Coinbase Targeted In Cryptsy Class Action

A nationwide class action lawsuit has been filed against Coinbase (D.CBSE) by Silver Law Group and Wites & Kapetan, P.A. of Florida, alleging the company violated laws by allowing Cryptsy exchange operator Paul Vernon to launder stolen funds through their service.

The lawsuit states that:

Coinbase failed to satisfy its regulatory requirements or perform any reasonable investigation into the suspicious activity in Mr. Vernon’s and Cryptsy’s Coinbase accounts. Although the exact amount remains undetermined, the lawsuit estimates that the value of the digital funds laundered through Coinbase exceeds $8,200,000.00. Mr. Vernon is believed to have absconded with those funds when he abandoned Cryptsy and fled to China in late-2015.

James D. Sallah is also named as a plaintiff in the suit. Sallah was named Receiver of the remaining Cryptsy funds seized by the courts after Mr. Vernon absconded to China, and is pursuing action against individuals believed to have assisted Big Vern in his scheme. If you or a loved one suffered Sorry For Your Loss you are encouraged to contact the attorneys listed above.

Ashley Madison Settles Again

Ashley Madison has agreed to pay a settlement of 1.6 Million US to the Federal Trade Commission, to settle an investigation into their business practices stemming from last year's hack. The breach was reportedly one of the largest ever investigated by the FTC, affecting 36 million users, leaving Avid Life Media as a shining example of what consumers have come to expect in the dating and social-media universe. Avid Life Media was the parent company of Ashley Madison, and re-branded itself as "Ruby" in April and appointed a new CEO to whitewash its image.

Ruby CEO Rob Segal said in a statement:

“Today’s settlement closes an important chapter on the company’s past and reinforces our commitment to operating with integrity and to building a new future for our members, our team and our company,”

The company came under scrutiny by the FTC when the hack revealed that the majority of the female users on the site were in fact chatbots designed to lure men into paying for a premium messaging service offered to members. The terms of the settlement require Ruby to no longer use chatbots or other such deceptive practices and also must set up a security plan for review.

Ubuntu Crash Reports Allow Remote Code Execution

A serious security flaw has been discovered in the Ubuntu operating system that allows remote code execution using the Apport crash report tool. Security researcher Donncha O'Caerbhaill, who discovered the flaw, found that by parsing a specially crafted crash file, he could execute arbitrary Python code.

The code first checks if the CrashDB field starts with { indicating the start of a Python dictionary. If found, Apport will call Python’s builtin eval() method with the value of the CrashDB field. eval() executes the passed data as a Python expression which leads to straight forward and reliable Python code execution.

This particular design flaw would allow an attacker to easily takeover a victim's box by convincing them to open a single text file that opens the crash reporter. O'Caerbhaill published a proof of concept to his Github page along with a video demonstrating the exploit, designated CVE-2016-9949, in action.

Yahoo Leaks Again, Up To 1 Billion Affected!

Yahoo has announced yet another breach of their email systems, affecting over 1 billion users and possibly exposing data "including phone numbers, birth dates and security questions" which occurred in 2013 and is separate from the incident that was announced in September of this year. News of the latest hack sent Yahoo shares down nearly 3% in after-hours trading and could have implications for their sale to Verizon communications, which has not yet been finalized. Officials believe someone was able to access the code the servers operate on and used the information to forge session cookies.

The announcement in its entirety from Yahoo stated:

"Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has identified data security issues concerning certain Yahoo user accounts. Yahoo has taken steps to secure user accounts and is working closely with law enforcement.

"As Yahoo previously disclosed in November, law enforcement provided the company with data files that a third party claimed was Yahoo user data. The company analyzed this data with the assistance of outside forensic experts and found that it appears to be Yahoo user data. Based on further analysis of this data by the forensic experts, Yahoo believes an unauthorized third party, in August 2013, stole data associated with more than one billion user accounts. The company has not been able to identify the intrusion associated with this theft. Yahoo believes this incident is likely distinct from the incident the company disclosed on September 22, 2016.

"For potentially affected accounts, the stolen user account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (using MD5) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. The investigation indicates that the stolen information did not include passwords in clear text, payment card data, or bank account information. Payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the system the company believes was affected.

"Yahoo is notifying potentially affected users and has taken steps to secure their accounts, including requiring users to change their passwords. Yahoo has also invalidated unencrypted security questions and answers so that they cannot be used to access an account.

"Separately, Yahoo previously disclosed that its outside forensic experts were investigating the creation of forged cookies that could allow an intruder to access users' accounts without a password. Based on the ongoing investigation, the company believes an unauthorized third party accessed the company's proprietary code to learn how to forge cookies. The outside forensic experts have identified user accounts for which they believe forged cookies were taken or used. Yahoo is notifying the affected account holders, and has invalidated the forged cookies. The company has connected some of this activity to the same state-sponsored actor believed to be responsible for the data theft the company disclosed on September 22, 2016.

"Yahoo encourages users to review all of their online accounts for suspicious activity and to change their passwords and security questions and answers for any other accounts on which they use the same or similar information used for their Yahoo account. The company further recommends that users avoid clicking links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails and that they be cautious of unsolicited communications that ask for personal information. Additionally, Yahoo recommends using Yahoo Account Key, a simple authentication tool that eliminates the need to use a password on Yahooaltogether.

Additional information is available on the Yahoo Account Security Issues FAQs page: https://yahoo.com/security-update.

Alphabet's Google Presents Youtube Bans A Government Media Outlet

Alphabet's Google presents Youtube has banned the Democratic People's Republic of Best Korea's state sponsored media organization from utilizing their service. A stooge from Google Asia offered:

"We don’t comment on individual videos or channels, but we do disable accounts that violate our terms of service or community guidelines, and when we are required by law to do so."

Youtube still hosts multiple channels for the US propaganda outlet Voice of America including VOA 1 and VOA Learning English.

Fake News Today: WaPo Works To Undermine Trump Election With Unsourced Assertions

Over the weekend the Washington Post along with Democratic party operatives Woodward and Bernstein worked to undermine the election of Donald Trump by asserting an "Intelligence source" with no name or agency affiliation provided saw proof of Russian interference with the election. This has been conflated by the Washington Post to mean the CIA decisively concluded that there indeed was Russian interference in the election.

The WaPo's mystery source further insists the Republican National Committee was hacked to in spite of a lack of any wikileaks or announced evidence of a hack.1

This is an early bullish indicator for a second Trump term in the presidency as the losing socialist party is set to expend its efforts trying to delegitimize the populist candidate instead of courting the working class whites they demonized and abandoned.


  1. While it is likely that both the US Democratic Socialist Party and US Republican Socialist Party are constantly being hacked by state level actors only one party's candidate and leadership had a notorious reputation before the election for disregarding any and all information hygiene recommendations. There is a limit on the secrets Arkencide can keep when you just keep information around wherever.  

Yahoo Caulks Another Hole

Yahoo has reportedly fixed yet another XSS vulnerability in their email service, one which allowed an attacker to read anyone's email without the benefit of login credentials. (archived) The company reportedly paid security researcher Jouko Pynnonen a mere 10,000 US dollars for reporting the bug privately, instead of following the path of Peace and releasing the lulz on the internet at large. The news comes on the heels of Yahoo revealing earlier this year a breach that occurred in 2014 that compromised half a billion user account credentials.

Bitcoin Price Outlook: Magenta Possible In 2017

Continued disconnect between sanctioned fiat/Bitcoin interfaces and informed trades converting these two different kinds of currency suggest fiat/Bitcoin interfaces may begin reporting Magenta as a price by the end of 2017. Other outlets are projecting the US dollar may fall to 1/2000th to 1/2100th some time in 2017 based on inflation, interest rates, and the strength of the dollar which they predict to all rise with the inauguration and summoning of The Great Again. Such projections gravely underestimate the existing strain on the tenuous connections between the various fiat/Bitcoin interfaces and reality.1 Sorry for your loss.


  1. From The Delusionists at Bitstamp:

    Subject: Qualifying Investors Can Now Invest in Bitstamp & Get a 24-hour Head Start
    Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2016 21:39:10 -0000

    Dear customers,

    I have some news I would like to share with you. In response to high levels of demand from our stakeholders, we are today offering savvy investors the opportunity to take an equity stake in Bitstamp on <a href="https://bnktothefuture.com/pitches/bitstamp/landing" target="_blank">BnkToTheFuture.com</a>, a global online investment platform that allows qualifying investors to invest in the future of finance and technology. As you would expect, bitcoin is of course accepted!

    With venture capitalist Pantera Capital having already invested USD 10 million in seed funding, we feel confident that the smart money is on us. You are more than welcome to join us as we continue to bring prudence and sanity to our industry.

    Operating as we do in a fledgling market with huge potential for growth, we are firmly of the opinion that the early bird does indeed catch the worm. This opportunity for qualifying investors to invest in Bitstamp is no                             different and could very well turn out to be the best way to welcome in your 2017, a year which holds great promise for our industry.

    To get things up and running, we are giving Bitstamp customers a 24-hour head start before we go live on <a href="https://bnktothefuture.com/pitches/bitstamp/landing" target="_blank">BnkToTheFuture.com</a>. The round will close on 24 January 2017. Click <a href="https://bnktothefuture.com/pitches/bitstamp/landing" target="_blank">here</a> now to find out more and see if you qualify!

    As ever, thank you for your continued loyalty and support. I look forward to welcoming you on board as a Bitstamp investor.

    Best,
    Nejc Kodric
    CEO, Bitstamp

     

Another Spam Tipping Service Emerges To Fill Invisible Void

Not learning from the failures of former spam service Changetip a new "tipping" service, CoinTip, has now sprung up on twitter and has reddit hopeful they will expand their services to the platform. The creators of CoinTip are none other than Janom, founder of Japan's Monacoin exchange site. Monacoin briefly was a trendcoin across Japan, and like other ill-fated alts is now barely worth pennies on most exchanges. It is likely that CoinTip will suffer the same fate, being used to spam fractions of a bitcent for worthless content across social media until users realize they don't need third party services to send coins.