Kim Dotcom, the Megaupload founder and hard-partying face of early 2010s online piracy, is finally headed to the US. Reutersreports that New Zealand’s justice minister signed an extradition order on Thursday to end the entrepreneur’s nearly 13-year legal battle, paving the way for the German-born Dotcom to face charges from the US government.
“I considered all of the information carefully, and have decided that Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the U.S. to face trial,” Goldsmith said in a statement. The decision came more than six years after a New Zealand court ruled Dotcom could be extradited to the US, paving the way for appeals that culminated in today’s decision.
YouTube / Kim Dotcom
Once the 13th most visited site online, the file-hosting hub Megaupload was a hotbed for pirated content. In early 2012, American authorities charged Dotcom and six others with racketeering, copyright infringement, money laundering and copyright distribution. The US indictment claimed Megaupload cost copyright holders $500 million in damages while making $175 million from ads and premium subscriptions.
The raid on Dotcom’s Auckland mansion was dramatic fare among 2012’s relatively tame headlines. The New York Timesreported at the time that when he saw the police, Dotcom barricaded himself inside, activated several electronic locks and waited in a safe room. When officers cut their way inside, they saw Dotcom standing near “a firearm that they said looked like a sawed-off shotgun.”
YouTube / Kim Dotcom
Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz) had several brushes with the law before that. He at least claimed to have spent three months in a Munich jail in 1994 for “breaking into Pentagon computers and observing real-time satellite photos of Saddam Hussein’s palaces.” Soon after, he received a suspended two-year sentence for a scam involving stolen phone card numbers.
In 2001, he was accused in the largest insider-trading case in German history. He reportedly fled Germany to escape those charges, was captured in Thailand, extradited (this week isn’t his first go-round) and convicted in 2002. At some point after that, he moved to New Zealand, holing up in a luxurious mansion.
You can see that mansion — and a taste of his larger-than-life persona — in his music video “Good Life.”
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith signed the extradition order on Thursday and followed standard practice in giving Dotcom “a short period of time to consider and take advice” on his decision.
Dotcom, never one to mince words, posted a message on X that “the obedient US colony in the South Pacific just decided to extradite me for what users uploaded to Megaupload.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/kim-dotcom-roguish-face-of-2010s-online-piracy-will-finally-be-extradited-to-the-us-172100627.html?src=rss
A guest who appeared on the No Jumper podcast to boast about a hack and payback scheme involving his victims’ social media accounts could face federal charges. Idriss Qibaa, also known as “Dani” and “Unlocked” who authorities allege ran the social media hacking site Unlocked4Life.com, faces two criminal felony counts filed by the US Attorney's Office in Nevada for allegedly violating interstate communications laws for threats he issued in text messages to two victims and members of their families, according to documents obtained by 404 Media.
Investigators filed the sealed complaint against Qibaa on July 25 and issued a warrant the following Monday when also made his first initial appearance in court, according to federal court records.
The criminal complaint states that the FBI received a tip about Qibaa’s alleged extortion scheme on April 1 pointing to an appearance he made on the No Jumper podcast hosted by Adam22, also known as Adam Grandmaison, back in January under his pseudonym “Dani.” Qibaa outlined a financial scheme using over 200 victims’ social media accounts in which he would lock them out of their pages and charge them to regain access.
He also boasted that he made about $600,000 a month from his activities and hired two security guards to follow him.
“You’re making $2 million a month off your Instagram and Telegraph,” Qibaa says on the podcast. “I come and I take it away and make you pay for it back and I make it public and I post it and I expose you.”
Qibaa even said on the podcast episode that he pulled the scheme on celebrities who unknowingly kept paying him to get their social media back. He later noted “I’m very petty” followed by a menacing laugh.
“I’ve talked to stars who have told me that they’ve paid to get it back 20 times over and over and over they just have to keep paying to get it back,” Qibaa says, “and I’m like you realize what’s happening to you right like the same that’s getting you it back is…you’re getting extorted.”
The criminal complaint tells the story of eight victims’ encounters with Qibaa and his services. One identified as “J.T.” operated two Instagram accounts: a cannabis news aggregate account called “theblacklistxyz” and a cannabis merchandising store under “caliplug,” both of which are currently set to private. J.T. reached out to Qibaa asking if he could obtain a username. Qibaa quoted a price back between $4,000-$5,000. J.T. refused to take Qibaa up on the offer and Qibaa responded with threats.
“Qibba told J.T. that J.T. had wasted Qibaa’s time, blocked J.T.’s Instagram pages and demanded $10,000 to reinstate it,” the complaint reads. “J.T. offered Qibaa $8,500 to reinstate the account, an offer Qibaa accepted.”
The complaint asserts that Qibba reached out to J.T. two more times. The first time, Qibba asked if J.T. would promote his Instagram page under the username “unlocked4life” that’s since been taken down. J.T. agreed but when he learned Qibaa had been threatening and extorting other victims, he confronted Qibaa and “Qibaa was irate.”
A few months later, Qibaa apparently increased the scope of his threats to J.T. and members of his family. He sent threats to call the victim’s ex-wife’s lawyer and child protective services on his kids. Screenshots of the victims’ phone show Qibaa allegedly identifying the address and phone number of the victim’s sister. He texted another family member and introduced himself as “The guy that’s gonna murder your drug dealer brother. Tell him Unlocked says hi though. We have your entire family’s info.”
Another victim identified as a journalist and comedian with the initials “E.H.” learned they were a target of Qibaa’s illegal services. Qibaa blocked their Instagram account, the name of which was redacted, at the request of a dentist in California who treated them. E.H. reached out to the Unlocked4Life account and received a reply that read, “Yo its Idriss.” He then told E.H. to pull up the No Jumper podcast episode featuring his interview. Qibaa not only took the victim’s Instagram account access away but also threatened to take their Social Security number and “blast it out” if they didn’t pay him $20,000.
According to the complaint, not even restraining orders could make Qibaa leave his victims alone. One named “R.B.” received a restraining order from Los Angeles County Superior Court in July but “Unblocked” responded, “Cute restraining order..last I checked you’re still gonna die.” Then “UNLOCKED UNCENSORED” posted on Telegram, “$50,000 reward for whoever sleeps BO this week.”
Perhaps the most disturbing threats happened to several victims in which Qibaa claimed he’d happily go to jail if payments weren’t made to him. Screenshots of the text chains show a person named “Dani” and “Daniel” telling his victims, “I will come and shoot you myself,” “I’m going to bury you for this shit” and “D., L., J., T., Children-Main Targets” referring to the victims’ children.
Another text chain shows Qibaa allegedly threatening someone that he would “rather take a life sentence for murdering you then this,” “Idc if I have to shoot you my self [sic]” and “I’ll go to jail happily.” He follows the text with the threat “Here’s the last guy that came to take photos / came near my home” and sends three pictures of an unidentified bearded man, his car and a photo of his badly bruised and bloodied on the ground.”
Adam22 concluded his podcast interview with “Dani” saying he was “very excited to see the fallout from this” and “I respect the hustle even though I can’t justify it on a moral level.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hack-and-payback-instagram-scammer-gets-nabbed-after-bragging-about-it-on-a-podcast-202509349.html?src=rss
The US Department of Justice is suing TikTok for violating a child privacy law and violating a 2019 agreement with the Federal Trade Commission for previous privacy violations. The lawsuit stems from an earlier investigation into the company by the Federal Trade Commission, which referred its privacy case to the DoJ earlier this year.
The FTC had been looking into whether TikTok had violated the terms of an earlier privacy settlement with Musical.ly, which was acquired by ByteDance prior to the launch of TikTok. According to the FTC, the investigation found that TikTok had “flagrantly” violated both the 2019 settlement and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
In a statement, the Justice Department also cited TikTok’s collection of personal information about children on its platform and its failure to comply with the requests for the information to be deleted.
From 2019 to the present, TikTok knowingly permitted children to create regular TikTok accounts and to create, view, and share short-form videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform. The defendants collected and retained a wide variety of personal information from these children without notifying or obtaining consent from their parents. Even for accounts that were created in “Kids Mode” (a pared-back version of TikTok intended for children under 13), the defendants unlawfully collected and retained children’s email addresses and other types of personal information. Further, when parents discovered their children’s accounts and asked the defendants to delete the accounts and information in them, the defendants frequently failed to honor those requests. The defendants also had deficient and ineffectual internal policies and processes for identifying and deleting TikTok accounts created by children.
In a statement, TikTok said it took issue with the allegations, saying it had previously addressed some of the conduct described by the Justice Department. “We disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed,” the company said. “We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform. To that end, we offer age-appropriate experiences with stringent safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched features such as default screentime limits, Family Pairing, and additional privacy protections for minors.”
The lawsuit comes at a particularly inconvenient time for TikTok, which is set to face off with the Justice Department in federal court next month over a law that aims to force ByteDance to sell the app or face a ban in the United States.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-justice-department-sues-tiktok-for-breaking-child-privacy-laws-190456433.html?src=rss
A teenage boy may be responsible for a ransomware attack that shut down MGM Resorts in Las Vegas last year. The West Midlands Police Department in England confirmed that they arrested an unidentified 17-year-old on Thursday from the town of Walsall who allegedly shut down the resort and casino on the Las Vegas strip last year.
The teenager was arrested on suspicion of blackmail and violating the UK’s Computer Misuse Act. He was released on bail, according to a statement from the police department.
Police officials tracked the teenage suspect as part of a joint investigation with the UK’s National Crime Agency and the FBI. The police department said they recovered evidence at the teenager’s address including “a number of digital devices which will undergo forensic examination.”
The statement also said the teenager was part of a “global cyber online crime group” but did not specify which group. The ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group announced their responsibility for the MGM Resorts cyber outage. The attack happened on Sep. 12, 2023 allegedly with a simple 10 minute phone call to a Help desk employee using information obtained from LinkedIn. The group has also claimed responsibility for a similar ransomware attack on the beauty brand Esteé Lauder.
"All ALPHV ransomware group did to compromise MGM Resorts was hop on LinkedIn, find an employee, then call the Help Desk," the organization wrote in a post on X.
MGM Resorts’ system shutdown lasted for nine days and created a massive outage across all of its casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. News later surfaced that other casinos like Caesars were also targeted by a different group but chose to pay the hackers tens of millions of dollars to prevent private company data from being released.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/police-arrest-a-teenage-boy-in-connection-with-the-mgm-resorts-ransomware-attack-223906246.html?src=rss
The Detroit Police Department has to adopt new rules curbing its reliance on facial recognition technology after the city reached a settlement this week with Robert Williams, a Black man who was wrongfully arrested in 2020 due to a false face match. It’s not an all-out ban on the technology, though, and the court’s jurisdiction to enforce the agreement only extends four years. Under the new restrictions, which the ACLU is calling the strongest such policies for law enforcement in the country, police cannot make arrests based solely on facial recognition results or conduct a lineup based only on facial recognition leads.
The new rules stipulate that “[a]n FRT lead, combined with a lineup identification, may never be a sufficient basis for seeking an arrest warrant,” according to a summary of the agreement. There must also be “further independent and reliable evidence linking a suspect to a crime.” Police in Detroit will have to undergo training on the technology that addresses the racial bias in its accuracy rates, and all cases going back to 2017 in which facial recognition was used to obtain an arrest warrant will be audited.
In an op-ed for TIME published today, Williams wrote that the agreement means, essentially, that “DPD can no longer substitute facial recognition for basic investigative police work.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/detroit-police-can-no-longer-use-facial-recognition-results-as-the-sole-basis-for-arrests-204454537.html?src=rss
Julian Assange has formally pleaded guilty to violating the Espionage Act at a federal courthouse in Saipan, the capital of Northern Mariana Islands. The WikiLeaks founder was released from prison on June 24 after reaching a plea deal with the US government and quickly boarded a plane at Stansted Airport to make his way to Saipan. While the deal required Assange to plead guilty to "conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States," he still defended himself in court.
Julian has arrived at the federal court house in Saipan.
I watch this and think how overloaded his senses must be, walking through the press scrum after years of sensory depravation and the four walls of his high security Belmarsh prison cell.
— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@Stella_Assange) June 25, 2024
According to The Washington Post, Assange argued that he should've been protected by the First Amendment as a journalist. "Working as a journalist, I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information," he said. "I believe the First Amendment protected that." He also said that he believes the First Amendment and the Espionage Act are in contradiction of each other, but he accepts that his actions were in "violation of an espionage statute" and that it would be "difficult to win such a case given all the circumstances."
A lawyer for the US government, however, accused him of encouraging personnel with high security clearances to expose classified military information and threaten national security. If you'll recall, WikiLeaks published classified information related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which was obtained by whistleblower and former Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning, under his leadership.
Lawyers from both sides argued about the time Assange served in prison, but around three hours after the proceeding started, Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona declared that the 62 months he spent in Belmarsh Prison was reasonable and on par with the time served by Manning. Assange will not spend any time in US custody, but he has to leave the US Northern Mariana Islands immediately. The same private jet that flew him from London to Saipan flew him back to Canberra, Australia, because he wasn't allowed to fly commercial, according to his wife Stella Assange.
— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@Stella_Assange) June 26, 2024
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/julian-assange-pleads-guilty-to-espionage-but-defends-himself-in-court-030516412.html?src=rss
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been released from prison and has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act. The WikiLeaks account on X, formerly Twitter, has announced his release after being granted bail by the High Court in London. It also tweeted a video that appears to show Assange boarding a plane at Stansted Airport. The WikiLeaks founder and former editor-in-chief is expected to appear in a courtroom in the US Northern Mariana Islands on June 26 in order to finalize his plea deal with the US government.
Julian Assange boards flight at London Stansted Airport at 5PM (BST) Monday June 24th. This is for everyone who worked for his freedom: thank you.#FreedJulianAssangepic.twitter.com/Pqp5pBAhSQ
According to a letter from the US Department of Justice obtained by The Washington Post, Assange is specifically pleading guilty to "conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States." He will also be returning to Australia, his country of citizenship, right after the proceedings. CBS News reports that Justice Department prosecutors recommended a sentence of 62 months, and seeing as Assange already spent more than five years in a UK prison, he won't be spending any time behind bars in the US.
Assange was the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks when the website published US classified information, obtained by whistleblower and former Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning, about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2010, Sweden issued an arrest warrant for Assange over allegations of sexual assault by two women. Swedish authorities dropped their investigation into the rape allegations in 2017.
Assange sought asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after losing his appeal against the warrant, and he lived there for seven years until he was evicted. Lenín Moreno, the president of Ecuador at the time, explained that his asylum was "unsustainable and no longer viable" because he displayed "discourteous and aggressive behavior." London's Metropolitan Police Service removed Assange from the embassy and arrested him on behalf of the US under an extradition warrant.
In WikiLeaks' announcement of his release, it said Assange left Belmarsh maximum security prison "after having spent 1,901 days there." The organization said that the "global campaign" by "press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum" enabled "a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice" that led to the plea deal.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/julian-assange-has-been-released-from-prison-in-a-plea-deal-with-the-us-044226610.html?src=rss
The illegal streaming service Jetflicks once boasted on its website that visitors could watch just about any TV show or movie “Anytime. Anywhere.” Now the five people behind the bootleg streaming service are facing some serious jail time.
A jury found Kristopher Dallman, Douglas Courson, Felipe Garcia, Jared Jaurequi and Peter Huber guilty in a Las Vegas federal court on Friday for conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. Dallmann was also found guilty on two counts of money laundering and three counts of misdemeanor criminal copyright infringement for leading the Jetflicks operation, according to court documents and a US Department of Justice press release.
Jetflicks used computer scripts and software to scour the internet for illegal copies of movies and television shows and posted hundreds of thousands of illegal copies as far back as 2007 from torrent and Usenet sites. The defendants created a catalog of bootleg shows and movies bigger than the combined collections of streaming services including Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and Amazon Prime, according to the Department of Justice.
Users could pay a subscription fee to access the site on pretty much any media streaming device with a web browser. Jetflicks claimed to “offer more than 183,200 television episodes and have more than 37,000 subscribers,” according to the initial indictment filed in the Eastern District of Virginia in 2019.
Dallmann, the leader of the group, and his co-conspirators “made millions of dollars streaming and distributing this catalog of stolen content,” according to the press release.
At one point, operators and employees of Jetflicks were making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from its subscription service. Dallman wrote in an online chat that his site made $750,000 in one year, according to the indictment.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) took notice of Jetflicks in 2012 and sent cease and desist letters to the site’s operators. Four years later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) started its undercover operation of the site by paying for a six-month subscription. Undercover agents recorded multiple instances of illegal uploads of shows like Shameless, Ray Donovan, The OA and SyFy’s 12 Monkeys alongside charges for accessing them. Then the agents traced those charges back to the defendants’ bank accounts, according to court records.
A sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled. The Department of Justice says Dallman could face up to 48 years in prison and the four remaining defendants could each face five years in prison.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/five-men-face-jail-time-for-running-the-illegal-streaming-service-jetflicks-202758485.html?src=rss
Ticketmaster is the victim of a cyber attack, its parent company, Live Nation, confirmed. The information stolen allegedly includes personal information from 560 million individuals, including names, numbers, addresses, and partial payment details. Hacking group ShinyHunters has demanded $500,000 in ransom money to prevent the data's sale and confirmed it held the 1.3TB of stolen data to Hackread.
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Live Nation stated it had "identified unauthorized activity" on May 20 and subsequently started investigating it. On May 27, "a criminal threat actor offered what it alleged to be Company user data for sale via the dark web."
Live Nation claims to be working to lower the risks posed to its customers and its own business. "As of the date of this filing, the incident has not had, and we do not believe it is reasonably likely to have, a material impact on our overall business operations or on our financial condition or results of operations," the company added. "We continue to evaluate the risks and our remediation efforts are ongoing."
Ticketmaster has faced previous breaches, including a bot attack during Taylor Swift ticket sales. The company also has a history as a hacker, illegally — and repeatedly — accessing the computer system of its rival, Songkick. Ticketmaster paid a $10 million criminal fine rather than face prosecution. However, the company's former head of Artist Services, Zeeshan Zaidi, pled guilty to conspiring to commit computer intrusions and wire fraud due to his role in the scheme.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ticketmaster-hack-could-affect-560-million-users-121600931.html?src=rss
The families of the shooting victims at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas have sued Call of Duty publisher Activision and Meta. They alleged that the companies "knowingly exposed the shooter to the weapon [he used], conditioned him to see it as the solution to his problems, and trained him to use it." The plaintiffs also accused the companies of "chewing up alienated teenage boys and spitting out mass shooters."
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs explained that the Uvalde shooter played Call of Duty, which featured an assault-style rifle made by gunmaker Daniel Defense. They also mentioned that he frequently visited Instagram, which advertised the gunmaker's products. The lawsuit claimed, as well, that Instagram gives gunmakers "an unsupervised channel to speak directly to minors, in their homes, at school, even in the middle of the night." It argued that the shooter was "a poor and isolated teenager" from small town Texas who only learned about AR-15s and set his sights on it, because he was exposed to the weapon from playing Call of Duty and visiting Instagram. In addition, it accused Meta of being more lenient towards firearms sellers than other users who break its rules. Meta prohibits the buying the selling of weapons and ammunition, but users can violate the policy 10 times before they're banned from its platforms.
"The truth is that the gun industry and Daniel Defense didn’t act alone. They couldn’t have reached this kid but for Instagram," the plaintiffs' lawyer, Attorney Josh Koskoff, said at a news conference. "They couldn’t expose him to the dopamine loop of virtually killing a person. That's what Call of Duty does." Koskoff's law firm was the same one who reached a $73 million settlement with rifle manufacturer Remington for the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims.
An Activision spokesperson told The Washington Post and Bloomberg Law that the "Uvalde shooting was horrendous and heartbreaking in every way," and that the company expresses its deepest sympathies to the families, but "millions of people around the world enjoy video games without turning to horrific acts."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-and-activision-face-lawsuit-by-families-of-uvalde-school-shooting-victims-130025901.html?src=rss