Real or False? A Review of WIRED’s Dark Matter Investigations into the Fall of Robbery and the War with the Russian Embassy
WIRED investigated more than 90 active shooter incidents that were false in nature and found potential connections between many of them. In speaking with many people who had experienced it, Klinger was able to tell them that the anxiety and fear they were feeling was real. There is a time in these incidents when people run for their life, law enforcement uses weapons, and people think the situation is real.
Despite the fact that Russia has been barred from the global economy because of its war with Ukraine, investigators around the world are still attempting to curb the flow of capital to Russian military and paramilitary groups. Former Uber executive Joe Sullivan was convicted this week of obstructing a Federal Trade Commission investigation and failure to report a felony, a development that is being watched closely by the tech industry because it is likely the first time a corporate executive has faced criminal charges related to a data breach. The Biden administration’s new executive order addressing privacy seems like more of a Band-Aid than a panacea, as it attempts to reassure Europeans that their data is safe when stored in the US, despite government surveillance.
Meta claims to have found more than 400 malicious apps that took over users’ accounts with Facebook credentials. We looked at the toll of living online, how social media can affect your sense of self, and the possibility of erosion of privacy that comes with consistent social media posting.
Plus, there is more. Each week, we highlight the news we didn’t cover in-depth ourselves. Click on the headlines to read the full story. Stay safe out there.
Cryptocurrencies, Ether, and Blockchain: The Emerging Chaos after the CoinDesk Collapse of CZ-Intl
Unfortunately for those hackers, even they didn’t seem prepared for their sudden windfall. Elliptic traded away part of their token for other cryptocurrencies. That allowed them to obtain about $53 million in Ethereum-based tokens. Other Cryptocurrencies that they traded their BNB for are able to freeze funds as they are more centrally controlled. The BNB was temporarily shut down so the hackers could not move further with the newly mined currency. “So we have a very sophisticated exploit, managing to mint yourself $569 million,” says Elliptic research lead Thibaud Madelin. But what followed was a complete mess, to be honest.
Prices of digital currencies fell again as the crisis engulfing the market deepened over the weekend. It has plummeted since the beginning of the year. It was trading at about $16,500 on Monday, according to CoinDesk. Analysts believe that it could fall below $10,000.
Ether, the world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency, isn’t faring much better. It was trading at about $1,200 on Monday after falling over 20% over the last week.
Some industry insiders have said the company’s downfall had triggered a “Lehman moment,” referring to the 2008 collapse of the investment bank that sent shockwaves around the world.
The episode has not just destroyed confidence in the crypto industry, but will also embolden global regulators to tighten the screws. Some of the biggest names in the business said they will welcome the scrutiny, if it helps restore faith in the industry.
He said authorities borrow regulations from traditional banking systems but that the exchanges operate differently.
At the conference in Indonesia, he was known as CZ. He said last week that comparing the current chaos to the financial crisis of 2008 is probably an accurate analogy.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/14/business/ftx-crypto-collapse-updates-hnk-intl/index.html
The SBF Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX/Gate.io Correspondence: Investigations into Coin Bankruptcy in the Bahamas
The General Counsel of FTX, Ryne Miller, said on Saturday that the company started precautionary steps on Friday. The process was expedited Friday evening “to mitigate damage upon observing unauthorized transactions.”
FTX moved its headquarters from Hong Kong last year to The Bahamas, where former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said it was one of the few places that had set up a comprehensive framework for cryptocurrencies.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a statement that a team of financial investigators from the Financial Crimes Investigation Branch were working with the SEC to investigate if there was criminal activity after the FTX collapse.
Known as “SBF,” Bankman-Fried is a crypto celebrity who became a pariah overnight as his company suffered a liquidity crisis and filed for bankruptcy last month, leaving at least a million depositors unable to access their funds.
Miller said that FTX was looking at the movement of money in coin banks and related to consolidation of balances across exchanges.
As scrutiny of big players in the crypto world increases, Singapore-based Crypto.com admitted to accidentally sending more than $400 million in ether to the wrong account.
Kris Marszalek said on Sunday that he made the 320,000-eth transfer three weeks ago to a corporate account at Gate.io, instead of one of its offline, or cold, wallets.
Marszalek mentioned that the process and systems had been strengthened to better manage internal transfers. The native token has lost over 20% of its value over the last 24 hours.
Marszalek said Monday that his firm has acted as a “responsible, regulated player since inception” and will soon “prove all the naysayers …wrong with our actions.”
A tweet from Bankman-Fried: Why is it good to move currencies when you can, and how to avoid going down in a crypto exchange
He said that it was normal for a bank to move user assets for investments. If a crypto exchange operates that way it is “almost guaranteed to go down,” he said. It was the industry’s role to play in protecting consumers.
It was reported earlier in the day that the highest daily withdrawals since June had already taken place. The firm showed that the outflows have gone down to approximately $79 million by Tuesday evening.
Along with that, it also was in the news. According to a report on Monday, US prosecutors are looking into money-laundering charges against individual executives of the company.
In his Twitter post, the billionaire sought to strike a sanguine note, suggesting that it was “a good idea” for each crypto exchange to generally face “stress test withdrawals.” He later added that Tuesday’s outflows were not among the highest the company had processed.
On Tuesday, Bankman-Fried was indicted in the United States on eight criminal charges including wire fraud and conspiracy. Separately, US markets regulators also charged Bankman-Fried with defrauding investors and customers.