For $40, you can buy stolen police and government email accounts - Help Net Security
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Cybercriminals are selling stolen government email accounts on the dark web, enabling impersonation, and access to restricted systems.

Active police and government email accounts are being sold on the dark web for as little as $40, giving cybercriminals a direct line into systems and services that rely on institutional trust. According to new research from Abnormal AI, the accounts come from agencies in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, India, and Brazil, and are being traded on underground forums. Source: Abnormal AI Unlike spoofed or dormant addresses, these accounts are functional and still … More → The post For $40, you can buy stolen police and government email accounts appeared first on Help Net Security.

    • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.socialEnglish
      7·
      3 days ago

      Fucking Jesus Christ, if someone is buying government email addresses on the dark web and then using a VPN to protect themselves against getting busted, they deserve what they get. Either use Tor or relay it through some compromised machine somewhere, or both. Or something. I don’t really know how it works but definitely don’t use a consumer VPN.

      I mean it might be fine in the modern day, since anything in US law enforcement that might be subpeonaing the VPN company might no longer be functioning. But I still wouldn’t really take the chance.

      • IllNess@infosec.pubEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        Don’t use Tor. If the FBI found ways to break it before, assume it could have other vulnerabilities to do it again.

        • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.socialEnglish
          2·
          3 days ago

          When did they break Tor? Are you sure they didn’t just exploit vulnerabilities on an onion site that was hosted on Tor or something?

            • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.socialEnglish
              1·
              3 days ago

              I dunno dude. I’ll take “there are some research papers about theoretical attacks, speculation that similar techniques were used by law enforcement when after great effort they were able to take down a bunch of sites that were literally some of their highest priorities at the time because they were openly and flagrantly committing felonies in the open for years, and some vulnerabilities fixed in 2014 that might have been related” over “they would have to send a subpoena” any day.

              • IllNess@infosec.pubEnglish
                1·
                2 days ago

                Several VPNs claim they don’t keep logs. I trust Mullvad. Mullvad got raided. The police found nothing.

                I trust a trusted VPN over a technology created by the government and that has frequently been broken by them.

                Compare the amount of arrest of Mullvad users versus Tor users, logically for me at least, I found my answer. If you trust Tor to access government websites illegally, I say go ahead. I wouldn’t.

                • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.socialEnglish
                  1·
                  2 days ago

                  Compare the amount of arrest of Mullvad users versus Tor users

                  Okay. There are half a million total account numbers on Mullvad over the entire lifetime of the service. Tor has about 1.8 million daily users. That’s part of why I trust Tor a lot more, is that it’s been actively used for flagrantly illegal activities for long enough and by enough people to have developed an understanding of what the risks are (and it becomes news if someone gets busted.) Ring me up the next time a major drug ring is keeping its whole operation secure behind Mullvad, and the cops are helpless because they raided it and found no logs and so they had to pursue some other kind of operation to take down the ring.