Miscellaneous Topics

Index:

1. Miscellaneous Topics
   1. The link tiles below are only those that could not be easily categorized...

Lower Page

1. Internet, Crypto And Big Brother
   1. The Fallacy of Crypto
      1. How to Track & Steal Crypto - From CodeMonkeyZ (here & here)
   2. The Fallacy of Hackings
   3. The Fallacy Of Encrypted Communications

Internet, Crypto And Big Brother

Contents

1. Internet, Crypto And Big Brother
   1. The Fallacy of Crypto
      1. How to Track & Steal Crypto - From CodeMonkeyZ (here & here)
   2. The Fallacy of Hackings
   3. The Fallacy Of Encrypted Communications

Intro.

The internet (including the mobile network) is bugged, cracked and wide open to Police, Security and Intelligence Agencies -- And foreign actors.

The recent spate of internet crashes (eg: here), hacking and ransom payouts(below), should be a massive warning sign to show just how vulnerable our communications are.

As ever, all these "safeguards", the tracking, the snooping etc, are all great when it's used to stop the "bad guys". The trouble is when your government goes rogue. Presently, the West is unanimously (can't think of any exceptions) run by rogue actors.

Worse, this tech can so easily be turned on YOU, especially if you are deemed a dissident, or even a protester, that it leads to doubts we can recover control. Right now you are only allowed to see what they let you see. You can only communicate what they want you to communicate.

This leads to grave concerns as to whether or not the US Coup can ever be reversed.

The Fallacy of Crypto

1. As a currency, it has no state backing and thus zero intrinsic value -- except that people will keep buying it, usually for more. It's thus a Ponzi scheme.
• The Chinese are looking at state backed Block Chain. That obviously gives it intrinsic value, but it means you will never be able to transact privately again
2. Myths:
• It can't be stolen. Yes it can, the FBI just did -- U.S. Recovers Bitcoin Used To Pay For Rasonware (newsbtc.com). See also below.
  
• It's transaction are anonymous. Until today, we wondered how that was possible. Now we wonder no more. It is not possible. The FBI just tracked it. See below.
3. It's ludicrously technical and to what end?
   
• Basically so it can't be counterfeited. But that's not true either -- The Bitcoin Mining tech simply races through trillions of possible keys until one goes "ping" and lands on an as yet unused Crypto Key. They they claim it.
  
• But the other reason is that people are attracted to technical stuff, and thus it keeps the price up.
  

How to Track & Steal Crypto - From CodeMonkeyZ (here & here)

Regarding the Ransomware attack on the major USA Pipeline in May 2021 (Ref HERE)..

A ransom was paid in Bitcoin. The FBI got most of it back. Here is how..



Code Monkey says

FBI Affidavit explaining how they ended up recovering ransomware bitcoins was released.
The FBI watched the suspects try to launder the bitcoin through different addresses until the bitcoin landed on an exchange (the redacted section is the name of the exchange that the hackers used).

From there, the FBI simply contacted the exchange and asked for the private key to the coins.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.379840/gov.uscourts.cand.379840.1.0.pdf

Then explains

CodeMonkeyZ, [08.06.21 14:18]
When you put your crypto coins into an exchange, the exchange owns your private key until you withdraw.
Exchanges working closely with law enforcement is the biggest takeaway from this affidavit, but is also common sense.
If the exchange had a strong KYS program, then the thieves will likely be arrested sooner than later. However, many exchanges don't do vigorous KYS, so it is possible the thieves got away with it this time and will know better than putting coins into an exchange next time.

We would add

...if you don't put your crypto money in an exchange, then how can you spend it???

The Fallacy of Hackings

From our Analysis for 7th June 2021:

Hacking -- The recent spate of hacks is aggravating on more than one level. That includes the election. Most recently, Blinken says they will hold countries responsible who harbor hackers(REF).

But this is absurd. If you write stupid software and attach it to the worlds biggest network, then guess what -- you will get hacked. What do we mean by this? Most older programmers will remember a simple world where computers had small memories and only ran one program at a time.Then along came massive memories and multi threaded software (the computer I am writing this on is running 50 background processes -- 50 independent programs that in the past would have required 50 computers). Computers played games better, but none of this makes a spreadsheet work any better, let alone a timer based machine controller.

So along came something called Bloat-Ware. Like doctors, lawyers, and every other profession, the software corporations complicated the hell out of it and started writing new languages that look like Egyptian hieroglyphs (doctors and lawyers are infamous for having their own languages and indecipherable writing). Just making a program add two numbers together and display it involves platforms, device drivers and virtual machines, each a specialist topic of it's own. The new languages seemed to serve no other purpose than to unseat earlier Western developers. Software became so bureaucratic, you had to have the patience of a starving third world sheep herder to write code. And even they spend 10 years learning the new code and 2 days later, it is obsoleted and then they too go back where they began.

And the bankers and corporations love it. Whereas once the programmer was the pivot around which a company spun, and was paid as much or more than the directors, now coders are just sheep, and the brain-dead "do nothing practical" elite are back in the drivers seat. The sheep's software is so poor, server farms are required to run it which require huge water and electricity intakes -- just to cool them.

Very often, the software is free - open source. This was to avoid the Patent Trolls which again put good minds out to pasture. Gates is among the worst of these. And so, to the experts eye, the sheep software looks like a steam driven engine in a junk yard -- made out of buttons and tin cans connected with twine -- and is so buggy and vulnerable to hacking, entire industries have sprung up to test for security flaws and compatibility. Computer hardware was developed to run 1000's of times faster and yet "boot" times got longer.

We've worked in environments handling public transport information that was triple encrypted. WHY? It's PUBLIC we cried! Encryption is great but just like the revolutionary hugely encrypted electronic BMW keys, the thief just went "no problem, we'll smash your house to bits finding the keys" (God help us if they introduce retina scans as you know where that's going). Same with the hackers. They just go a little deeper and collect digital keys. Now there is a black market in passwords.

But will they go back to basics? NO. They deserve to be hacked. It was all about power -- they could not bear to see a humble coder driving a nice car and commanding more income than they. I bet China and Russia don't have these problems (mind you, they have different problems surrounding disregard for discipline and quality -- thankfully -- or the tech race would have been long lost already).

The Fallacy Of Encrypted Communications

Ref Operation Ironside: Hundreds of arrests in 18 countries and �30m seized as 'Operation Ironside' hacks into app used by criminals - Independent.ie & 'Sting of the century': FBI & Australian police trick criminal gangs into using surveilled chat app, make hundreds of arrests � RT World News -- a great comment added the latter..

Grumble99
6 hours ago

Secure encryption doesn't exist. There are about 5 people in the world clever enough to invent the mathematical concept and each has been compromised (of course) to insert backdoors in the concept. These concepts are then packaged by professors and students who are unaware of the backdoor (due to their inferior knowledge of the concept - Compared to the inventor). London Bridge terror attack - UK Police had 'Tracked' back Telegram messages to addresses within 30 mins - Because they have the keys to the encryption. Signal? - Funded by the CIA. PGP hacked years ago.

Of course we can't corroborate the validity of these things, but we do know this kind of thing happens a lot!

When you go on to an HTTPS site, (the "S" on the end stands for "Secure") like ours, you are being given two levels of protection.

• You can be reasonably sure the website is properly established and that someone in authority knows where it is controlled and owned from -- because you can only get the Security Certificate by an application that includes your residence / premises etc.
  
• It prevents your boss or nosy neighbors from using free "sniffer" software to see what you are doing.
  
• It is similarly difficult for your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to see what you are doing, but they still get to see what sites you visit.
• It usually prevents phishing sites from mimicking your bank's website address.
  

So in short, not much extra security (but a whack load of extra complexity). And as the articles referenced above say, any number of government agencies can monitor what you are saying.

Don't be tempted to write your own scrambler either. If they detect you are using an unknown algorithm, you will get a knock on the door... We've heard of this but can't confirm it.