[Zednet] US authorities put together four years worth of malware samples, domain names, email and social media accounts to track down one of the Lazarus Group hackers.
On September 6, the US Department of Justice formally charged a North Korean programmer for some of the biggest cyber-attacks in recent years.
According to a 179-page DOJ indictment, the US believes that Park Jin Hyok, a 34-year-old North Korean, is one of the many individuals behind a long string of malware attacks and intrusions, such as:
- The WannaCry ransomware outbreak of 2017;
- Attempts of hacking US defense contractor Lockheed Martin in 2016;
- The 2016 Bangladesh Central Bank cyber-heist;
- The breach at Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014;
- Breaches at US movie theatre chains AMC Theatres and Mammoth Screen in 2014;
- A long string of hacks of South Korean news media organizations, banks, and military entities across several years, and;
- Hacks of banks all over the world from 2015 through 2018.
Also: Free, easy to use, and available to anyone: The powerful malware hiding in plain sight on the open web
The DOJ says Park was an active member of a government-sponsored hacking team known in the private cyber-security sector as the Lazarus Group.
But in reality, officials say, he was also a government employee working for a government-owned company named Chosun Expo Joint Venture (Chosun Expo hereinafter).
Investigators say that Chosun Expo was founded as a joint venture between the South and North Korean governments, and was meant to be an e-commerce and lottery website.
South Korean officials pulled out of the deal, but the North Korean government continued to manage the company through various individuals, branching out in different online services, such as online gaming and gambling. The company had offices in North Korea and China, and Park was sent to work for many years in the company's Chinese office in the city of Dalian.
There, investigators said he worked under titles of "developer" and "online game developer," listing the ability to code in Java, JSP, PHP, Flash, but also Visual C++, the language in which most Lazarus Group malware was written in.
#3
Thing is, life in a federal joint is likely on par or better than life in NK. (At least, you're less likely to shot with an anti-aircraft gun.)
I realize he's a "special" guy and all that, but the wind shifts fast over there.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
09/07/2018 16:59 Comments ||
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[ABC] Authorities have identified the gunman who allegedly killed three people and wounded two others at a bank in downtown Cincinnati as a 29-year-old Ohio resident.
Omar Perez, 29, acted alone when he opened fire at the headquarters for the Fifth Third Bank near the Fountain Square, Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac said in a press conference Thursday afternoon.
Officers responded to a 911 call around 9:10 a.m. local time about an "active shooter" at the bank, Isaac said.
Perez. of Northbend, Ohio, is not a former or current employee of the bank, Isaac said. It is unclear how he got to Fountain Square, but he entered multiple businesses before going to the bank, according to the police chief.
The suspect had opened fire in the building's loading dock before continuing into the lobby area and firing more shots, Isaac told reporters at a press conference Thursday morning.
Police said they believe Santa Perez has been in Cincinnati since at least 2015.
Santa Perez's family was shocked at his actions. A former colleague remembers a quiet worker who never showed anger. His neighbors saw a man that was becoming increasingly bitter after struggling to keep a job.
Santa Perez is a U.S. citizen born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, family members said.
Yudy Martinez Perez broke down crying on the kitchen floor of her Forest Park home Thursday afternoon when she learned that her nephew was the shooter who took three lives at the Fifth Third Center.
Santa Perez, 29, used to live in the basement of his aunt's house. Martinez said she was his godmother; her sister is Santa Perez's mother.
Social media indicates he may have attended Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, but school officials could not be reached to confirm this.
Records show he lived all over the country. There's a trail of activity in South Carolina, Florida and Ohio. He most recently lived in North Bend locally.
North Bend is a suburb of Cincinnati.
Santa Perez's aunt said her nephew held various jobs and was currently working, though his aunt and her family did not know where.
“He was very quiet,” said Martinez, who speaks only limited English. “I do not know why. I do not know why.”
His record is a smattering of low-level offenses: entering or refusing to leave the premises in Greenville, South Carolina; marijuana possession in Palm Beach, Florida; traffic offenses in Lake Worth, Florida; traffic offenses in Deerfield Beach, Florida; disorderly conduct in Coconut Creek, Florida. He also has a traffic violation in Cincinnati in 2015 for driving with an expired license plate.
In North Bend, police searched an apartment complex where Santa Perez reportedly lived.
Santa Perez also has hopped from job to job. Records show he's been let go from companies at least twice.
Santa Perez filed a lawsuit in 2017 against CNBC Universal Media LLC and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., alleging that the companies uncovered his identity and published private details about his life after extensive investigation of his personal devices.
On June 25, 2018, Federal Magistrate Karen Litkovitz in her recommendation to dismiss the case wrote that Santa Perez's allegations were "rambling, difficult to decipher and borders on delusional."
Several residents here gave similar accounts of their interactions with Santa Perez, describing an increasingly bitter and reclusive man.
He moved in about six months ago, according to Steve Conner, but never returned Conner’s pleasantries.
Conner often saw Perez “walking down the street, looking pissed off at everybody.”
Christina Fischer, another resident at the apartment building, said Perez rarely talked to anyone.
“He kind of would hide when you’d come up the stairs,” Fischer said. “He didn’t want anybody near him.”
Multiple residents said Perez’s green Subaru had broken down months ago, and he’d occasionally make a three-mile trek on foot into the nearby village of Addyston, where there’s a bus stop into Cincinnati.
Why is she in Ohio, then? We've made it too easy to create parallel societies that never assimilate. Anyone receiving government assistance should be required to learn -- and eventually be proficient in -- standard American English.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/07/2018 10:10 Comments ||
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#2
Easiest way to ensure people work with existing society is to ensure they are a productive part of society.
[Rolling Stone] Jeffrey Winder was found guilty of misdemeanor assault in February for punching white-nationalist organizer Jason Kessler in August 2017. On Tuesday, a jury ruled that his punishment will be a whopping $1 fine.
Kessler attempted to hold a press conference in Charlottesville, Virginia, the day after Heather Heyer was killed by a white supremacist who drove his car into a group of people protesting the white nationalist rally organized by Kessler’s "Unite the Right" group. Winder was among the protesters who showed up to stop Kessler from making a statement, punching him in the back of the head as others booed and shouted over him.
Winder faced a maximum possible sentence of a year in jail and a $2,500 fine for the punch, which was caught on tape by the local NBC affiliate. He appealed his misdemeanor assault conviction, and while the jury upheld the guilty verdict, they determined that he should serve no jail time and should only be fined $1, sending a clear message that Winder was justified in lashing out at Kessler.
Winder’s attorney, James Abrenio, argued that Kessler brought the punch on himself by holding a press conference while the city was reeling from the so-recent death of Heyer, arguing that he was "going out of his way" to "profit off tragedy"
[US Customs] JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ‐ U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) aircrews with interagency partners detected a vessel loaded down with over 2,880 pounds of cocaine‐a combined street value of $37.5 million‐in international waters off the coast of Acapulco, Mexico.
CBP Air and Marine Operations P-3 aircrews based at the National Air Security Operations Center ‐ Jacksonville use sophisticated maritime surveillance equipment throughout the year to detect drug-smuggling ventures as part of international operations with Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATF-South). JIATF-South targets illicit smuggling operations in coastal waters off the Central American isthmus.
[Guardian] Burt Reynolds, the star of Deliverance, The Longest Yard and Boogie Nights, has died aged 82. His manager, Erik Kritzer, confirmed the news on Thursday that Reynolds had died that morning at Jupiter medical center in Florida. The star had undergone a quintuple heart bypass in February 2010 but had been working until recently; he was filming Quentin Tarantino’s movie about the Charles Manson murders, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.
Reynolds, who famously turned down the roles of James Bond and Han Solo, nevertheless forged a film career that marked him out as a singular talent.
A Michigan native transplanted to Florida, he was an American football player in his youth, but switched to acting after a knee injury was aggravated by a car accident. Discouraged, Reynolds started part-time lessons at Palm Beach Junior College, where his acting talent was spotted by Watson B Duncan III, an English teacher who liked the way he read Shakespeare. Reynolds would later say that Duncan was the most important influence on his life.
#5
"I always wanted to experience everything and go down swinging," he wrote in the final paragraph of his memoir. "Well, so far, so good. I know I'm old, but I feel young. And there's one thing they can never take away: Nobody had more fun than I did." Not a bad epitaph. RIP
[FoxNews] A bungling burglar in Minnesota was nabbed after his pickup got stuck in a large pile of foul-smelling manure during the getaway.
Matthew Bloomquist, 29, of Hawick, Minn., was found standing on the side of the road, smoking a cigarette, covered in manure from his waist to his feet when deputies arrived to investigate Wednesday morning, according to Stearns County Sheriff Don Gudmundson.
"He was wearing jean shorts over long underwear and no shoes, which the deputies assumed were somewhere in the manure pile," Gudmundson said Friday in an incident report titled, "Something doesn't smell right."
"The trip to the jail was made with the windows open," Gudmundson said, adding that the patrol vehicle still reeked as of Thursday.
[MAIL] The perfume bottle full of Novichok used to target Sergei and Yulia Skripal contained enough of the nerve agent to kill 4,000 people, it was claimed today.
A security official said the two Russian agents accused of carrying out the Salisbury attack had brought enough Novichok to cause 'significant loss of life'.
The UK's envoy to the UN yesterday accused Moscow of 'playing dice' with British lives after the finger was pointed at Vladimir Putin and the GRU.
The attack left the Skripals critically ill and led to the death of British mother Dawn Sturgess, but the nerve agent could have cost thousands more lives, The Times reported.
And security sources have also claimed the police and secret service are probing whether the novichok hidden in a high-tech perfume bottle entered Britain in a diplomatic bag then smuggled into the Russian embassy in London.
#1
You have the method, but you don't have the means. The manner of delivery is the critical part. The bottle couldn't distribute its contents in a manner to take out 4K.
#2
You don't have to convince a student of Israeli history that Her Majesty's Government are pathological liars - but, IMO, this is too much even for them.
#3
The names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirovs appeared on the passports but are thought to be aliases. We don't know who these two really are and we don't know for certain they are Russian--it is a suspicion at this time based on travel patterns. As P2K said "You have the method, but you don't have the means. The manner of delivery is the critical part." It would seem that the delivery is uncertain at this time. It is thought it was put on the doorknob. Did anyone see these two putting Novichok on the doorknob? Any video surveillance video? It would seem that there would be some risk to Petrov and Boshirovs without some minimal protection to handle the stuff and apply it without killing yourself in the process. I'd say we still have bupkis at this point in time. I've always been suspicious of this story and it hasn't gotten any better with time.
#4
One of the guys has "ADIC" on his hat. That didn't yield much. Some possibilities:
ADIC Advanced Digital Information Corporation
ADIC Abu Dhabi Investment Company
ADIC Assistant Director in Charge (US FBI)
ADIC Australian Dairy Industry Council
ADIC Aerospace Defense Intelligence Center
ADIC Air Defense Intelligence Center
ADIC AFSCF Development Integration Committee
#5
A simple carpenter's hammer, theoretically, could be used to kill 4K people, albeit one at a time. Call me suspicious, but this really sound like a "Fake But Accurate/Too Good To Be False" type of tidbit.
[Breitbart] American construction workers are seeing their wages rise in the blue collar industry as President Trump’s "Buy American, Hire American" tightened labor market forces business to find and employ disenfranchised U.S. workers, rather than importing foreign workers.
A recent report by the Miami Herald chronicled the rise in wages and business having to adapt to an economy with a tight labor market as immigration enforcement has been increased and unemployment has hit record lows.
As admitted in the Miami Herald by industry insiders, the tight labor market has secured jobs for Americans willing to do the blue collar work and won them higher wages in the process.
#2
BTW, you notice the trades like those are not subject to diverse gender impact law suits? Sort of like the lack of significant applicants for the combat arms in the armed services when they removed gender restrictions.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/07/2018 9:57 Comments ||
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#4
It's like there's some relationship between supply demand and price...
When you realise low wage migration is effectively subsidised by taxpayers, and you realise who is actually picking up that subsidy you realise how selfish the "open" borders lot are.
[AP via SF Chronicle] HORNSTRANDIR, Iceland ‐ The passenger boat arrives at the bottom of Veidileysufjordur, a short inlet with a long name, to drop off backpackers for a multi-day trek. A weather-beaten group that's completed the trip waits to board, eager to get back to a part of Iceland where they can reconnect with the world via Wi-Fi.
By boat, that will take about a half-hour. No roads lead to the Nordic country's northernmost peninsula, a rugged glacial horn that reaches for the Arctic Circle. Making a phone call requires walking up a mountain for a cell signal so weak, clouds seem capable of blocking it.
But internet service soon could be reaching the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, one of the last digital-free frontiers in what might be the world's most-wired nation. The possibility has most hikers, park rangers and summer residents worried that email, news and social media will destroy a way of life that depends on the absence of all three.
"We see a growing appreciation for the lack of online connection," Environment Agency of Iceland ranger Vesteinn Runarsson, who patrols the peninsula's southern end on his own. "Looking to the future, we want to keep Hornstrandir special in that way."
The area has long resisted cell towers, but commercial initiatives could take the decision out of Icelanders' hands and push Hornstrandir across the digital divide.
#3
Parts of Michigan's UP are 'digitally challenged', too.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/07/2018 13:14 Comments ||
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#4
Thought there was someplace in West Virginia that was digital free also. Oh yeah, Green Bank. People go there who are highly sensitive to electric fields, like Michael McKeen's character on "Better call Saul."
#4
Dear allies of ebony kittens,
One purchase -- it costs but a pittance! --
Will render you harmless
While working towards armless:
Please signal your virtue with mittens.
Also... the "one" finger figures prominently in "monkey's bunghole tat" meme. "Two" suggests not just peace, but the pacifying scissors of castration. Yoiks! "Palm" equals paper, specifically the Constitution that enables and enforces systematic oppression. "Fist" sounds just like "kissed." "Satan hand" obviously depicts a white rabbit. It's almost like the whole world is pregnant (EEEEK!) with symbolism.
#7
I picked up a book on "Guide to Travelers on Hand Gestures", sort of quick and dirty guide to things you shouldn't do when you leave your own culture. Compared to their "invisible dog whistles" there are many, many gestures that can get you killed overseas...
#8
When I'm out on bike rides, sitting at a stop sign (south Dorchester / upper Milton near Blue Hills parkway) I've flashed many fake gang signs to 'low-riders' in their Honda 4-bangers with the glass-pack mufflers. Nothing but laughs between us.
#1
I wouldn't be surprised if after the season the NFL loses another 13% in viewership after the protests and the new shitty rules in effect.
Football isn't fun to watch anymore and people are reacting accordingly.
Next step, full streaming of all games and those that complain about how the NFL is run being called racists and white supremacists. NFL loses another 25% viewership for the next year.
#2
Pro football has got to be losing a lot of money because of so-called SJWs. Are they trying to get rid of pro football? Have these players looked around? 70% of the players in pro football are black. Viewers of the game and sponsors have created a large number of millionaires in pro ball who are African Americans.
#4
Attack of the "2's": Season is too long, games are too long with all of the Replay Officials, Too many commercial breaks, Too much social commentary by the color commentators, and Too much color commentary in the game ("it is not radio, shut up every so often!"). Too much crewing with the Official Rules by the Competition Committee every single year...
Any one or two could be ignored but the sum of all of theses is approaching a Perfect Storm.
#5
The Spanos's moved my SD Chargers team of 50+ years to become a renter in LA. F*ck them in the ear for the rest of their ownership. I did enjoy getting a Fantasy Football email update from ESPN - listing Keenan Allen of the San Diego Chargers
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/07/2018 20:56 Comments ||
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h/t Instapundit
Ohio State University employs nearly 90 diversity-related administrative employees, which costs taxpayers in the Buckeye State about $7.3 million in salaries and benefits annually, according to an analysis by The College Fix.
The 88 administrators receive an estimated $7.3 million in total compensation, which includes $5.38 million in salaries and an estimated $1.89 million in fringe benefits. And they all need to produce results to justify their paychecks.
#1
OSU, a place I'm familiar with but most major universities have created far too many diversity positions. One might think universities get federal money for these positions.
#1
Of course, the billboard is racist. Diamonds are made out of carbon. Carbon is black. What else is black? Black people! So selling diamonds is like selling black people. QED, h8ters!
Rhetorical question: Have we reached Peak Stupidity yet?
#3
Wait until the Don is reelected in 2020.--g(r)omgoru
Wait until we see what sort of gibbering Leftists that the Democratic Party runs as candidates. *Sigh* I am already expecting that it will be another election where I "hold my nose and pull the lever" for whoever the (R)'s finally pick because the (D) stands for (D)emented...
h/t Instapundit
...U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will meet with state attorneys general later this month to discuss concerns that tech companies "may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms," the Department of Justice said in a statement Wednesday.
The proposed meeting between the country's top prosecutor and state officials is the first major signal of potential antitrust action against Silicon Valley and follows recent claims by President Donald Trump of political bias and censorship by major social media firms.
#2
Probably the only thing Sessions can do to hold off the current conservative lynch mob.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
09/07/2018 6:56 Comments ||
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#3
Classify them as a common carrier. Subject them to existing regulations. They get to censor as much as the phone company can censor. Pardon me, I have to answer another robo-call even though I'm on the 'Do Not Call' list with the state and feds.
#4
A lot of people are turning on the phones only if the are going to make a call. If they leave their phone on and don't recognize the number they don't answer. The are telling people if they want to contact them use Email. The industry is killing their golden goose.
#5
Here's a solution: make the officers and directors of google personally libel for politically partisan acts of censorship.
They will of course insist on getting insurance to cover this, and the underwriters of that insurance will demand steps, such as bipartisan agreement before censorship or firing of those underlings who misbehave, and no such details need be dealt with by the government.
Posted by: Daniel ||
09/07/2018 22:30 Comments ||
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#3
Four thousand plus years of survival techniques chucked for the snowflakes. A society and culture that seeks to accommodate the lowest common denominator will soon not be a society or culture.
#5
These are the people who think they can just get on a horse and cowboy, when the horses they ride are trail horses who have been taking dumbass tourists on the same worn path for 10 years and are cared for by professional horse people.
If these people had children, they would see at first ball practice who has and who has not caught a ball, or thrown a ball, ran at full speed any distance.
One problem is the coyboys did not learn those things themselves, and cannot teach those skills even if mama let the kids out of the bubble wrap. So when their kids come across other kids whose parents did play wrestle, who did teach them how to hammer real nails at age five, they got all butthurt and lobbied to ban physical activities at schools, safe in the thought that their kids received their liberal upbringings and would excel in the classroom. They forgot physical activity focuses the mind, and they started losing there too. So now they want dumb schools with no physical activity and beta-child hate snitches.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
