Ransomware

[pbrower2a]

(06-19-2021, 07:33 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(06-19-2021, 12:15 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Law enforcement has turned the trick on organized crime. Great news!

The ANOM (also stylized as AN0M or ΛNØM) sting operation (known as Operation Trojan Shield or Operation Ironside) is a collaboration by law enforcement agencies from several countries, running between 2018 and 2021, that intercepted millions of messages sent through the supposedly secure smartphone-based messaging app ANOM. The ANOM service was widely used by criminals, but instead of providing secure communication, it was actually a trojan horse covertly distributed by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP), enabling them to monitor all communications. Through collaboration with other law enforcement agencies worldwide, the operation resulted in the arrest of over 800 suspects allegedly involved in criminal activity, in 16 countries. Among the arrested people were alleged members of Australian-based Italian mafia, Albanian organised crime, outlaw motorcycle clubs, drug syndicates and other organised crime groups.

I don't think this is great news at all:  quite the opposite, in fact.  The government being able to intercept all communications is something that can be abused to much more severe levels than organized crime is likely to get to.

Want some actual great news?  The government was able to reverse the bitcoin ransom transaction for the recent hack of the oil pipeline network, so the hackers never got their money.

Certain behaviors are seen as criminal. Some criminal activities, such as drug dealing, human trafficking, child porn, wildlife poaching, and criminal hacking can be lucrative activities. Unlike normal business they do great harm to others. 

Honest people may be secretive about how much they earn, but they will tell you how they make the:

ir money. Crooks must cover for what they do. If you are Jeff Bezos you have nothing to hide. If you are dealing young women from Moldova that you can get them to America where they will get restaurant work and then they end up in a whorehouse that they cannot leave, then you have something to hide.  

This is a disgusting image, but you can imagine what sort of people would do his to a woman or girl:



I'm not saying that human trafficking is one of the crimes stopped with this sting... but the people who do human trafficking usually do other crimes.  I have a particular hatred for human trafficking for its degradation of people. Of course, offenders make money off human suffering and must find ways in which to conceal it.     

Supposedly one can get all sorts of stuff from Jeff Bezos through Amazon.com. Maybe this disgusting image did appear in the Washington Post (which he owns), but he certainly isn't selling the woman.