Hundreds of Thousands of Patient Records Offered up on the Dark Web
September 19, 2016
Some of us suspected this was coming, despite many assurances to the contrary. Softpedia informs us, “Hacker Selling 651,894 Patient Records on the Dark Web.” Haughtily going by the handle TheDarkOverlord, the hacker responsible is looking to make over seven hundred grand off the data. Reporter Catalin Cimpanu writes:
The hacker is selling the data on The Real Deal marketplace, and he [or she] says he breached these companies using an RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) bug. TheDarkOverlord has told DeepDotWeb, who first spotted the ads, that it’s ‘a very particular bug. The conditions have to be very precise for it.’ He has also provided a series of screenshots as proof, showing him accessing the hacked systems via a Remote Desktop connection. The hacker also recalls that, before putting the data on the Dark Web, he contacted the companies and informed them of their problems, offering to disclose the bug for a price, in a tactic known as bug poaching. Obviously, all three companies declined, so here we are, with their data available on the Dark Web. TheDarkOverlord says that all databases are a one-time sale, meaning only one buyer can get their hands on the stolen data.
The three databases contain information on patients in Farmington, Missouri; Atlanta, Georgia; and the Central and Midwest areas of the U.S. TheDarkOverloard asserts that the data includes details like contact information, Social Security numbers, and personal facts like gender and race. The collection does not, apparently, include medical history. I suppose that is a relief—for now.
Cynthia Murrell, September 19, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden Web/Dark Web meet up on September 27, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233599645/
A Possible Goodbye to the Dark Web
June 7, 2016
Should the Dark Web be eradicated? An article from Mic weighs in with an editorial entitled, Shutting Down the Dark Web Is a Plainly Absurd Idea From Start to Finish. Where is this idea coming from? Apparently 71 percent of internet users believe the Dark Web “should be shut down”. This statistic is according to a survey of over 24,000 people from Canadian think tank Centre for International Governance Innovation. The Mic article takes issue with the concept that the Dark Web could be “shut down”,
“The Dark Net, or Deep Web or a dozen other names, isn’t a single set of sites so much as a network of sites that you need special protocols or software in order to find. Shutting down the network would mean shutting down every site and relay. In the case of the private web browser Tor, this means simultaneously shutting down over 7,000 secret nodes worldwide. The combined governments of various countries have enough trouble keeping the Pirate Bay from operating right on the open web, never mind trying to shut down an entire network of sites with encrypted communications and hidden IP addresses hosted worldwide.”
The feasibility of shutting down the Dark Web is also complicated by the fact that there are multiple networks, such as Tor, Freenet or I2P, that allow Dark Web access. Of course, there is also the issue, as the article acknowledges, that many uses of the Dark Web are benign or even to further human rights causes. We appreciated a similar article from Softpedia, which pointed to the negative public perception stemming from media coverage of the takedown child pornography and drug sales site takedowns. It’s hard to know what isn’t reported in mainstream media.
Megan Feil, June 7, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Tails Increases Ease of Online Anonymity
March 17, 2016
The interest in browsing the internet anonymously does not appear to be fading. Softpedia recently posted Debian Makes It a Lot Easier for Users to Install the Tails Anonymous Live CD. Called the “amnesic incognito live system”, Tails is a GNU/Linux Live CD distribution which is based on the Debian operating system and allows your online activities to remain anonymous. Tails is driven by Tor and provides its users access to the anonymous Tor network. The article tells us,
Now, we all know how to write a Live ISO image on a USB key or a CD disc, right? But what you probably don’t know is that there’s an app for that, called Tails Installer, which the skilled Debian Privacy Tools maintainers team included in Debian repos. “The previous process for getting started with Tails was very complex and was problematic for less tech-savvy users,” developers explained. “It required starting Tails three times, and copying the full ISO image onto a USB stick twice before having a fully functional Tails USB stick with persistence enabled.”
As the article points out, Tails has a stamp of approval from Edward Snowden. It seems like before Debian, it would have been quite the stretch for many users to even consider adopting the use of Tails. However, using a Linux-based operating system, the pre-requisite for Tails, may also be a hurdle preventing wide-scale adoption. Time will tell.
Megan Feil, March 17, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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