Revelations About Massive UK Police Corruption Shows Why We Cannot -- And Must Not -- Trust The Spies

from the trust-no-one dept

As Mike reported recently, the NSA has presented no credible evidence that its bulk metadata collection is stopping terrorist attacks, or keeping people safe. Instead, the argument in support of the secret activities of the NSA and its friends abroad has become essentially: "Trust us, we really have your best interests at heart." But that raises the question: Can we really do that? New revelations from The Independent newspaper about massive and thorough-going corruption of the UK police and judiciary a decade ago show that we can't:

The entire criminal justice system was infiltrated by organised crime gangs, according to a secret Scotland Yard report leaked to The Independent.

In 2003 Operation Tiberius found that men suspected of being Britain's most notorious criminals had compromised multiple agencies, including [UK tax and customs services] HM Revenue & Customs, the Crown Prosecution Service, the City of London Police and the Prison Service, as well as pillars of the criminal justice system including juries and the legal profession.

If an entire criminal justice system can be corrupted so completely, there's no reason to believe that agencies like the NSA or the UK's GCHQ are immune. After all, they have the same ethos of serving the public that supposedly prevents them from betraying the trust placed in them (but didn't in the case of the UK police), and the same kind of privileged access to important and valuable information that inevitably makes them attractive targets for blackmail and bribery.

Snowden showed us in a dramatic fashion just how easy it is for an individual to access and copy top secret material. In his case, we are fortunate that his strong moral principles led him to reveal the abuses he found, rather than selling them to the highest bidder. Next time we may not be so lucky, so we need to build a system that assumes people are weak or corrupt, and make it as hard as possible for them to get away with any unauthorized use of the system. Despite what the NSA and GCHQ would like, that requires not trust, but its exact opposite.

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Filed Under: abuse, corruption, law enforcement, organized crime, police, uk

Seriously: Where Is The Link Between Copyright Infringement And Terrorism/Organized Crime

from the point-it-out dept

Over the past few years, the entertainment industry has been pushing hard on the claim that copyright infringement and organized crime (or terrorism) are somehow connected. It's a regular talking point and is often brought up in discussions about ACTA. And yet, where is this supposed link? Glynn Moody discusses what a bogus concept it is, and why a new EU report is massively discredited in simply taking the claim at face value:

I've noted several times an increasingly popular trope of the intellectual monopolists: since counterfeiting is often linked with organised crime, and because counterfeiting and copyright infringement are vaguely similar, it follows as surely as night follows day that copyright infringement is linked with organised crime.

But, of course, that's not the case. In fact, those who traffic in things like counterfeit DVDs are discovering that unauthorized access to online files is actually harming the counterfeit DVD business that organized crime has used in the past. Based on the logic put forth by the entertainment industry, shouldn't we cheer on The Pirate Bay for putting DVD counterfeiters (and thus, organized criminals and terrorists) out of business?

Moody goes on to challenge the idea that copyright infringement leads to people being put in harm's way:

*Counterfeiting* can certainly be a threat to consumer health and safety, and needs to be combated vigorously, but the idea that copyright infringement might be is simply risible, and it's an insult to our intelligence even to suggest it.

Indeed. This is a problem. So, let's start calling the industry on this. Can they show any actual evidence that basic online copyright infringement is in any way linked to organized crime or terrorism?

Filed Under: copyright, counterfeiting, organized crime, terrorism

US Officials Finally Going After Online Organized Criminals In Other Countries

from the it's-a-start dept

It's no secret that Eastern Europe has become the center of an awful lot of organized crime online. Various phishing and scam rings tend to work from a variety of different Eastern European countries without much fear of law enforcement or prosecution. Most of the enforcement in the US to date has been on the few unfortunate Americans who got involved in such scams -- but such targets were almost always small-time scammers compared to the big players across the ocean. However, there are some signs that's starting to change. Forbes details the first case of a foreign cybercriminal being extradited to the US, noting that greater cooperation between foreign governments and the US means that we should be seeing more of this. However, the article also notes that this is only one small attempt, and officials haven't really been able to do any damage to some of the bigger organized crime groups online. Still, given how little the US gov't had been able to do to actually go after the real criminals, it is a good sign that at least they're looking for ways to reach across boundaries to find them.

Filed Under: cybercrime, eastern europe, extradition, organized crime, us

Online Criminals Move On To Corporate Espionage

from the plain-old-phishing-doesn't-pay dept

One of these days, someone will do a fascinating study or book on the evolving nature of online crime. It's a constantly changing phenomenon that would be quite interesting to study. A few years ago, we noted that the ease with which script kiddies could jump into the phishing and online extortion market meant that margins were getting squeezed for older online organized crime groups who had focused on such practices in the past. Apparently, the big money now has moved away from standard phishing and into corporate espionage. Organized crime groups are figuring out ways to hack into company networks, suck up as much data as possible, and then sell it off to the highest bidder -- whether it's competing firms or foreign governments.

Filed Under: corporate espionage, cybercrime, espionage, organized crime, phishing

Massive Stolen Credit Card Number Site Shut Down

from the good-work dept

It took quite some time for authorities around the world to recognize the extent to which organized crime was using the internet for various scams and frauds, but in the last year or so, it seems like many agencies around the world really are looking to go after the criminals. The latest example is that Darkmarket, an invitation-only secretive forum for buying and selling credit card numbers, has been shut down, and 60 people involved with the site have been simultaneously arrested. This is definitely a step up from what we were hearing just a couple of years ago, where the best authorities could do was arrest kids messing around with phishing scams, rather than actually going after the organized criminals who were the real issue. Cracking down on one site and arresting 60 individuals isn't going to stop these scammers, but it's at least good to see authorities trying to focus on the real problem cases, rather than just the small fry. Update: As was pointed out in the comments, it appears the original BBC article we relied on has the story a bit wrong. The site itself was actually an FBI-run honeypot. So, while the site was taken down, the story of how the whole process worked is quite different than what was implied in the first article.

Filed Under: arrests, credit cards, darkmarket, forums, organized crime, scams

Is The Mob Using Your Facebook Profile Against You?

from the nice-profile-you-got-there...-wouldn't-want-anything-to-happen-to-it... dept

Over the years, of course, there have been plenty of stories about potential dates and potential employers reviewing social networking profiles to learn more about someone. Then, we just had a story about some universities reviewing social networking profiles as part of the admissions process. But the latest story is that organized crime may be getting into the game as well. A former FBI agent is claiming that both the Italian and Russian mobs are using social networking profiles to "launch attacks" on individuals and businesses. Of course, the details seem really, really slim. About the only thing the guy says is that if your CV/resume is online, that can be used against you -- but that's hardly a "social networking" problem. Plus, in many cases, that's pretty public information. This sounds like a lot more scare mongering than anything to necessarily worry about right now. In the meantime, though, are we going to start seeing Twitter messages from mobsters? "Nice list of followers you've got here... wouldn't want to see anything happen to them..."

Filed Under: mafia, mob, organized crime, social networks

Eleven Charged In Massive TJX Data Loss... But Many Are Still Overseas

from the this-is-hardly-over dept

We've had numerous posts about the massive (some say the largest ever) data breach by TJX, parent company of retailers like TJ Maxx and Marshalls. So, it's certainly worth mentioning the story making headlines that the "culprits" of the breach have been charged in the case, but it shouldn't exactly put your mind at ease about these breaches. After all, the credit card info they accessed (over 40 million cards by most accounts) is still out there, though many card holders have already changed their numbers. But, more importantly, it sounds as though most of those responsible aren't in the US at all and are basically sitting free in Eastern Europe and Asia. Hell, one of those "charged" is only known by his online username, with no indication where he might be located. So, yes, it's good that the feds tracked down some of the folks responsible, but most of them are probably still out there getting access to the credit cards your provider sent you to replace the ones compromised by these guys in the first place.

Filed Under: credit card theft, data breach, organized crime
Companies: tjx

What Else Can We Blame On Facebook? How About Helping The Mob?

from the any-other-conspiracy-theories dept

Constantine von Hoffman has been doing a nice job tracking both how security firms are blaming Facebook (or any other popular social network) for just about anything, but also how the press keeps falling for it. His latest find is to trash an Australian news organization for writing up a whole article on how Facebook, Linkedin and MySpace are popular feeding grounds for organized criminals without bothering to talk to a single other source than a security firm who has a vested interest in generating headlines and making people worried about security. As Constantine notes, he has no reason to doubt that the claim true, but it seems like the press should at least look for a second, less biased, source for confirmation.

Filed Under: organized crime, security, social networks
Companies: facebook, linkedin, messagelabs, myspace