BTC-e Operator Pleads Guilty To Money Laundering Conspiracy

Crime,

A Russian national pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit money laundering related to his role in operating cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e from 2011 to 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice reported. 

According to court documents, Alexander Vinnick, 44, was one of the operators of BTC-e, which was one of the world’s largest virtual currency exchanges. From its inception in or around 2011 until it was shut down by law enforcement in or around July 2017 contemporaneous with Vinnik’s arrest, BTC-e processed over $9 billion-worth of transaction and served over one million users worldwide, including numerous customers in the United States.

“Today’s result shows how the Justice Department, working with international partner, reaches across the globe to combat cryptocrime,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “This guilty plea reflects the Department’s ongoing commitment to use all tools to fight money laundering, police crypto markets, and recover restitution for victims.”

Despite doing substantial business in the United States, BTC-e was not registered as a money services business with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), as federal law requires.

BTC-e had no anti-money laundering (AML) and/or know-your-customer” (KYC) processes and policies in place, as federal law also requires. BTC-e collected virtually no customer data at all, which made the exchange attractive to those who desired to conceal criminal proceeds from law enforcement.

Coindesk reported Alexander Vinnik, one of the operators behind the BTC-e crypto exchange, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to commit money laundering on Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Vinnik was an operator of BTC-e between 2011 and 2017, the DOJ said, and the exchange processed more than 1 million users transacting over $9 billion in crypto during that time.

BTC-e was linked to the hack of now-defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox after it was used to launder some 300,000 (BTC) from Mt. Gox. BTC-e was shut down in July 2017, at the same time Vinnik was first arrested.

Bitcoin Insider reported Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national who operated the crypto exchange BTC-e, pled guilty to charges of money laundering conspiracy in the US on May 3, according to a Bloomberg report.

BTC-e was one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges between 2011 and 2017. According to the prosecutors, it processed transactions worth $9 billion and had a customer base of over 1 million worldwide.

Prosecutor claim the BTC-e did not have a vetting system and allowed criminals to convert illicit cash into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin anonymously. The prosecutors stated that the exchange was found to have handled Bitcoin traced to a Russian military intelligence hacking unit that was responsible for releasing Democrats’ emails during the 2016 U.S. elections in an attempt to sway votes.

In my opinion, those who engage in cryptocurrency scams such as the one Vinnick was involved in should have known that the Department of Justice was looking into what was happening at BTC-e.

X Launches Stories, Delivering News Summarized by Grok AI

AI,

X, formerly Twitter, is now using Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok to power a feature that summarizes the personalized trending stories in the app’s Explore section. According to an announcement and screenshots posted by the X Engineering team on Friday, X’s Premium subscribers will be able to read a summary of posts on X associated with each trending story featured on the For You tab in Explore, TechCrunch reported.

The For You page showcases the news and stories being shared across X’s platform that are popular within your network, along with other suggested items. It’s among the first stops for X users who want to catch up on what’s being said on the platform, without having to spend long amounts of time scrolling their timeline.

The idea of summarizing trends is not a new one, but it is new in terms of how the summaries are being handled. Under its prior leadership, Twitter began adding headlines and descriptions to its trends in 2020, though not with the help of an AI bot. Instead, Twitter itself would annotate some of its daily trends with extra information and pin a representative tweet to provide further context. However, Twitter’s rollout was haphazard, with some trends getting written up and others not.

Gizmodo reported Elon Musk says Grok’s real-time feature, which is going about as well as you’d expect so far, will get information purely from “summarizing what people say on X,” in an email to the Big Technology newsletter Friday. Musk says each Grok summary aims to combine breaking news and social commentary analyzing “tens of thousands” of tweets, but won’t look at any news articles.

“As more information becomes available, the news summary will update to include that information,” Musk told Big Technology. “The goal is simple: to provide maximally accurate and timely information, citing the most significant sources.”

Grok’s approach to AI-generated news is, if nothing else, unique. Rapid breaking news and social commentary are two things that have historically helped Twitter stand out from other social media sites. Elon Musk hopes to distill these parts of the site into Grok’s short news summaries. However, this approach also exposes Grok to the worst downfalls of X.

Engadget reported X is using Grok to publish AI-generated summaries of news and other topics on the platform. The feature, which is currently only available to premium subscribers, is called “Stories on X,” according to a post from the company’s engineering account.

According to X, Grok relies on users’ posts to generate the text snippets. Some seem to be more news-focused, while others are summaries of conversations happening on the platform itself. One user posted a screenshot that showed stories about Apple’s earnings report and aid to Ukraine, as well as one for “Musk Experts Debate National Debt,” which was a summary of a “candid online discussion: between Musk and other “prominent figures” on X.

Like other generative AI tools, Grok’s summaries come with a disclaimer. “This story is a summary of posts on X and may evolve over time,” it says. “Grok can make mistakes, verify its outputs.” 

Grok, of course, doesn’t exactly have the best track record with it comes to accurately interpreting current events. It previously generated a bizarre story suggesting that NBA player Klay Thompson went on a “vandalism spree” because it couldn’t understand what “throwing bricks” meant in the context of a basketball game.

In my opinion, the use of Grok to summarize news is likely going to cause mistakes. Right now, only Premium X subscribers will be able to access Grok. My concern is that Grok will continue to be confused by the difference between a “vandalism spree” and “throwing bricks.”

Over 400 Million Google Accounts Have Used Passkeys

google,

Google is kicking off World Password Day by updating us on its efforts to replace the often hacked, guessed, and stolen form of authentication with passkeys. Their password less approach relies on device-based authentication instead, making logging in faster and more secure, The Verge reported.

In a blog post on Thursday, the company announced that over 400 million Google accounts (of the at least 1.5 billion reported since 2018) have used passkeys since rolling them out, logging over a billion authentications between them. The majority of users find them easier to use than passwords, according to Google, adding that “since launching, passkeys have proven to be faster than passwords, since they only require users to simply unlock their device using a fingerprint, face scan or pin to log in.”

Google posted: “Passkeys, Cross-Account Protection and new ways we’re protecting your accounts”

Expanding Cross-Account Protection

We’re expanding Cross-Account Protection – our program for sharing security notifications, in a privacy-preserving way, other companies that run the non-Google apps and services you use. This helps prevent cybercriminals from gaining a foothold in one of your accounts and using it to infiltrate others.

We are currently protecting 2.4 billion accounts across 3.4 million apps and sites, and are growing our collaborations across the industry to keep billions of users safer online. It’s built on the Shared Signals Framework, which we helped create and launch in 2019, and in the coming year, we’re expanding our partnerships and support for this program. Stay tuned for which of your favorite apps and services begin using Cross-Account Protection.

Passkeys reaches a milestone – and what’s next

In less than a year, passkeys have been used to authenticate people more than 1 billion times across over 400 million Google Accounts. Passkeys are easy to use and phishing resistant, only relying on a fingerprint, face scan, or a pin making them 50% faster than passwords. In fact, on a daily basis passkeys are already used for authentication on Google Accounts more often than legacy forms of 2SV, such as SMS one-time passwords (OTPs) and app based OTPs (such as Authenticator apps) combined.

Passkeys for high risk users. We’ll soon support the use of passkeys to enroll in our strongest security offering, the Advanced Protection Program (APP). APP safeguards users who are at the highest risk of targeted attacks including campaign workers and candidates, journalists, human rights workers and more. APP traditionally required using hardware security keys as a second factor; but soon users can enroll in APP with any passkey in addition to their hardware or security keys; or use their passkeys as a sole factor or along with a password;

In a critical election year, we’ll be bringing this feature to our users who need it most, and continue to work with experts like Defending Digital Campaigns, the International Foundations for Electoral Systems, Asia Centre, Inernews, and Possible to help protect global high risk users.

More choice in where you store passkeys.

We are pleased to see independent password manager vendors such a 1Password and Dashlane, now leveraging the passkeys management APIs on Android and other operating systems. This important milestone, together with the ability to store passkeys on security keys, will give users more control.

In my opinion, it is going to take some time for Google to convince people who use passwords to switch over to passkeys. For years, we’ve been using self-selected passwords to access our favorite websites.

High-Speed Space Data Transmission #1741

Podcast

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, equipped with Deep Space Optical Communications technology, has achieved a groundbreaking milestone by successfully transmitting data from over 140 million miles away using space lasers. This achievement, which included sending ultra-high-definition video and engineering data at unprecedented speeds, marks a significant advancement in deep-space communication technologies. Such capabilities pave the way for more complex and faster data transmission, which is crucial for future missions, including potential human trips to Mars.

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Apple Users Locked Out Of Their Apple IDs With No Explananation

Apple

There appears to be an increasingly widespread Apple ID outage of some sort impacting users tonight, 9to5Mac reported. A number of people on social media say they were logged out of their Apple ID across multiple devices on Friday evening and forced to reset their password before logging back in.

We received our first tip about this around 8 p.m. ET. In the hours since then, the problem has gained significant traction on social media.

Apple’s System Status website doesn’t indicate that any of its services are having issues this evening. Still, it’s clear that social media reports that something wonky is going on behind the scenes at Apple. A few of us at 9to5Mac have also been directly affected by the problem.

People are being signed out of their Apple ID across all of their devices. If you try to sign in with your original Apple ID password, you’ll be locked out of your account. You’ll then be forced to reset your password before being able to sign back in. There doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason as to why this is happening.

The Verge reported that overnight, many people reported on social media that they were inexplicably logged out of their Apple IDs and then require to reset their passwords when they tried to sign in again, and nobody seems to know why. Some reported needed to enter their iPhone passcode to connect to iCloud again, while others with Stolen Device Protection enabled said they had to wait an hour before being able to log in.

According to The Verge, Apple’s System Status webpage shows no current issues with any of its services, so it’s not clear if this was a widespread issue. That said, 9to5Mac reports that even a few of its staff members were also affected by the issue. 

At least one Forbes contributor apparently experienced the issue as well. The outlet saw no indication that this was related to the password reset attacks that several publications, including Forbes, covered in March.

Engadget reported something is up with Apple ID this weekend. As reported by 9to5Mac, Apple users started complaining online last night that they’d been logged out of their Apple ID’s on all of their devices without explanation. 

Upon trying to log back in, some say they were locked out of their accounts despite entering the correct details, and had to reset their passwords. Engadget has reached out to Apple for more information.

According to Engadget, Apple hasn’t said anything publicly about what’s going on, and its System Status page makes no mention of problems with Apple ID or any other systems in the last 24 hours. In a Mastodon post spotted by The Verge, one person told them that “sometimes random security improvements are added to your account,” 

It’s unclear how many users have been affected, though people have piled onto social media threads about the issue to say they’ve experienced it too. According to 9to5Mac, some of the publication’s own team have run into the problem.

In my opinion, something wonky was going on at Apple. There doesn’t appear to be any specific reason why some Apple users were affected by .. whatever this was.

U.S. Authorities Consider DJI A Security Threat

drone

DJI is on a Defense Department list of Chinese military companies whose products the U.S. armed forces will be prohibited from purchasing in the future. As part of the defense budget that Congress passed for this year, other federal agencies sand programs are likely to be prohibited from purchasing DJI drones as well, New York Times reported.

The drones — though not designed or authorized for combat use — have also become ubiquitous in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

According to New York Times, Congress is weighing legislation that could kill much of DJI’s business in the United States by putting it on a Federal Communications Commission roster blocking it from running on the country’s communications infrastructure.

If passed and signed into law, the legislation would effectively ban any new models of DJI drones from that point on. It would not apply to drones already in use. The F.C.C. has twice considered a rule change that would lead to the revocation of authorizations for drones currently in use, according to federal findings and a government staff member, but it is not clear what likelihood there is of such a change being enacted.

TechRadar reported drone brand DJI could soon be banned from operating in the United States. According to a report from the New York Times (NYT), a bill called the Countering CCP Drones Act passed unanimously by the House Energy and Commerce Committee” last month. 

The legislation will move on to a floor vote in the House of Representatives within the next two months. If it passes there, it’ll continue onward to the Senate and potentially the President of the United State’s desk.

According to TechRadar, there seem to be two main motivations behind this ban. One of the bill’s sponsors, Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, claims “DJI presents an unacceptable security risk” pointing to the company’s connection to the Chinese government. 

The NYT mentions how vulnerabilities were discovered back in 2020 that CCP officials could’ve utilized to access the personal information of American users. Although these vulnerabilities have been since patched, that hasn’t stopped the US Department of Defense from prohibiting its armed forces from buying the drones.

The Verge reported if passed, the Countering CCP Drones Act would add DJI drones to the FCC’s list of equipment covered by the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019. This bars communications equipment or services that “pose a national security risk” from running on US networks. 

It also prevents companies from using federal funding to purchase banned equipment. Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE are already included on the FCC’s list.

In my opinion, we are just going to have to wait and see what happens next regarding DJI’s drones. If the bill passes, it could mean that the U.S. government agencies will no longer be allowed to purchase DJI drones. 

Net Neutrality Is Back As FCC Votes To Regulate Internet Providers

Net Neutrality,

The US government on Thursday banned internet service providers (ISPs) from meddling in the speeds their customers receive when browsing the web and downloading files, restoring tough rules rescinded during the Trump administration and setting the state for a major legal battle with the broadband industry, CNN reported.

The net neutrality regulations adopted Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission prohibit providers such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon from selectively speeding up, slowing down or blocking users’ internet traffic. They largely reflect rules passed by a prior FCC in 2015 and unwound in 2017.

The latest rules show how, with a 3-2 Democratic majority, the FCC is moving to reassert its authority over an industry that powers the modern digital economy touching everything from education to health care and enabling advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence.

With Thursday’s party-line vote, the FCC redefined internet service as similar to legacy telephone lines, a sweeping move that comes with greater regulatory power over the broadband industry. And the FCC said it would step in to override state or local policies that conflict with the federal net neutrality rule.

ArsTechnica reported the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to impose net neutrality rules today, restoring the common-carrier regulatory framework enforced during the Obama era and then abandoned while Trump was president.

The rules prohibit internet service providers from blocking and throttling lawful content and ban paid prioritization. Cable and telecom companies plan to fight the rules in court, but they lost a similar battle during the Obama era when judges upheld FCC’s ability to regulate ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act.

“Consumers have made it clear to us they do not want their broadband provider cutting sweetheart deals, with fast lanes for some services and slow lanes for others,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said at today’s meeting. “They do not want their providers engaging in blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. And if they have problems, they expect the nation’s expert authority on communications to be able to respond. Because we put national rules back on the books, we fix that today.”

TechCrunch reported the Federal Communications Commission made its official vote Thursday to reinstate net neutrality,  which bars broadband providers from slowing or even blocking traffic to some sites while improving access to others that pay extra fees. 

With some changes and protections, passing the order titled Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet resorts rules passed back during the Obama administration in 2015 and rolled back in 2017, after Donald Trump was elected president.

Rosenworcel summed it up best: “I think in a modern digital economy we should have a national net neutrality policy and make clear the nation’s expert on communications has the ability to act when it comes to broadband.”

In my opinion, whether or not the US gets to enjoy net neutrality depends largely upon if the FCC has more Democrats or more Republicans. Right now, it appears that net neutrality is going to stick around.