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The Federal Bureau of Investigation has shut down a "major computer hacking forum" called Darkode. The Darkode site now displays a banner with a message from the FBI, Department of Justice, and many foreign police agencies.
U.S. authorities working with law enforcement partners abroad have shut down the Darkode online forum used by cybercriminals around the world and charged 12 people linked to the site, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney David Hickton announced the charges in Pittsburgh and called Darkode "a cyber hornet's nest of criminal hackers."
"Of the roughly 800 criminal Internet forums worldwide, Darkode represented one of the gravest threats to the integrity of data on computers in the United States," he said.
The Justice Department said the FBI and U.S. attorney's office in Pittsburgh led the investigation, known as Operation Shrouded Horizon. It included authorities from Europol and 20 countries in Europe and Latin America and included Israel, Nigeria and Australia.
12 individuals have been charged:
- Johan Anders Gudmunds, aka Mafi aka Crim aka Synthet!c, 27, of Sollebrunn, Sweden.
- Morgan C. Culbertson, aka Android, 20, of Pittsburgh.
- Eric L. Crocker, aka Phastman, 39, of Binghamton, New York.
- Naveed Ahmed, aka Nav aka semaph0re, 27, of Tampa, Florida.
- Phillip R. Fleitz, aka Strife, 31, of Indianapolis.
- Dewayne Watts, aka m3t4lh34d aka metal, 28, of Hernando, Florida.
- Murtaza Saifuddin, aka rzor, 29, of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.
- Daniel Placek, aka Nocen aka Loki aka Juggernaut aka M1rr0r, 27, of Glendale, Wisconsin.
- Matjaz Skorjanc, aka iserdo aka serdo, 28, of Maribor, Slovenia.
- Florencio Carro Ruiz, aka NeTK aka Netkairo, 36, of Vizcaya, Spain.
- Mentor Leniqi, aka Iceman, 34, of Gurisnica, Slovenia.
- Rory Stephen Guidry, aka k@exploit.im, of Opelousas, Louisiana.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by mendax on Thursday July 16 2015, @12:27AM
Ah, more fodder for the overcrowded federal gulag. Of course, producing and selling malware and using it for criminal purposes should be punished, but filling the prisons with these people is not the answer. Unfortunately, that's what going to happen to those who the U.S. is able to get its hands on.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday July 16 2015, @12:42AM
But... but... think a bit, how much space do you think all the Ecuadorian embassies all over the world have? Look, one of them is already taken by mendax [wikipedia.org].
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by mendax on Thursday July 16 2015, @03:06AM
Oh, if only I was him. I'd be able to improve my high school Spanish!
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Thursday July 16 2015, @04:19AM
😛
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @03:31PM
Having sex with Hillary and embarrassing Swedish groupies would be far worse.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Thursday July 16 2015, @08:58PM
Perhaps, but the other methods would not be as much fun.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by EQ on Thursday July 16 2015, @01:09AM
but filling the prisons with these people is not the answer.
If not prison then what? There must be a penalty for the felonies (if nothing else, pour encourager les autres [reference.com] ), and they must be removed from the society they were damaging, and prevented from damaging it in the future.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday July 16 2015, @01:25AM
What about in the office spaces of NSA/GCHQ/etc? At least the rest of us will know that they are all together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday July 16 2015, @01:53AM
Amen!
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by zugedneb on Thursday July 16 2015, @01:28AM
If not prison then what?
Employment?
and they must be removed from the society they were damaging
-like the adobe flash programmers?
-like M$ programmers? every fucking update says "your computer can be compromised" or whatever...
They should at least get a share form the revenue from the companies who are forced to patch up their products when the shit hits the fan.
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TGV on Thursday July 16 2015, @07:45AM
> Employment?
So you can do damage and reap profit from crime, and when you're caught you get a job? How would that work out in the end?
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Thursday July 16 2015, @01:02PM
I'm just guessing here, but maybe, with really secure, robust, software.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by TGV on Thursday July 16 2015, @01:10PM
Who has an extra incentive to write really robust software when criminal hackers would get a job instead of prison?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mendax on Thursday July 16 2015, @03:04AM
The problem with the U.S. criminal justice system is that we somehow got the idea that the solution to serious criminal behavior is to lock the offender up and throw away the key. Producing or selling malware is a serious crime. But locking up the person for more than a year or two is not the solution.
Few people who commit crimes deserve to be removed from society except for a short period of time. The experience the U.S. has had in recent years with mass incarceration has demonstrated that it is counterproductive, in that it wrecks the lives of both the incarcerated, their families, and those in their communities. Prisons should be for protecting the public from those who are a danger to public safety, people who are violent, not to punish people.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday July 16 2015, @02:49PM
Hear, hear!
The only people who needs to be locked up for extended periods of time are violent criminals. Everyone else should only get a year or two.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @03:27PM
No, moving electrons around a computer is not a serious crime. It has nothing to do with the real,physical,world.
Enjoy your woman centric global police state where you cannot pursue happiness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @03:35PM
The goal of the people that run the U.S. Empire is to suppress any dissenting cultures practices or views. Thus prison. It is not about helping any man. The only people helped are women and the people that run the show.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday July 16 2015, @05:42PM
The problem with the U.S. criminal justice system is that increasingly it is operated for profit. No one makes money if people are not locked up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @03:00AM
Based on the language in the charges, anyone working on exploit research is liable to get charged with "conspiring with others to illegally tamper with a protected computer"
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday July 16 2015, @04:53AM
Ah no..we'll likely wind up turning them into the dirty dozen in the cyber war against ISIS.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @03:33PM
More likely against the people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @03:25PM
The empire spans the globe now. No escape.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @07:17PM
Those people have caused a world of hurt to those who have lost financial data to thieves who bought programs and used them on the masses.
They have cause plenty of other economic losses/expenses to those trying to defend against their malware.
To the dungeons with thee!