
Giving the people you are coming after 24 hours advance notice seems particularly stupid.
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They're not going after anybody. This is just copaganda.
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Not necessarily. Could be a play to out the individuals, particularly if the inviduals are known to have a sour relationship with various crime organizations. Or heck, even individuals who might have a cozy relationship with organized crime until the nature of some sort of non-blessed activities comes to light. A doxxing of that nature could rattle some cages and give pause to others looking to fill their shoes.
illusion of control (Score:2)
The police what you to think they are in control. The police would not be trolling hackers if they could just arrest the hackers. The police would much rather perp-walk the suspects than troll them. The police are can't really do anything to stop ransomware, that part is up to you.
Trolling is a toothless approach (Score:2)
The only way to get back at ransomware hackers will be to destroy the cryptocurrency market. As soon as quantum supercomputers get powerful enough to break the hashing algorithms and create enough fake coins of each type to induce cryptocurrency inflation, the party's over. While we wait for this to happen, can we use AI s to crawl the blockchains to nail illegal users of the currencies?
Oh the humanity (Score:2)
Discouraging customers (Score:3)