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Hi everyone, I'm Alex from , an organization in the financial sector that has a strategic role as private advisor and auditor for major companies and investors. Recently, I have been researching a relatively massive project - Radio CACA. This is a project that became popular by the end of 2021 and attracted tremendous attention in the NFT space. The RACA token already has nearly 20 million followers on CoinMarketCap, while the Twitter channel has reached 572k followers, which are impressive numbers for a low cap coin. TokFlow However, in the process of researching and tracing the details, I discovered that the entire data of the project had been over-hyped and fabricated in a very sophisticated and blatant way. Millions of users have been led by the nose without even knowing it. So how was the community misled by the development team? 1. Testing and Collecting Phase (May to mid-August 2021) Let's rewind the time on . When the price was at 0.000019, it suddenly increased to (10 times). At the same time, Radio CACA announced the launch of the RACA V1 project and drew the attention of the community by spreading the news that the media representative is Elon Musk's mother - Mrs. Maye Musk. Unexpectedly, the price was pushed back to 0.000016 just two days later. May 16, 2021 0.000195 Also in May, there were two times when Raca prices were boosted abnormally. with the news that the RACA token was listed on MEXC Global exchange on . 0.00007 May 20 with the announcement that NFT "The Dancing Koda" was listed on the BakerySwap exchange on . 0.00005 May 26 And then it was down again and only went sideways around the price zone of for more than 2 months. 0.00002 I consider the pricing events in May as a stepping stone for the developers to probe the community's reaction to the media news, while at the same time investigating and ensuring that the market has been completely manipulated in hand, and being well-prepared for the real fight to come. (Note: Koda, a four-legged robotic dog, is one of the world's first decentralized AI robot dog projects, with optional features for data stored on the IPFS/Filecoin Network. "Dancing Koda" NFT is the perfect performance for Koda's agility. This NFT will be listed  through Radio Caca and Raca tokens are the only means of bidding.) 2. Manipulating the Market and Media The RACA’s pump plan has really taken place since mid-August. In less than one week from 16-21/08/2021, the price continuously increased and set a new peak on August 21, 2021, with the highest price being 0.00048868. What has RACA done at this time to manipulate the market and legitimize the spike in prices? On August 17, 2021, the developers announced a Metaverse discussion with CZ & Maye Musk. RACA developers were really sharp to take advantage of the prevailing Metaverse trend, and the visual effects of two prominent KOLs in the world, CZ and Maye Musk, which made the project almost go viral. Moreover, RACA is constantly releasing information: On August 18, the RACA V2 token was first introduced that enabled users to swap RACA V1 into V2, along with the burning of 50 billion V1, the remaining supply was put into the V2 liquidity group 20/08/2021: RACA token was listed on CoinGecko. 21/08/2021: RACA token was listed on CoinMarketCap. Radio CACA has successfully blinded the community with a series of beneficial news, clearly gaining the reputation in the community in terms of both media and product. In order to manipulate the market, Raca's trading volume data was also blatantly faked, increasing the credibility with the legalization community for the unexpectedly high token price. Specifically: On August 20, data aggregated on BSC Chain showed that the transaction volume reached $44,052,912, but the actual trading volume was only $29,647,125 => the fake transaction volume amounted to $14,405,787. On August 21, data aggregated on BSC Chain showed that the transaction volume reached $36,138,572, but the actual trading volume was only $27,532,908 => the fake transaction volume amounted to $8,605,664. I'm going to give you an analysis of statistics on a small portion of RACA's fake trading volume only in August - when the project was promoting the pump phase: (Click here for more information: TokFlow channel) You'll ask me: how can RACA fake such a huge trading volume, and what evidence shows that the volume is fake? Now, I'll show you evidence of bot wallets that was built up by the professional development team of the project specializing in faking the trading volume during the pricing process: (Synthetic data by ) TokFlow AI This is an example of a bot’s wallet address (0x597fa8fc25a1d74f50d86c02e86accd225e8908a) with more than 1800 transactions instantly purchased and sold at a large number of tokens. Details of a fake transaction volume on PancakeSwap: use BNB to buy RACA, immediately sell RACA to BNB in equal quantities: (Synthetic data by ) TokFlow AI Without a doubt, this isn't the only wallet address faking volume, my team has aggregated more than 400 bot wallet addresses with hundreds of thousands of similar transactions to defraud the community throughout the time, and certainly the number just doesn't stop there. You can verify the information yourself through some of the following wallets: (Click here for more information: ) TokFlow channel It can be said that, by all means of fooling the community, the developers have successfully pumped the price of RACA 250 times higher than the lowest price in just 3 months. It's a really impressive number for any trader who has been lucky enough to invest in RACA since May. However, the game has only just begun. Market makers are well prepared to play with the community in an FOMO war about price continuously for 3 months from mid-August to mid-November. 3. The Pump Scheme and Money-Making Tools , RACA announced the participation of CZ and Maye Musk in the Binance Metaverse Panel (August 26), bringing the RACA price to set a new peak at and then immediately adjusting to and going sideways at this point until the end of September. On August 24, 2021 0.0009 0.0004 The price only slightly recovered to on when RACA announced that Justin Sun was with Maye Musk at The Sovereign Robot Dog's Avatar in Metaverse conference. 0.00069 September 7, 2021 It can be affirmed that a lot of prestigious names in the industry have been revealed for the sake of the scam, in order to establish credibility and put on the perfect cover for developers to help RACA prices continuously set up new ATH. If it’s all about pumping token prices using the media and famous KOLs, the project will definitely be nowhere near as a petty scam. However, the Radio CACA development team has created an entire ecosystem as a token support tool and enticed the community to make huge profits. First of all, it is crucial to mention the game project launched in . This is a play-to-earn mini-game on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). After more than 10 days, the development team continued to release Metamon Beta 2.0 and burned 1 billion Raca after just one day of the game's release. This is a very easy game to play, but the initial investment is quite large (4000-5000 USD for the cheapest Metamon N). The community at that time had become excited by the strong development of Radio CACA and it is not difficult to understand that the price of RACA has skyrocketed and set a new peak at . Metamon early October 2021 0.00271 (October 10, 2021) Along with Metamon, RACA also owns a number of large projects on BSC such as . Notably, the project launched the – the first and only mysterious NFTs boxes belonging to the "MUSK" boxes – in the top 4 NFT brands. There was a time that the NFT hit $73,000, while it initially cost only about $200. USM Metaverse, The United States of Mars Maye Musk Mystery Box (MPB) Radio CACA also demonstrates its "generosity" to the community by constantly offering airdrop programs to MPB owners with hundreds of millions of dollars. More importantly, it is interesting to note that Elon Musk collaborated with Radio Caca to airdrop for the holder of RACA NFT and trust the project. MPB NFT holders have the opportunity to receive cars in real life released by the Tesla company for the partnership with the Radio Caca NFT project. So far, only one person has been lucky enough to own this car. 100 CyberTruck All of Radio CACA's marketing, community-oriented strategies over the course of more than 2 months have successfully legitimized the RACA price that climbed to a new peak of and sustained sideways at around 0.003-0.004 in the first week of November, getting prepared for the developers' final pumping campaign. 0.0039 by the end of October [To be continued…] This story was submitted to HackerNoon by an independent contributor. Hence the information contained therein has also been researched and compiled independently. Disclosure:

No One Knows RACA Has Been Manipulating The Entire Community - Part 1

Nadie sabe que RACA ha estado manipulando a toda la comunidad - Parte 1

Personne ne sait que RACA a manipulé toute la communauté - Partie 1

कोई नहीं जानता कि आरएसीए पूरे समुदाय के साथ छेड़छाड़ कर रहा है - भाग 1

RACA がコミュニティ全体を操作していることを誰も知らない - パート 1

Ninguém sabe que o RACA está manipulando toda a comunidade - Parte 1

Không ai biết RACA đã thao túng toàn bộ cộng đồng - Phần 1

没人知道 RACA 一直在操纵整个社区 - 第 1 部分

Dear reader, please note that this article was written anonymously, as I am a person deep inside the Enterprise Linux ecosystem. I know "anonymous" is a big word, and if anyone wants to identify the author, they can. I'm against changes to RHEL code redistribution, and I believe that Red Hat is as much a "freeloader" on open source as any other company is on the RHEL codebase. However, I would like to share reasons why I will never install Rocky Linux on my servers. ever In this article, I would like to share some of the stories, misdeeds, and bad practices that explain why so many people do not like Rocky Linux. I also want to show that things are a bit more complicated than most Linux users think. Story 0: The original founder of CentOS The central figure in the case against Rocky Linux is Gregory Kurtzer. He is, for many people, the hero of the RHEL rebuild world. Many believe he is the father of CentOS, and Rocky is/will remain his beloved and, more importantly, free child. The term "The original founder of CentOS" comes from Kurtzer himself and has been spread like wildfire by PR companies (more on illegal, in most countries, and shady PR practices later). The only problem with this statement is that, in the opinion of many, including myself, it is not true. My doubts about Rocky Linux came exactly from this point, as one of my much older colleagues said that this was "not entirely true" (his exact expression was a “little” stronger). I would like to present some basic but important facts: Rebuilds started on the RHEL rebuilds mailing list. The name CentOS was announced by Rocky McGaugh. The Kurtzer was not interested in building a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (then Red Hat Linux) clone. The idea of creating a true distribution from RHEL was not his and had been discussed much earlier. Well, you can read a bit more on HN. And it's written by quite a famous person in the Linux world :) So why does Gregory Kurtzer claim to be the "original founder of CentOS?" Mainly because he started the Chaos Foundation, which took over the efforts to rebuild under a common name. [1] https://www.mail-archive.com/redhat-devel-list@redhat.com/msg07038.html [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20040630213827/http://www.caosity.org/pipermail/caos/2003-December/001205.html [3] - Gregory Kurtzer was not interested in building a RHEL clone https://web.archive.org/web/20040824032738/http://www.caosity.org/pipermail/caos/2003-July/000701.html [4] - Idea of creating Distribution on it's own https://www.mail-archive.com/rhel-rebuild-l@uibk.ac.at/msg00022.html [5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33907452 Story 1: The Departure One of the main misconceptions about Gregory is that he left CentOS when, in fact, CentOS left his foundation. The people leading CentOS development didn't want to be part of Gregory's scheme. To this day, some of the "old guard" of CentOS are not "on the best of terms" with him. Fifteen years later, the CIQ CEO is much smarter - but unfortunately for the open-source community, in a very bad way. So, when articles like "What happened to CentOS will not happen to Rocky Linux” make the rounds, I think not only about bad changes to the lifecycle, but also about the fact that CentOS was able to leave the Gregory Foundation, but Rocky Linux cannot. Generally speaking, the person in question himself has a few versions of it; my favorite was presented by himself in the Changelog podcast: I was associated with it until Red Hat sued me. And then he said: It wasn’t a lawsuit, it was a threaten of a lawsuit, which was enough in my book to do it. [1] https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2005-March/077502.html [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/CentOS/comments/s77p49/comment/ht9v86o/ [3] https://changelog.com/podcast/427#transcript-87 Story 2: Foundation You may know that Rocky Linux is part of RESF—Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation. But if you are familiar with "foundations," especially US-based "foundations,” you know that many of them are broken by design. The Rocky Linux Foundation loosely promised to be a non-profit. But it isn't. It's for-profit and it has a single owner (Gregory Kurtzer). But there is more to the smoke and mirrors surrounding RESF. As you may know, they have governance and bylaws. So look at them and count how many people in that governance are not employed by or connected to the CIQ. By the way, the foundation broke its own statutes by not having a diverse governance :). I'm not going to read the bylaws again to see if they still do that, but if you find it, feel free to comment. Also, remember to read older bylaws and older about pages since it’s changed. The whole story is strong in media and PR. Take, for example, the ITWorld Canada article from 2022 In literally the same paragraph, you have the following sentences: The key for an open source initiative to grow and flourish,
Kurtzer said, is to is to register it as a non-profit organisation,
which is what the cAos Foundation. He did the same with Rocky Linux. And then: The Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF) is a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC). Do you see the "little" problem here? I do not like to be lied to. And I do not like people being lied to, especially when it is such a primitive lie, literally in the same paragraph. [1] Look at the manipulative language used in this article https://www.zdnet.com/article/rocky-linux-foundation-launches/ [2] https://www.resf.org/about [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxadmin/comments/15p1gbt/comment/jvyat0h [4] https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/what-happened-with-centos-will-not-happen-with-rocky-linux-kurtzer/501239 Story 3: Trademark ownership As I said, have you ever wondered why CentOS could leave the Greg Foundation? Well, one of the main reasons was that there was no clear ownership of trademarks/domains. Unfortunately, for the open-source community, that's not the case with RESF and Rocky Linux. As I said before, RESF has a single owner, and the Rocky Linux project does not have its trademarks. Rocky Linux, as an individual project, if it tries to leave RESF, can't use its name, logo, and other trademarks without permission from the RESF owner. So, good luck. So with CIQ/RESF milking Rocky Linux, there is no way the project can become independent. It's not a community project, it's a corporate project. From this point on, I will use arguments against CIQ/RESF/RL interchangeably. [1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/goodbye-centos-hello-rocky-linux/ [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/AlmaLinux/comments/15dr141/giving_rebuilders_a_bad_name_ciq_and_ansible/ [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxadmin/comments/15p1gbt/comment/jw90zhc Story 4: Buying advertising against community-owned open-source projects These are the early days, and RL is losing to AlmaLinux. AlmaLinux is the first diversely governed foundation (and it is non-profit for real). So, what does CIQ do? They buy ads against several Linux distros, including AlmaLinux and CentOS. Is this legal? Yes, it is! Is this something that a "self-imposed non-profit" (this term is a joke) would benefit from? YES! Is this what the open-source community would do? NO! Buying ads against community-owned non-profit open-source projects while pretending to make one is against the general spirit of open source. Of course, Rocky Linux did not buy these ads; CIQ did, and they did it out of the goodness of their hearts. [1] https://twitter.com/ChrisLAS/status/1460668344156114944 [2] https://twitter.com/ChrisLAS/status/1420123460982894599 [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/qv6mg2/comment/hkw046b/ Story 5: PR without disclosure In many cases, the CIQ/RESF/RL use PR firms to spread the word about themselves. Sometimes, they even sponsor Linux influencers, and they tend to leave out some facts :) (like CentOS leaving the former Kurtzer Foundation or RESF being a for-profit company owned by one person). Anyway, some PR tends not to mention the obvious conflict of interest and that the article is sponsored. And since it's very difficult, if not impossible, to verify the source of the PR, it's very hard to say whether the article is sponsored or not if it's not labeled. In my country and many EU countries, it's legal. Even in the US, it's not a legal problem; it shows poor ethics and morals of the: Writer PR company Publisher The company that sponsored it As I said, it's extremely difficult to catch someone red-handed. However, in the case of RL and CIQ, it has become quite well-known in the Linux community. [1] https://twitter.com/GordonMessmer/status/1675997483573612546 Story 6: Spreading FUD One of the biggest damages done to CentOS Stream has been the FUD spread by CIQ and others. The main point is that CentOS Stream is unstable and will never be production-ready. As someone who regularly compares packages and distributions, I can say this: CentOS Stream is stable and, in many ways, even better than RHEL, and that means it is even better than clones. The number of engineers working on CentOS Stream is greater than that of any other RHEL clone. The amount of testing done on CentOS Stream is orders of magnitude greater than any other RHEL clone. The CentOS Stream gives users real power to fix bugs and influence the future of the distribution. There has also been a lot of FUD spread about AlmaLinux. That AlmaLinux has taken "shortcuts,” especially when it comes to the subscription manager. If you're familiar with Subscription Manager, you know that it's designed to connect to Red Hat infrastructure, and Enterprise Linux clones don't install it by default. So, not including it in AlmaLinux is not a bad shortcut but a good decision. Later, it was added because it might also work with Foreman/Katello/Candlepin. The whole "AlmaLinux takes shortcuts" era was FUD in its purest form. Unfortunately, I can't find the source of this ATM, but I've seen it, and I'm sure one of the readers will be able to add it in the comments section. Other popular FUD spread about AlmaLinux, although I did not find CIQ employees saying it publicly: AlmaLinux uses CloudLinux infrastructure (they used it during the bootstrap phase, and it was very well-known) AlmaLinux is controlled by Russians (this one goes strong after Putler attacks Ukraine). CloudLinux controls AlmaLinux (not that CloudLinux CEO literally stepped down from the foundation; also, AlmaLinux has a much healthier board than RESF) Story 7: Being fu****g hypocrites So, you remember all that Red Hat drama about paywalled GPL sources? When Red Hat a "cancer" on open source? And users were "freeloaders"? One of the people who was very vocal about this was Gregory Kurtzer :). No matter what all the shouting was about: "Rocky going strong." "Protect the community." "Protect open source." Or nice PR from RESF: “I believe that open source should always be freely available and completely stable.
It should never be hidden behind a paywall, nor should it be controlled by a single company,”
states Gregory Kurtzer, founder of the Rocky Linux project and chair of the board of the
Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation, What's worse, they are doing the same or even more restrictive things than Red Hat. And other big words that are not worth mentioning because when it comes to real action, they are not there. Now, CIQ is giving back to the community by putting a paywall around the sources of CIQ Rocky Linux 8.8: Restrictions. The license granted in this Section 3 is conditioned upon
Customer’s and its Authorized Users’ compliance with this Agreement. Customer shall
not and shall ensure its Authorized Users do not: (i) permit any third party to use or
access the Software (except for the Authorized Users as permitted herein); (ii) install the
Software on more than the number of Licensed Hosts permitted under the applicable
Order; (iii) share access to the Software (including log in information or notifications)
with anyone who is not intended to be an Authorized User; (iv) provide, license,
sublicense, sell, resell, rent, lease, share, lend, or otherwise transfer or make available
the Software to any third parties, except as expressly permitted by Ctrl IQ in writing; (v)
except with respect to any access to Software that is licensed under an open source
license, modify, copy or create derivative works based on any content accessed through
the Software; (vi) except with respect to any Software that is licensed under an open
source license, disassemble, reverse engineer, decompile or otherwise seek access to
the source code of the Software; (vii) access the Software in order to build a competitive
product or services; (viii) remove, delete, alter, or obscure any copyright, trademark,
patent, or other notice of intellectual property or documentation, including any copy
thereof; (ix) transmit unlawful, infringing or harmful data or code to or from; or (x)
otherwise use the Software except as expressly permitted hereunder There is more. They made rebuilds of other RH products Red Hat Ansible Tower (or whatever they call it, ATM). They made it closed source. Then, after the community started noticing that it should be open source, after two weeks they decided to release code. So that's it when it comes to open-source heroes and giving back to the community. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/AlmaLinux/comments/1aurwrr/comment/kri9xpc/ [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/AlmaLinux/comments/15dr141/comment/ju3t9mv/ Story 8: Borrowed content - erratas So the CIQ/RESF/RL use Red Hat content, that's obvious. However, you need to remember that components have different licenses. So, if you are using the source code, the most important and, in many cases, only license is the one that is in the source code. If you are using Red Hat Portal or Support, the new restrictive EULA applies. If you use Red Hat errata, the errata text and content are protected. That's why some vendors have rather empty errata information, including one generated for CentOS. The most important parts of erratas are: List of packages CVEs numbers (for security erratas) The text is not that useful; you should probably read the CVE anyway, but some projects cannot help themselves and cannot be used without any consideration. Have a look at where you can read about it: https://errata.rockylinux.org/RLSA-2023:6818 Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation Satellite is a systems management tool for Linux-based systems. You can also find other examples, such as: Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation Identity Management (IdM) or Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation Entitlement Platform. Is it legal? I do not know. Ask a lawyer. Is it ethical? No. Story 9: Killing Open Source - CIQ versus Sylabs In late August 2023, news broke of a lawsuit against CIQ. Note that if I'm right, it's still ongoing. But for the moment, the court "DISMISSES all of Sylabs' claims WITH LEAVE TO AMEND." I'm not a lawyer, but I am an engineer. An open source engineer who's heard "we won't open it because it might hurt our business" or "it makes us vulnerable" time and time again. And I never liked that, but as I got older and saw people like Gregory Kurtzer, I started to understand. What Gregory did is the worst-case scenario for any company trying to build open-source projects. A company employs Kurtzer as CTO. This company makes software vital to its survival and expansion, just like any software company. Gregory was CTO when the company decided to open source its critical assets. (March 2020). Gregory leaves the company with extensive knowledge of customers, system internals, users, and contacts. As a C-level executive, he literally knows it all. Kurtzer started a new company, took part in the development team, and used it against the former company. Kurtzer profits from the old company code that was open-sourced during his time as CTO. By pulling this kind of stunt, one is killing open source—killing trust in open source companies and developers. You work with people you trust, and you never expect them to be your enemy the next day. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth that's hard to describe. Finally, I do not care about the future of Sylab, CIQ, or who is legally right. I care about the future of open source, and this kind of practice is a mortal wound to open source and free software. [1] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/24/lawsuit_claims_ciq_was_founded/ [2] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.408847/gov.uscourts.cand.408847.59.0.pdf [3] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/66863695/sylabs-inc-v-rose/ Other stories There are other stories, like why EPEL stopped doing count_me analyses for some time and why nobody takes them seriously anymore. Or about some key people officially working in public institutions and de facto doing work for a for-profit foundation. But I think the most important ones are covered. Some of these stories are only known to a small circle of people who go to the conference and know each other. Personally, I have left out some of them because it would literally say who I am or where I work. Summary When Red Hat "bought" the CentOS project, there were many red flags. We all know how it ended. Red Hat was then, and for many still is, the champion of open source. RESF/CIQ/RL was never there and never will be with its current smelly track record. And the sheer volume of red flags regarding them is by far more than it ever was with Red Hat. If you read this and install Rocky Linux, you are not only a fool but a dangerous fool. You are the fool who likes to be lied to and is incapable of understanding the bigger picture. I also omitted the technical part of the CIQ/RESF/RL. Perhaps I will return to this to this topic. In the next article, I will cover the joke called OpenELA.

The Case Against Rocky Linux

রকি লিনাক্সের বিরুদ্ধে মামলা

Der Fall gegen Rocky Linux

El caso contra Rocky Linux

Le cas contre Rocky Linux

रॉकी लिनक्स के खिलाफ मामला

Rocky Linux に対する反論

Rocky Linux에 대한 사례

O caso contra Rocky Linux

Дело против Rocky Linux

Rocky Linux'a Karşı Dava

Vụ kiện chống lại Rocky Linux

针对 Rocky Linux 的案例

The dark web is a shadowy online marketplace where victims are held captive by cyber extortionists, and stolen data is traded. It is hidden away in the shadows of the internet. This was the reality of LockBit's dark web domain, a platform the notorious ransomware gang used to extort businesses and organizations worldwide. According to the Department of Justice, LockBit earned itself in revenue from shady data deals and ransom payments. But luckily, after global cooperation, this virtual den of evil has been shut down, a major victory for international law enforcement. 2,000 victims and made over $120 million Unveiling LockBit's Dark Schemes Until recently, LockBit was a prominent player in the RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service) landscape. It is a ransomware gang that has plagued the cybersecurity landscape for years. Their ransomware variant, known for its “double extortion” tactic of encrypting data and threatening to leak it online, has caused billions of dollars in losses and disrupted operations for countless victims. Double extortion is a cruel and calculated strategy designed to squeeze maximum ransom payments from their victims. Let’s look at how this devil works! Initial Infection and Data Exfiltration The first phase of LockBit's attack involves infiltrating the victim's network through various methods, often exploiting vulnerabilities in outdated software or tricking employees into clicking malicious links. Once inside, they silently crawl through the system, identifying and exfiltrating sensitive data. This stolen treasure trove could include financial records, customer information, intellectual property, internal documents, and personally identifiable information (PII). Imagine their victim's horror as LockBit siphons away these critical files, leaving them vulnerable and exposed. Data Encryption With the stolen data securely tucked away, LockBit delivers the next blow: widespread data encryption. They deploy their malicious software, scrambling the victim's essential files, and rendering them inaccessible and unusable. This digital lockdown brings operations to a screeching halt, causing significant disruption and panic. Ransom Demand But LockBit doesn't stop there. They twist the knife further by brandishing the stolen data as a weapon. The ransom note is a cruel ultimatum that clearly outlines the situation: pay the ransom or face the public exposure of your sensitive information. This nightmarish scenario threatens to shatter the victim's reputation. Naturally, it’s highly embarrassing for any individual. But for a company, it could also result in financial losses from regulatory fines for not complying with safety guidelines, legal repercussions for data breaches and privacy violations, and irreparable damage to customer trust. The Threat of Exposure Faced with this double extortion dilemma, victims are caught in a pressure cooker. Even if they have backups to restore their encrypted data, the looming threat of public humiliation makes the decision agonizing. This cruel tactic has proven highly effective for LockBit, forcing many victims to succumb to their ransom demands. Here are some notable examples of LockBit's past attacks: June 2023: LockBit demanded a $70 million ransom from TSMC, a major Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer. July 2023: The group crippled operations at the Port of Nagoya in Japan, which handles 10% of the country's trade, by launching a ransomware attack. October 2023: LockBit claimed to have stolen sensitive data from Boeing, although the company did not confirm the breach. The group targeted critical infrastructure, healthcare, education, and government agencies, demonstrating their widespread reach. Taking Down the Command and Control System Imagine a multi-headed hydra lurking in the murky depths of the internet, each head representing a different facet of nefarious operation. This mythical beast communicated with its victims, brandished stolen data like trophies, and demanded ransoms through its domain on the dark web. LockBit's The LockBit monster (not to be confused with the Loch Ness monster) has digitally terrorized individuals, multinational organizations, and even hospitals for over four years. But in a worthy of a Greek hero, a global alliance of law enforcement agencies joined forces to sever the hydra's heads. coup de grâce In a collaborative effort dubbed Operation Cronos, the , the UK's , and law enforcement agencies from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Europe joined forces to seize control of LockBit's dark web infrastructure. FBI National Crime Agency (NCA) This decisive action effectively dismantled the gang's online extortion platform, disrupting their ability to communicate with victims, showcase stolen data, and collect ransom payments. Europol arrested two alleged, unnamed operatives in Poland and Ukraine, while the US has indicted Russian men Ivan Gennadievich Kondratiev and Artur Sungatov for deploying LockBit against various American organizations. The operation dealt a significant blow to the cybercriminal group, demonstrating the collective power of international cooperation in combating cybercrime. But how did this takedown come about, and what does it mean for the fight against ransomware? Understanding Operation Cronos The takedown of LockBit's dark website involved a meticulous and multifaceted approach by law enforcement agencies. The director general of the NCA, Graeme Biggar, said after the operation's success, “We have hacked the hackers; taken control of their infrastructure, seized their source code, and obtained keys that will help victims decrypt their systems.” Here’s a closer look at what that entailed: International law enforcement agencies collaborated to infiltrate LockBit's network and gather intelligence on their operations by monitoring their activities and identifying vulnerabilities in their infrastructure. Hacking the Hackers: Authorities strategically disrupted communication channels between LockBit and their affiliates, hindering their ability to coordinate attacks and manage extortion operations. Taking Control of Infrastructure: In a coordinated effort, law enforcement agencies from various countries seized control of LockBit's dark web domain. This involved taking down the website and preventing further access by the gang or their victims. Seizing Source Code: The seized infrastructure provided valuable evidence for ongoing investigations, potentially leading to the identification and apprehension of individual members of the LockBit gang. Securing Evidence: Through the evidence on the website, law enforcement is working to identify victims who may have interacted with the website and assist them in recovering their data. Obtaining Decryption Keys: Continuing the Fight While the takedown of LockBit's dark website represents a significant victory, the fight against cybercrime is ongoing. New threats are constantly emerging, and ransomware remains a major concern for businesses and organizations. We have gained a few key takeaways from this event: Operation Cronos highlights the importance of collaboration between law enforcement agencies across the globe in dismantling cybercriminal operations and protecting victims. International cooperation is essential: Organizations must prioritize robust cybersecurity measures, including regular software updates and comprehensive backup and recovery plans, to minimize their vulnerability to ransomware attacks. Cybersecurity vigilance remains critical: While this takedown is a positive development, it's essential to stay informed about evolving threats, adapt cybersecurity strategies accordingly, and foster continuous collaboration to create a more secure digital environment. The fight against cybercrime is a marathon, not a sprint: Looking Ahead to A Brighter Future for Cybersecurity The takedown of LockBit's dark web lair is like evicting a particularly nasty troll from the internet's underbelly. It's a positive step, but let's not break out the celebratory cupcakes just yet. This is just one skirmish in the ongoing war against cybercrime, and plenty of digital dragons are still lurking out there. However, there's no need to don your tinfoil hats and retreat to a Faraday cage. By staying informed, adopting robust cybersecurity practices, and working together like a well-oiled international task force of digital knights, we can make the internet safer for everyone. Breaking Down the Potential Long-Term Impacts While the immediate impact of Operation Cronos is the disruption of LockBit's operations, the long-term consequences could be far-reaching. By dismantling LockBit's infrastructure and potentially identifying key members, law enforcement could disrupt the RaaS ecosystem, making it more difficult for other ransomware groups to operate. The successful takedown could serve as a deterrent to other cybercriminal groups, discouraging them from using similar tactics. Best of all, with access to seized data, law enforcement can potentially assist victims in recovering stolen information and mitigating the impact of the attacks. Exploring Challenges and Considerations It's important to acknowledge that the fight against cybercrime is complex and constantly evolving. While Operation Cronos is a significant victory, several challenges remain: Cybercriminals constantly adapt their tactics to evade detection and bypass security measures. Law enforcement and cybersecurity professionals must stay ahead of the curve by continuously learning and adapting their strategies. Evolving tactics: Attributing cyberattacks to specific individuals or groups can be challenging, and international cooperation is crucial for successful prosecution. For instance, it’s going to be difficult for the US to prosecute Russians like Kondratiev, especially because there is no US-Russia extradition agreement. Attribution and Prosecution: The dark web provides a haven for cybercriminals to operate with some degree of anonymity. Law enforcement agencies need to develop innovative methods to effectively investigate and disrupt activities on these hidden corners of the internet. The Dark Web: Final Thoughts The takedown of LockBit's dark website is a significant development in the fight against cybercrime. It demonstrates how international cooperation among law enforcement agencies can protect citizens and businesses from malicious actors. However, this is just one battle, and the fight against cybercrime is a full-scale war. But with continued vigilance, collaboration, and a healthy dose of digital hygiene, we can create a future where browsing the internet feels less like walking through a minefield and more like strolling through a virtual garden.

LockBit's Lair Gets Locked Down: FBI and Allies Take Down Ransomware Gang's Website

213 Stories To Learn About Writing Prompts

Let's learn about via these 64 free stories. They are ordered by most time reading created on HackerNoon. Visit the to find the most read stories about any technology. Noonies Nominees /Learn Repo 1. Noonies Nominee Bader is Obsessed with Web3 and Blockchain I’m a web3 developer, and content creator, and generally love creating ideas from nothing - even if they don’t make too much sense. 2. Noonies Interview: Meet Juni Nguyen, a Self-taught Web Developer 2021 Noonies Nominee General Interview with Juni Nguyen. 3. Noonie Nominee Luiz Rosa Can't Live Without PyCharm and Git Luiz Guilherme Fonseca Rosa from Brazil has been nominated for a 2020 Noonie as Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - ALGORITHMS. The Noonies are Hacker Noon’s way of getting to know — from a community perspective —  what matters in tech today. So, we asked our Noonie Nominees to tell us. Here’s what Luiz had to share. 4. Noonies Nominee Mike Shine on Career Pivot, Technical Writing, and the Influence of Big Tech Mike Shine, a technical writer based in Seattle, WA, was nominated for a Noonies award for his writing contributions in 2021. Please vote for Mike! 5. On Memes, Bots, Humor, Tech Writing, and Life - Noonies Nominee Tomás Sirio Noonies Interview with Tomas Sirio, nominee for the HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - BOTS Award. 6. Internet Heroes Nominee Lisa Shares Why Climate-Focused Technology is Exciting Lisa Gibbons nominated for a noonies hackernoon award as contributor to Climate Change. 7. From Sustainable Agriculture to Programming - with Noonies Nominee Akis Loumpourdis I am Akis Loumpourdis, a 2021 Noonies Nominee. This is a  small interview to get to know me a bit better. 8. Our Most Significant Enhancements are Non-Technical: Interview with Noonies Nominee German Tebiev An Interview with 2022 HackerNoon Noonies nominee - German Tebiev. 9. In Love with Coding Puzzles: Interview with Noonies Nominee Abbey As a writer in the tech industry, I believe in documenting my growth. Learn more about me and my journey so far. 10. Hacking Synthetic Biology with Noonies Nominee Kahlil Corazo 2021 Noonies Nominee General Interview with Kahlil Corazo. Read for more on synthetic biology and genomics. 11. 2022 Noonies Programming Nominee Roy Derks on GraphQL, React, and More I’m Roy Derks! A tech speaker, writer and software developer from the Netherlands! I’ve been nominated for the categories below and if you've enjoyed anything 12. UX and Product Design Notes with Noonies Nominee,  Jordan Bowman An interview with  Jordan Bowman, Product Designer and Co-Creator of UX Tools; and 6x 2021 Noonies Nominee for Design Thinking, Product Design, UI; UX and more. 13. "Complaining only helps if you're prepared to do something about it" -Dawood Khan Masood Dawood Khan Masood from Pakistan has been nominated for a 2020 Noonie in the Back to the Internet category. The Noonies are Hacker Noon’s way of getting to know — from a community perspective —  what matters in tech today. So, we asked our Noonie Nominees to tell us. Here’s what Dawood had to share. 14. 2022 Noonies Nominee Veronika Vasileva on Programming, Python, and More Learn more about my views on my journey in the tech industry via the interview below. 15. 'I am Passionate About Implantable Brain-machine Interfaces': Noonies Nominee Altynbek Altynbek is nominated for Noonies award HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Swift. 16. "Investors Expect a Company to Own Its IP," Josh Ephraim, Attorney (AMA) Josh Ephraim is startup attorney and associate at Gunderson Dettmer, where he specializes in the representation of emerging growth companies throughout the corporate lifecycle. In Ask Me Anything session with Hacker Noon community, Josh shared his expertise on startups scene, startups legal issues and more! 17. How To Review A Game Bryan Applegate, a nominee for several Noonies awards explains how he reviewed Darksiders III for HackerNoon and his thoughts on THQ Nordic's game in general. 18. Being 'Chief Geek' and Running 15 Websites with Noonies Nominee Mathias Hellquist So who TF is Mathias Hellquist and what is a "Chief Geek"? Read this interview to find out. 19. On the Love of Problem Solving & Programming: Noonies Nominee Sukhpinder Singh Noonies interview with Sukhpinder Singh, Senior Engineer at SourceFuse. 20. On Food Waste and Relevance of Privacy: Noonies Nominee Paran Sonthalia Noonies 2021 nominee, Paran Sonthalia, is still a Berkley student. But that didn't stop him on the mission of reducing food waste. Hear more from him here. 21. Think Big and Keep Growing: Interview with Noonies Nominee Vlad Gukasov First of all, a huge thanks to the HackerNoon community and staff for considering me worthy of this opportunity. 22. AMA with Lina Survila, Women in Tech awards nominee Lina Survila is Founder and Editor in Chief of an online magazine "Abstract Stylist" and Noonies nominee in Women in Tech award. 23. Breaking the Stigma of Mental Health with Amy Pravin Shah, Noonies Nominee 2021 Amy Pravin Shah has been nominated for Noonies 2021: HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Mental Health. Here is her story. 24. Noonie Nominee Lane Wagner Wants to Gamify Education In these unprecedented times, people build unprecedented products, and contribute to the internet in unprecedented ways. One such impressive Hacker Noon contributor is Lane Wagner from the United States. 25. Meet Mark Helfman: #Noonie2021 Nominee, Crypto Writer, Owner of "Crypto is Easy" Newsletter From a career in politics to book publishing and crypto writing, Noonie nominee Mark Helfman shares his insights on crypto, finance, business, & more. 26. Noonies Interview: Khamisi Hamisi on Decentralization of Social Media Khamisi Hamisi is the Founder of Khamisi Digital and nominee of 3 HackerNoon Noonies awards. 27. Ax Sharma's Top 5 AMA Answers: from Black Mirror to Governmental Attacks Ax Sharma is Senior Security Researcher at Sonatype and engineer, who is passionate about perpetual learning. He is an expert in vulnerability research, software development, and web app security. 28. Hackernoon Editors Gave A Voice To My Writing - Noonies Interview with Samiran Mondal Hackernoon editors gave importance to my writing skills and today, I am doing this Interview 29. “I’m Tigerchops and I’m the CEO of me.” Contributor of the Year - GAME DEVELOPMENT. An Interview with Tigerchops 30. Carlo Occhiena, 2020 Noonie Nominee, is Interested in No-Code Solutions Carlo Occhiena from Italy has been nominated for a 2020 Noonie in the Future Heroes and Technology categories. The Noonies are Hacker Noon’s way of getting to know — from a community perspective —  what matters in tech today. So, we asked our Noonie Nominees to tell us. Here’s what Carlo had to share. 31. Noonies Nominee Vivek Tank on the Need of Creativity for Effective SEO 2021 Noonies Nominee General Interview with Vivek Tank. 32. Full Stack and True Black: Interview with 2022 Noonies Nominee Alexey Shepelev An interview with 2022 HackerNoon noonies nominee Alexey Shepelev 33. Teamwork, Humor and Fintech: Interview with 2022 Noonies Nominee Valerie Ejegi An interview with 2022 HackerNoon Noonies nominee, Valerie Ejegi. 34. "It's not necessary to be No. 1 in everything" - Nibu P Rajoo, 2020 Noonie Nominee You know that feeling when you work really hard on something for really long and it feels like nobody really notices? Hacker Noon’s Annual Tech Industry Awards, the 2020 Noonies, are here to help with that. 35. "Coffee is overrated" - William Kwan, 2020 Youtuber Noonie Nominee William Kwan from Canada has been nominated for a 2020 Noonie in the Technology category. The Noonies are Hacker Noon’s way of getting to know — from a community perspective —  what matters in tech today. So, we asked our Noonie Nominees to tell us. Here’s what William had to share. 36. "We will mostly live in virtual worlds in the future." - Timmu Tõke, 2020 Noonie Nominee Timmu Tõke from the United States has been nominated for a 2020 Noonie in the Future Heroes and Technology categories. The Noonies are Hacker Noon’s way of getting to know — from a community perspective —  what matters in tech today. So, we asked our Noonie Nominees to tell us. 37. HackerNoon Contributor Celine “Oibiee” Aju on Tech, HackerNoon, and the Arts As a tech writer, I believe that the most exciting technology of the present is ED-TECH because it gives us the opportunity to move from the assembly line appro 38. Eko Simanjuntak, 2020 Noonie Nominee, Loves to Explore Cloud Native Technologies Go on, make a fellow human’s day and nominate the best YOUR best of 2020’s tech industry for a 2020 #Noonie, the tech industry’s most independent and community-driven awards: NOONIES.TECH. 39. "We are repeating history faster and at a greater scale" - Stacey Schneider, 2020 Noonie Nominee Stacey Schneider from the United States has been nominated for a 2020 Noonie in the Future Heroes and Technology categories. The Noonies are Hacker Noon’s way of getting to know — from a community perspective —  what matters in tech today. So, we asked our Noonie Nominees to tell us. Here’s what Stacey had to share. 40. 2021 Noonies Nominee Interview with Sarrah Pitaliya Who is she and what's behind her passion for technical writing? 41. Matt Hartley, 2020 Noonie Nominee, is Learning About React Hooks The 2020 Noonies are here and they are both much greener and much bigger than last year. Among the 2,000+ deserving humans nominated across 5 categories for over 200 award titles, we discovered Matt Hartley from the United Kingdom, who’s has been nominated for a Noonie in the Future Heroes and Technology categories. Without further ado, we present to you, our big techy world, from the perspective of Matt. 42. Brian Wallace AMA on Infographics, Startups and LinkedIn Optimization Brian Wallace is the Founder and President of NowSourcing , an industry leading infographic design agency based in Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH which works with companies that range from startups to Fortune 500s. Brian has been named a Google Small Business Advisor for 2016-present and joined the SXSW Advisory Board in 2019. 43. Liyas Thomas, 2020 Noonie Nominee, is the Creator of Postwoman.io Liyas Thomas from India has been nominated for a 2020 Noonie Award in the Software Development and Technology categories. The Noonies are Hacker Noon’s way of getting to know — from a community perspective —  what matters in tech today. So, we asked our Noonie Nominees to tell us. Here’s what Liyas had to share. 44. Being Told I Could Not Write Inspired Me to Publish on HackerNoon - Noonies Nominee no-name-c3po I want to thank the HackerNoon community and staff for their nomination in the Web 3 category. 45. DevPool, #Noonies2021 Nominee: “I would invest in the next generation of new developers.” Learn more about Artem- the developer behind DevPool via this Noonies interview 46. "There is no Failure, only Feedback"  - 5x Noonies Winner Christian Kameir Interview with Noonies Nominee Christian Kameir 47. "I aggressively applied to hundreds of different startups" #2021Noonies Nominee Lomit Patel has been nominated in the 2021 Noonies Awards: The most #democra-tech awards system! The first step to choosing the right career is self-awareness. 48. Meet Derek Lim - #Noonie2021 Nominee, Founder of Crypto Research Community Fincade "Blockchain, Blockchain, Blockchain" - CEO of Verse. 49. Aremu Adebisi on Tech Writing, the Future of Finance, and 2022 Noonies Nomination 2022 Noonies Nominee Interview with Aremu Adams Adebisi on Tech Writing & the Future of Finance 50. Racial Discrimination in Facial Recognition is a Challenge - With Noonies Nominee Alesia Traichuk 2021 Noonies Nominee General Interview with Alesia Traichuk 51. Our Ancestors Could Have Solved Food Scarcity With AI - Noonies Nominee TRex 52. Koushik Pal: 'Knowledge Should Be Free' An interview of a great cybersecurity leader. 53. CodeBucks, #Noonies2021 Nominee: I would not invest in cryptocurrency Self taught developer CodeBucks is most excited about Jam Stack anc Web3.0 54. Noonie Nominee Jimmy Song is Excited About The Prospect of Bitcoin Changing Civilization Jimmy Song  from the United States has been nominated for a 2020 Noonie in the Decentralization and Back to the Internet categories. The Noonies are Hacker Noon’s way of getting to know — from a community perspective —  what matters in tech today. So, we asked our Noonie Nominees to tell us. Here’s what Joseph had to share. 55. Web3, Blockchain, and DAO: An Interview With 2022 Noonies Nominee Olayimika Oyebanji A web3 tech writer who loves keeping it S & S. 56. "Buy Bitcoin" is the Best Advice #Noonies2021 Nominee Sergei Khitrov Has Ever Received Hey Hackers! I’ve been nominated in these two following categories :  HackerNoon's DeFi Degen of 2021 and HackerNoon's NFT Wizard of 2021. 57. Adadot Founder Alex on Building a Analytics Tool and being Nominated For #Noonies 2022 I’m Alex and I’m the Founder at Adadot. 58. Maritime Service and Full Stack JS: Interview with 2022 Noonies Nominee, Serhii Rubets This short story is about me, and how I become a software engineer. Why I'm sharing my knowledge and why I create educational content. 59. Blue is Happiness: Interview with 2022 Noonies Nominee Anastasios 60. Technology Keeps Changing with Noonies Nominee Aswin Barath 61. Vasily Sumanov, 2020 Noonie Nominee, is a Crypto Enthusiast and Material Sciences Academic Vasily Sumanov from Russia has been nominated for a 2020 Noonie in the Future Heroes category. The Noonies are Hacker Noon’s way of getting to know — from a community perspective —  what matters in tech today. So, we asked our Noonie Nominees to tell us. 62. "I would rather feel machine judging me, than people judging me" - Jeremy Morgan during AMA Jeremy Morgan is 5x Noonies nominee and an author for Pluralsight focused on Software Development and Integration. 63. Vasily Sumanov, 2020 Noonie Nominee, is a Crypto Enthusiast and Material Sciences Academic Vasily Sumanov from Russia has been nominated for a 2020 Noonie in the Future Heroes and Technology categories. The Noonies are Hacker Noon’s way of getting to know — from a community perspective —  what matters in tech today. So, we asked our Noonie Nominees to tell us. Here’s what Vasily had to share. 64. Hacker Noon Awards: #Noonies 2019—Full Nominees List The world’s most independent tech publication, Hacker Noon—where hackers start their afternoons, just partnered with Stream.io to present the inaugural Noonies 2019: The Tech Industry's Greenest Awards. Thank you for checking out the 64 most read stories about Noonies Nominees on HackerNoon. to find the most read stories about any technology. Visit the /Learn Repo

64 Stories To Learn About Noonies Nominees

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