fool_of_sound posted:

why would you host anything illegal in countries where interpol or the fbi hold sway, or anywhere willing to work with them

Ron Paul Atreides posted:

it's mostly that Canada used to be and still is full of really shady people,

Ron Paul Atreides posted:

How many of those are there anyway? Like I know some places are a bit chilly vis a vis US relations but short of embargoed regimes like NK or Iran are there a lot of countries out there who would actively oppose FBI investigation just for the sake of it (in particular for poo poo like illicit child porn sites being run by Americans)?

Ron Paul Atreides posted:

How many of those are there anyway? Like I know some places are a bit chilly vis a vis US relations but short of embargoed regimes like NK or Iran are there a lot of countries out there who would actively oppose FBI investigation just for the sake of it (in particular for poo poo like illicit child porn sites being run by Americans)?

Ron Paul Atreides posted:

it's mostly that Canada used to be and still is full of really shady people, as the British had yet to develop scammer tags.

(I also think it ties into when legislation officially made it the engineer's fault if people died because of his/her negligence)

The Management posted:

I'm guessing the fbi doesn't get much traction in the Russian Federation these days.

Munin posted:

You used to have this bunch of nutcases in the Netherlands who ran grey/black servers in a decommissioned bunker. They had some actual stand offs with law enforcement at their facilities in the past.

I wonder if they are still going. Annoyingly I can't remember the name of the company either. They had Sealand style delusions without the running their own country bit.

Bloody posted:

somalia has slow internet

Munin posted:

You used to have this bunch of nutcases in the Netherlands who ran grey/black servers in a decommissioned bunker. They had some actual stand offs with law enforcement at their facilities in the past.

I wonder if they are still going. Annoyingly I can't remember the name of the company either. They had Sealand style delusions without the running their own country bit.

quote:

Definitely amateur hour. I've spent a lot of time daydreaming about what it would take to protect and counter a situation like this. It honestly seems like most of these guys put zero thought into "what if" or maybe they do and they get complacent over time.

quote:

I think the admins laptop also need a psychical self destruct mechanism if its moved unexpectedly. It could be done with a couple bags of fluid that turn caustic when mixed together. Its an anti-theft mechanism officer. You should have warned me you'd grab it! I'm so sorry

quote:

I had toyed with the idea of a system that encrypts the whole drive, except a small bootable partition which prompts the user for a password, sends that password securely over Tor to a remote machine which then responds with the decryption key for the drive.

If the key is not successfully retreived periodically, the remote machine destroys the key.

That way, if a third party seizes your machine, but can't locate the key server, it self-destructs in a way they can't prevent.

I've never been paranoid/bored/free enough to actually implement this, though.

quote:

I toured an FBI contractor's lab in SLC and they said that this happens. They had a safe room for disassembling desktops or whatever. They occassionally got booby-trapped boxes. Some traps were intended not just to destroy the data, but also to harm whoever was tampering with the case. Razor blades tainted with disease tied to small explosives, bags of fecal matter also rigged to blow, etc.

Could have been folklore, but I believe.

quote:

I always daydream about that stuff too. I even drew up a prototype for a server with electro magnets attached to the HDDs that would power if the server was moved or unplugged or door opened or a kill switch was depressed. That and running the server via wifi through a series of repeaters so the physical address supplying the internet didn't house they server.

...

My only experience with magnets and computers was finding a several pound horse shoe magnet at my uncles and looking for the closeset metal surface I could find which was his windows 3.1 desktop, it didn't end well. I guess things have changed. Thermite or a recip saw would cut them in half in a matter of seconds, something about thermite scares me.

quote:

I like the electromagnet idea! An old radio shack bulk tape eraser could probably flip some bits around nicely.

...

Seems complicated. How about a hidden encrypted drive which no one can prove exists? If the computer is idle for two minutes or the laptop is closed, you're logged out.

quote:

I used to work with Blake at one of my previous companies. This is pretty surprising to those of us from work who knew him. Here's what I can say about him:

Frankly, this all seems out of character for Blake. While he did have a "hacker mentality" and tried to show off his dev skills here and there, he never came across as the type who would use his talents for illegal activities. That said, he definitely had the know-how to try it (I guess not successfully).

I always thought he was religious. He grew up with a family that took religion seriously. It's very apparent in his music (see next bullet).

He liked to make music (pianist). He'd be in the studio a lot and would always talk about the album he wanted to release. Here's his SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/blakeeb

He was homeschooled in Texas growing up and I met his parents once at a company event when they were in SF visiting. They are incredibly nice people who, from my understanding, care very much about him.

He was a talented developer. Solid rails skills and he would pick up new concepts quickly.

Given all of the above, Blake was a terrible team player at work. He didn't do well when he was asked to pair program with other devs and he wouldn't listen to the our requests to try and follow some standard procedures and do a better job at communicating.

He'd show up to work at random hours and he'd never communicate to us if he'd be coming in or not. His time management was incredibly poor. Part of this is due to his extra curricular activities, such as going to the studio to record music. All that said, there was no evidence at the time of his employment with us that he had participated in any illegal activities (also the time frame at this job definitely did not coincide with the alleged dates listed for Silk Road 2).

He left the company later on. He was simply too much of a "renegade" in his work style. It was sad to see him go (despite not being a great coworker, he was always a pleasant person) and he was actually surprised by it.

He's a small guy physically. If he does end up going to prison I really can't imagine him doing well there... but I suppose that all depends on what kind of prison this type of sentencing will get him.

theflyingorc posted:

this isn't true, people in canada are nice

source: Canadian Bacon, starring John Candy



note: this movie owns

Soricidus posted:

i'm all the people fbi plants offering free security advice to the next set of criminals to try this

trucutru posted:

So reddit is still in the middle of a TIPPING frenzy but there are a couple of threads about the silk road issue... which quickly devolve into "how would I have done it" masturbation.









Anyways, the thread also has this:


talented developer, terrible team player, show up to work at random hours and he'd never communicate. So, basically, just your regular programmer.

To be honest, his music is much better than dank's.

Shifty Pony posted:

I wonder if various subreddits preemptively ban the changetip bot to keep the bitcoin spam away.

quote:

I was banned for tipping in /EarthPorn (self.Bitcoin)

submitted 2 hours ago by coincrazyy

you've been banned subreddit message via /r/EarthPorn/ sent 43 minutes ago you have been banned from posting to /r/EarthPorn: EarthPorn: Mother Nature in all of her succulent beauty..

AlbieQuirky posted:

And they asked Rudyard Kipling to write them an oath.

I wish we had that in the US because it would make it easier to spot people who take being an engineer too seriously.

quote:

He was homeschooled in Texas

quote:

Defendant Sonny Vleisides, through undersigned counsel, hereby requests Court enter an
Order allowing him to sell twenty-five hundred dollars worth of personal belongings to pay
for day-to-day living expenses. On October 7, 2014, the Court entered an Order (Doc. No. 71)
allowing Vleisides access to approximately nineteen hundred dollars from a Commerce Bank
checking account. There are very little funds left in the Commerce Bank checking account.
Vleisides requests that he be able to sell twenty-five hundred dollars worth of personal
belongings to pay for day-to-day living expenses during the interim period defined in the
Stipulated Interim Order.

trucutru posted:

Magrov posted:

http://ia902308.us.archive.org/32/items/gov.uscourts.mowd.117531/gov.uscourts.mowd.117531.137.0.pdf



Sonny Vleisides asking the court permission to sell stuff to buy food or something. also, somehow he spent $1,900 in the last month. i have no idea about the cost of living in america, but isn't this sum a bit excessive?

Magrov posted:

Robbed in Colombia by 6 kids with machetes (self.Bitcoin)
submitted 3 hours ago * by elfof4sky

So im I hitchhiking through Central and South America and last Sunday night I was sleeping on the side of the road when I heard foot steps and whispering right next to me. So I stood up quickly, but they were determined . I noticed right away their throaty slangy Spanish and then I saw the small machete aimed for my gut. They took off my glasses, and I couldnt see anything, plus it was really dark. Then they took everything I owned. I managed to take off with my sleeping bag up the road, where I flagged down a taxi. It brought me to town where I found the Colombian authorities who then brpught me to the scene of the crime. There I found my backpack, passport, paper backups off my bitcoins, a pair of jeans, and my first aid kit. Nothing else did they leave. They got my phone with some bitcoin on coinbase who I emailed the next day and they put my account in security hold. I just got a new phone yesterday and moved all my bitcoin out of my old phone into my new one. Backed up and ready to roll. This was one of the most horrible experiences of my life, but having bitcoin was a huge victory. In spite of my loss I feel I have gained.

Magrov posted:

In spite of my loss I feel I have gained.

Just-In-Timeberlake posted:

i doubt the veracity of this tale

quote:

[Serious] What if I hold a gun to your head, tell you to take out your smartphone, and send me all your bitcoins? (self.Bitcoin)
submitted 1 month ago by Helplessboy

quote:

[–]elfof4sky 1 point 1 month ago
I would disarm you, possibly using your own weapon against you. Serious

Magrov posted:

http://ia902308.us.archive.org/32/items/gov.uscourts.mowd.117531/gov.uscourts.mowd.117531.137.0.pdf



Sonny Vleisides asking the court permission to sell stuff to buy food or something. also, somehow he spent $1,900 in the last month. i have no idea about the cost of living in america, but isn't this sum a bit excessive?

DNova posted:

you can't degauss an intact hard drive in its enclosure anywhere near as easily as those idiots think

trucutru posted:

So reddit is still in the middle of a TIPPING frenzy but there are a couple of threads about the silk road issue... which quickly devolve into "how would I have done it" masturbation.









Anyways, the thread also has this:


talented developer, terrible team player, show up to work at random hours and he'd never communicate. So, basically, just your regular programmer.

To be honest, his music is much better than dank's.

Magrov posted:

also, somehow he spent $1,900 in the last month. i have no idea about the cost of living in america, but isn't this sum a bit excessive?