Sony Cancels Movie Under Duress

After a deluge of leaks and a single anonymous threat in the wake of Sony's hacking by a group calling itself the Guardians of Peace, numerous Theater Chains and Sony Pictures have canceled the release of the comedy film The Interview. There are reports that tomorrow Federal Investigators in the United States will hold a press conference where they will present allegations which point to North Korea as a State actor having been behind the hacking, leaking, and threats aimed at Sony Pictures entertainment. An analysis of some of the malware implicated in the attack suggests a substantially lower level of sophistication and talent went into this effort than is usually associated with state level actors.

A scene from the canceled movie in which what appears to be a tank shell strikes Kim Jung Un's helicopter, immolates him, and causes his head to explode is available on Youtube at present and has been embedded below: Continue reading

Too Many People Pay Ransomware Demands

A recent report by ESET security suggests that the TorrentLocker ransomware enjoys a 1.44% rate of success in converting victims into ransom payments. This discouraging figure suggest that there are still far too many people subsidizing this phenomenon. As noted in the guide to protecting yourself from ransomware, paying ransoms only encourages the continuation of this activity. Don't be like the Sheriff's department that admits it paid to subsidize criminal activity.

Spanish CyberSquat Raided in 'Counter-Terrorism' Operation

There are report that Kasa de la Muntanya has been raided by Spanish police for its connections to Anarchist activity in an operation that has been described as being "Counter-Terrorism" in nature. At least 11 people have been arrested. Kasa de la Muntanya had in the past been profiled by the BBC as being a 'Cyber Squat' and has been described by Julia Tourianski on Twitter as a place that housed several families. An online profile describes Kasa de la Muntanya as a social center which has been occupied since 1989. Continue reading

Vice Fingers Alleged Silk Road 2.0 Mole Account

Vice Motherboard is alleging that the account used by the FBI inflitrator into the Silk Road 2.0 was named 'Cirrus', and that the user had notably at one point been a staff member of the original Silk Road. This conclusion was reached through a process of elimination. Vice also reports that some people involved in Darknet markets had suspicions about this user for some time.

Judge Rejects Florida Man's Bid to Dismiss Case

Florida Judge Fleur Lobree dismissed Pascal Reed's motion to drop illegal money transfer charges in an case relating to him selling roughly $25,000 worth of Bitcoin to a Secret Service agent in a sting last winter. Reed's lawyer argued that as merely a token of value applying Florida's money transmission laws to individuals as opposed to corporations would set a horrifying precedent:

"The statute was intended for the exchange of money for money, If you extend it to anything of value, then any customer using a credit card to buy something, anyone holding a yard sale and accepting cash, is a money transferer."

According to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle two other people were arrested as a result of this sting targeting "individuals engaged in high volume Bitcoin activity."

Silbert Syndicate Wins 48,000 BTC at auction

Barry Silbert has self disclosed on twitter that his bidding syndicate has won 48,000 BTC in the recent United States Marshal's Service auction. Tim Draper had earlier announced winning the other 2000 BTC up for bidding. Silbert's tweet:

Blockchain.info Discloses Vulnerability Window

On their blog, Blockchain.info has disclosed that a routine update left them serving insecure code to customers using their wallet between 12:00 AM and 2:30 AM GMT today. All customers who used the Blockchain.info web wallet to interface to create wallets, generate addresses, or send transactions are reported to be affected. The problem given the scope appears to be that Blockchain.info was serving weak pseudo-random number generating software.

Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl Preview

Today the 2014 NCAA College Football bowl match ups were announced and the University of Central Florida Knights (9 wins, 3 losses) will be facing the North Carolina State Wolfpack (7 wins, 5 losses) in the Bitcoin St Petersburg bowl. The St Petersburg bowl which presently carries the Bitcoin name was born in 2008 as the magicJack bowl, before serving as the Beef 'O' Brady's bowl from 2009 to 2013. The game will begin at 8:00 pm Eastern time December 26th at Tropicana field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team and air on ESPN. Let's take a look at the teams: Continue reading