Thursday, November 21, 2024

The Bad Guys are on a losing streak

Earlier this week we saw a bunch of Russian hackers sentenced to prison, now we see Interpol execute a massive take down of multiple groups of Bad Guys:

Interpol is reporting a big win after a massive combined operation against online criminals made 41 arrests and seized hardware thought to be used for nefarious purposes.

Operation Synergia II – the follow up to the first Synergia raids that were announced in February – saw cops in 95 countries crack down on phishers, ransomware extortionists, and information thieves around the world. The operation was carried out in conjunction with the corporate world, specifically Group-IB, Trend Micro, Kaspersky and Team Cymru.

In addition to the arrests, Interpol revealed 65 people are still under investigation and claimed to have shuttered 22,000 IP addresses, taken control of 59 servers and 43 other computing devices.

Bravo Zulu, y'all.

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

New substack that's worth your time

Randal emails to point out that he's started a Substack.  It's pretty interesting.  Here's an example about trade unions:

For the longest time much of the media has fed us the idea that “union = overpaid/lazy/bad”. Now we should all have the following ingrained in our skulls by now, “the media lies”.

Proceeding from that “law” (it really should be a scientific law at this point) we can deduce that the media is lying about unions. The real question to ask ourselves is, “why?”

Like I said, pretty interesting.

 

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

CMP Update

Ever want to be an M1 Garand armorer?  The CMP might be able to help out:

Designed for those who wish to take their passion for the venerable M1 Garand to the next level, the Advanced Maintenance Class (AMC) held in Anniston, Alabama, offers students a unique opportunity to receive unparalleled training from our knowledgeable Custom Shop Staff and build their very own M1 Rifle.

RANDOM DRAWING ENTRY WINDOW AND PROCESS 

Due to limited spaces and high demand, CMP will hold a random drawing to select participants. Interested individuals may enter the Random Drawing between November 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024.

If this is your bag, baby, then get on over there.

 

Monday, November 18, 2024

Dad Joke CCCXLV

No matter how kind you are, German children are kinder.

Spasiba, tovarisch!

Wow:

Four members of the now-defunct REvil ransomware operation have been sentenced to several years in prison in Russia, marking one of the rare instances where cybercriminals from the country have been convicted of hacking and money laundering charges.

Russian news publication Kommersant reported that a court in St. Petersburg found Artem Zaets, Alexei Malozemov, Daniil Puzyrevsky, and Ruslan Khansvyarov guilty of illegal circulation of means of payment. Puzyrevsky and Khansvyarov have also been found guilty of using and distributing malware.

...

REvil, which was once one of the most prolific ransomware groups, was dismantled after Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced arrests against several members in an unprecedented takedown. 
They aren't just going to prison, they're going to a Russian prison.  More of this, please.

 

 

Saturday, November 16, 2024

Someone at Netflix is getting fired

So their live streaming of the Mike Tyson fight last night was an unmitigated disaster.  But come on - you'd think that Netflix IT would understand how to spin up capacity to meet demand.  Maybe their replacements will.

For those who like the Sweet Science (or who used to), this is a fascinating episode from Hard Core History about how boxing has changed over time, mostly for the worse.  Dan Carlin interviews Mike Silver, author of The Arc of Boxing which is a terrific read.  I'm in general agreement with both the podcast and the book, although have to admit that I quite enjoyed the Barrios/Ramos bout last night.  It had a very Friday Night Fights feel to it.

Friday, November 15, 2024

The good security news keeps rolling in

I don't remember a week of such good security news:

A 25-year-old man in Ontario, Canada has been arrested for allegedly stealing data from and extorting more than 160 companies that used the cloud data service Snowflake.

On October 30, Canadian authorities arrested Alexander Moucka, a.k.a. Connor Riley Moucka of Kitchener, Ontario, on a provisional arrest warrant from the United States. Bloomberg first reported Moucka’s alleged ties to the Snowflake hacks on Monday.

...

In a statement on Moucka’s arrest, Mandiant said UNC5537 aka Alexander ‘Connor’ Moucka has proven to be one of the most consequential threat actors of 2024.

 Too bad we can't send him to a Russian prison, nyet?