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posted by martyb on Monday June 01 2020, @08:47AM   Printer-friendly
from the did-he-leave-a-silver-bullet? dept.

Check Point Unmasks Hacktivist Who Defaced Nearly 5000 Sites:

Security researchers are claiming victory after unmasking an infamous hacktivist who defaced nearly 5000 websites in more than 40 countries over the past few years.

The individual, known online as “VandaTheGod” on Twitter, took to social media to publicize his exploits, sometimes under aliases such as “Vanda de Assis” and “SH1N1NG4M3,” according to Check Point.

This activity first alerted the security firm to his presence, and also provided a trail of clues which ultimately led them to his real identity: an individual living in the south-eastern Brazilian municipality of Uberlandia.

Active since 2013, the hacktivist never reached his stated personal goal of compromising over 5000 websites. However, thousands of government, academic and corporate sites were apparently defaced with anti-government and social justice messages thanks to his work.

In the last year, over half (57%) were located in the US — where victims included the official website of the state of Rhode Island and the city of Philadelphia — while Australia and the Netherlands rounded out the top three targeted countries.

Previously:
(2020-05-14) The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet


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The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet 34 comments

The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet (archive)

At 22, he single-handedly put a stop to the worst cyberattack the world had ever seen. Then he was arrested by the FBI. This is his untold story.

[...] For the next few minutes, the agents struck a friendly tone, asking Hutchins about his education and Kryptos Logic, the security firm where he worked. For those minutes, Hutchins allowed himself to believe that perhaps the agents wanted only to learn more about his work on WannaCry, that this was just a particularly aggressive way to get his cooperation into their investigation of that world-shaking cyberattack. Then, 11 minutes into the interview, his interrogators asked him about a program called Kronos.

"Kronos," Hutchins said. "I know that name." And it began to dawn on him, with a sort of numbness, that he was not going home after all.

[...] Despite his sentence of time served, his legal case forced him to overstay his visa, and he's soon likely to be deported back to England. As we walk into Santa Monica, past rows of expensive beach homes, he says his goal is to eventually get back here to LA, which now feels more like home than Devon. "Someday I'd like to be able to live in a house by the ocean like this," he says, "Where I can look out the window and if the waves are good, go right out and surf."

A long, but interesting read.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Monday June 01 2020, @09:29AM (7 children)

    by Bot (3902) on Monday June 01 2020, @09:29AM (#1001656) Journal

    Uberlandia? in south America? if I had to look for nazis who crossed the ocean to be hosted in the backyard of the enemy (which tells clearly enough how the official narrative about WWII is a joke), I would start there.

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    Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday June 01 2020, @09:41AM (1 child)

      by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Monday June 01 2020, @09:41AM (#1001658) Journal
      --
      Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Bot on Monday June 01 2020, @01:53PM

        by Bot (3902) on Monday June 01 2020, @01:53PM (#1001686) Journal

        > Decree No. 61.244 of August 28, 1967 created the Manaus Free Trade Zone Superintendence, SUFRAMA, an autarchy with its own legal status and assets and having financial and administrative autonomy.

        And a state within a state, like the Vatican, the City and washington DC. I'll visit there for my collection of SS memorabilia (Actually I don't have one but I guess it will be sufficient to dig a hole in the ground once there)

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        Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by meustrus on Monday June 01 2020, @04:49PM (4 children)

      by meustrus (4961) on Monday June 01 2020, @04:49PM (#1001770)

      the official narrative about WWII is a joke

      Official narrative? Tell that to the Chilean children raped by Nazi fugitive Paul Schäfer at Colonia Dignidad [wikipedia.org].

      The Nazi Pedophile Apocalypse Cult [youtube.com]

      It is sick and deranged the lengths to which holocaust deniers will go to believe that fascism isn't the purest manifestation of evil. WWII happened, Nazi Germany murdered millions of people and traumatized millions more, and millions more people saw this with their own eyes.

      Some of those millions who saw evil risked their own safety to selflessly save lives, like those at Le Chambon-sur-Lignon [wikipedia.org]

      Some of those millions who saw evil were American soldiers. Republicans. Democrats. Parents. Whites. Blacks. Many of them you would have admired for their dedication to American freedom and prosperity.

      You dishonor them all. You make me sick.

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      If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Bot on Monday June 01 2020, @05:22PM (3 children)

        by Bot (3902) on Monday June 01 2020, @05:22PM (#1001798) Journal

        KNOCK KNOCK is there any neuron working?
        You don't know what I think about WWII, so STFU about it.
        Just as one of the things whose official explanation you should mull over: Herr Hitler was financed by London.

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        Account abandoned.
        • (Score: 4, Funny) by meustrus on Monday June 01 2020, @10:23PM (2 children)

          by meustrus (4961) on Monday June 01 2020, @10:23PM (#1001915)

          What's your point? That London was in on the whole thing? Is it somehow not the "official explanation" that the European and American financial establishment schemed to profit as much as possible from post-WWI Germany? Or is there something wrong with that explanation in your view?

          There's a thing about the "official explanation": millions of people, many of them smarter and more determined than I, have had decades to analyze them and pick them apart.

          Meanwhile, you're keeping to yourself the details of whatever crackpot conspiracy theory is rattling inside your head. Where nobody can check its factual or logical consistency. Does it make you feel smugly superior to the rest of us that you've figured out the grand conspiracy?

          If I'm to guess this is one of those "new world order" conspiracy theories, the perpetrator(s) would need an impossible combination of superhuman intelligence, animalistic concern for the material world, pathological disregard for human life, megalomaniacal ambition, god-like humility, and lottery-winning luck to conceive of such a plan, impose it upon the world, plow through millions of innocent (and productive) human lives, set themselves up to benefit most, keep completely silent about their magnificent scheme, and accurately predict and prevent every irrational decision-maker involved from screwing it up.

          The ruling forces of this world aren't that smart, and they're not that stupid. But I'm curious. If your conspiracy theory isn't that "the Jews" faked their own genocide to take control of the world, then what could it possibly be?

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          If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2020, @01:33AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2020, @01:33AM (#1005577)

            You seem upset.

            • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Wednesday June 10 2020, @04:48PM

              by meustrus (4961) on Wednesday June 10 2020, @04:48PM (#1005868)

              It upsets me when people piss on the graves of those who died for the sake of freedom. Memorial Day was only a couple of weeks ago.

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              If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Oakenshield on Monday June 01 2020, @12:57PM (1 child)

    by Oakenshield (4900) on Monday June 01 2020, @12:57PM (#1001675)

    Claiming to have unmasked someone, yet offering no proof except a self congratulatory pat on the back. I am skeptical. No mention of arrest in the article or summary. Nothing.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @03:46PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @03:46PM (#1001730)

      Maybe the summary/article is merely Hackvertisment.

  • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Monday June 01 2020, @04:53PM

    by meustrus (4961) on Monday June 01 2020, @04:53PM (#1001773)

    Maybe some of his exploits were "hacktivism", like this from TFA:

    VandaTheGod was also active in his home country, defacing a Brazilian government website with the hashtag #PrayforAmazonia, in response to the increase in rainforest clearing approved by right-wing President Bolsonaro.

    But that doesn't mean he's a hacktivist. He's just a criminal who occasionally chooses targets for political reasons, but the majority of his hacks were apparently for financial gain:

    However, his motives weren’t always so altruistic, and occasionally strayed into theft of credit card details and log-ins. VandaTheGod is said to have attempted to breach details from public figures, universities and even hospitals — one on occasion offering to sell the medical records of one million New Zealand patients for $200 per record.

    Criminal != Hacktivist.

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    If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
  • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Tuesday June 02 2020, @12:34AM

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 02 2020, @12:34AM (#1001958) Journal

    if you like to brag.
     
    Many hackers seem to want to make sure they can be exclusively credited with all their works someday when their name is exalted up there with the likes of Robert Morris and Kevin Mitnick.

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    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
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