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Re: [tor-talk] Intercept: NSA MONKEYROCKET: Cryptocurrency / AnonBrowser Service - Full Take Tracking Users, Trojan SW



On Sun, Mar 25, 2018 at 11:21:40AM -0400, Wanderingnet wrote:
> I'm puzzled by the entire basis of this posting. Bitcoin is, in itself, well-known to be completely transparent on the blockchain, making transactions traceable as a matter of course. Considerable study has been done in this regard. Bitcoin anonymity can only be guaranteed where transactions - the purchase of bitcoin itself - cannot be tied to a real world account and identity. 
> The warning also seems to hinge on the use of a particular application in order to provide an exploit, though this is unclear. 
> Have I got this wrong? 

Nope, this was included in the original Bitcoin paper, there's nothing
new about that. The fact that the United States government agencies
targetted the system and private comanpies is new, but not surprising
given what we know of their (dubious/unethical/illegal) historical
activities.

But this is now off-topic from onion routing, so this thread shouldn't
continue.

For reference:

"
The traditional banking model achieves a level of privacy by limiting
access to information to the parties involved and the trusted third
party. The necessity to announce all transactions publicly precludes
this method, but privacy can still be maintained by breaking the flow
of information in another place: by keeping public keys anonymous. The
public can see that someone is sending an amount to someone else, but
without information linking the transaction to anyone.
"

https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf


> 
> https://hackernoon.com/privacy-on-the-blockchain-7549b50160ec
> 
> https://cointelegraph.com/news/are-bitcoin-transactions-traceable
> 
> https://www.novetta.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/NovettaBiometrics_BitcoinCryptocurrency_WP-W_9182015.pdf
> 
> 
> ​Sent from ProtonMail, Swiss-based encrypted email.​
> 
> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
> 
> On March 20, 2018 6:40 PM, grarpamp <grarpamp@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > ​​
> > 
> > https://theintercept.com/2018/03/20/the-nsa-worked-to-track-down-bitcoin-users-snowden-documents-reveal/
> > 
> > https://www.reddit.com/search?sort=top&t=week&q=nsa+bitcoin
> > 
> > https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byPopularity&dateRange=pastWeek&query=nsa+bitcoin
> > 
> > https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=nsa+bitcoin
> > 
> > OAKSTAR MONKEYROCKET aka THUNDERISLAND
> > 
> > "agency working to unmask Bitcoin users about six months before
> > 
> > Ulbricht was arrested, and that it had worked to monitor Liberty
> > 
> > Reserve around the same time"
> > 
> > "American spies were also working to crack Liberty Reserve"
> > 
> > "analysts have .. tracked down senders / receivers of Bitcoin"
> > 
> > the agency was interested in surveilling some competing
> > 
> > cryptocurrencies, "Bitcoin is #1 priority,"
> > 
> > "using this “browsing product,” which “the NSA can then exploit.”
> > 
> > "These programs involve ventures with US companies."
> > 
> > Staff travel to "Virginia partner / these extremely patriotic
> > 
> > business associates" highly cloaked.
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > Partner provided first/last name metadata... large influx of
> > 
> > traffic... ftp process... causing disk space to fill up
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > Powers also used for traditional police work
> > 
> > “other targeted users will include those... International / Organised
> > 
> > Crime and Narcotics...Follow-The-Money" missions
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > cyber targets that utilize online e-currency services...
> > 
> > There’s no elaboration on who is considered a “cyber target.”
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > that the NSA would “launch an entire operation ... under false
> > 
> > pretenses” just to track targets is “pernicious,” ... Such a practice
> > 
> > could spread distrust of privacy software in general, particularly in
> > 
> > areas like Iran where such tools are desperately needed by dissidents.
> > 
> > This “feeds a narrative that the U.S. is untrustworthy,”
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > "Despite Bitcoin’s reputation for privacy... you should really lower
> > 
> > your expectations of privacy on this network.”
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > financial privacy “is something that matters incredibly” to the
> > 
> > Bitcoin community, and expects that “people who are privacy conscious
> > 
> > will switch to privacy-oriented coins” after learning of the NSA’s
> > 
> > work here.
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > If the government’s criminal investigations secretly relied on NSA
> > 
> > spying, that would be a serious concern. Individuals facing criminal
> > 
> > prosecution have a right to know how the government came by its
> > 
> > evidence, so that they can challenge whether the government’s methods
> > 
> > were lawful. That is a basic principle of due process. The government
> > 
> > should not be hiding the true sources for its evidence in court by
> > 
> > inventing a different trail.
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > https://theintercept.com/2017/11/30/nsa-surveillance-fisa-section-702/
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > Civil liberties advocates have long suspected that the Justice
> > 
> > Department is underreporting Section 702 cases in order to limit court
> > 
> > challenges to the controversial law. Some theorize that the government
> > 
> > conceals Section 702 use through a process known as “parallel
> > 
> > construction,” in which evidence obtained from the warrantless
> > 
> > surveillance authority is reobtained through traditional FISA
> > 
> > authorization, and the government only discloses the latter authority
> > 
> > in U.S. District Court. One defense lawyer referred to this practice
> > 
> > in a court filing as “laundering” Section 702 evidence.
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > “
> > 
> > The government intercepts Americans’ emails and phone calls in vast
> > 
> > quantities using this spying law and stores them in databases for
> > 
> > years,” said Patrick Toomey, staff attorney for the American Civil
> > 
> > Liberties Union’s National Security Project. “FBI agents around the
> > 
> > country then go searching through that trove of data as a matter of
> > 
> > course, including in domestic criminal investigations.
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > If the FBI uses parallel construction to conceal intelligence
> > 
> > community information, it would not be the only federal law
> > 
> > enforcement agency doing so. In 2013, Reuters obtained documents from
> > 
> > the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that showed how agents were
> > 
> > trained to “recreate” investigative trails to conceal how intelligence
> > 
> > intercepts helped to identify criminal targets.
> > 
> > "
> > 
> > 
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
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