John McAfee is a tech pioneer and successful entrepreneur. He started his career as a software developer and went on to create the first commercial anti-virus program. McAfee founded McAfee Inc. in 1987 and resigned in 1994, selling his remaining shares in the company over time. His net worth is estimated at four million dollars, but that is likely to be (a lot) higher, given that he owns significant amounts of cryptocurrency.

After his resignation, he sporadically popped up in the news and on social media, giving occasional tech-related interviews. At one point, he was accused of a murder that took place in Belize. McAfee is perhaps best known for a rather bizarre YouTube video that went viral.

McAfee is a vocal proponent of cryptocurrencies and freedom of information. He gained notoriety for his bullish claims and ICO promotions. For example, he claimed Bitcoin would reach one million dollars, only to call it later a ‘true shitcoin.’

No clue WTF I am doing….but here it is:

Buthere pic.twitter.com/uoYRI5K1yU

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) May 16, 2020

Ghost coin

McAfee is a prominent advocate for Monero, stating that no significant vulnerabilities are plausible until further development in quantum computing. He believes the world needs a real privacy coin due to governmental and private spying. However, he sees exchanges as a weakness, specifically centralized exchanges that require some form of government ID to trade. Therefore, McAfee created a decentralized exchange called McAfeeDex.

Decentralized exchanges are nothing new. Platforms such as Bisq and Blocknet have provided such services for several years. Bisq gives users the option to trade cryptocurrency directly for fiat. Still, most traded coins on these exchanges do not provide the anonymization that a coin like Monero does. Furthermore, Monero is not compatible with decentralized exchanges, and it does not aspire to be in the future. That is most likely due to fears of government intervention.

MacAfee saw this as a golden opportunity for his exchange, subsequently announcing his coin called Ghost. That coin is modeled after Monero but explicitly designed to be compatible with his exchange, though McAfee’s platform has not seen widespread adoption yet.

Ghost focuses on privacy, shielding, and erasing transaction history. It is a decentralized proof of stake network, including fast transactions and low fees. Their white paper and the TDLR lite paper are undoubtedly interesting.

Plagiarism

Rapidly after the publication of the white paper, allegations of plagiarism and technical incompetence arose. The developers of the PIVX coin – an MIT licensed open source project focusing on privacy – stated that twenty out of 26 pages of the Ghost white paper were plagiarized.

Besides, they state that there are several technical inconsistencies and flaws within the white paper. Representatives of Ghost acknowledged that their coin was indeed a fork of PIVX, but defended themselves by arguing that PIVX is itself a fork of Dash. Moreover, they claimed to make significant improvements and that they would continue to innovate.

We still have to wait until the code becomes available publicly, in order to conclude. It should be noted that if Ghost does not respect the MIT license, they could be subject to a DMCA takedown, as well as exclusion from exchanges.

McAfee’s shady dealings

It is no wonder McAfee is living in (self-described) exile. He faces serious plagiarism accusations. Furthermore, his Ghost coin is also very suitable for money laundering. In a recently released podcast, he states he is on the run for the Federal Communications Commission, but he does not provide any evidence. Subsequently, he argues that it is not his job to police the world and that he is merely an entrepreneur that ‘builds shit.’

It is not unprecedented for the US government to intervene in such projects, though. TON, a blockchain project from the developers of the popular messaging app Telegram, was forced to shut down in a rather bizarre court ruling. Yet, it is hard to determine whether the US authorities are currently targeting McAfee.

In addition, McAfee stated in the past that he was in fact on the run due to tax evasion. He said: “I have not paid taxes for ten years, and I never will.” That appears consistent with his libertarian views.

When McAfee was arrested in the Dominican Republic for possessing illegal weapons and ammunition, there where no pending extradition requests from the US. He was released and allowed to travel to the United Kingdom. That strengthens the case that he is not in any (legal) trouble with the US. Meanwhile, he uses the media circus surrounding him as a form of marketing and publicity.  

Something he seems to thrive on is appealing to a broad spectrum of dissident media pundits. In an interview with the right-wing Youtuber Keith Woods – a staunch critic of capitalism and advocate of the third political way – he claimed that the CIA was hunting him, although he called them ‘incompetent.’ He also alleges he had multiple interactions with the Israeli Mossad. Even though it is possible, such wild claims are hard to prove.

MacAfee is not very popular within the crypto community either, as he made many bullish statements, only to later deem them as sarcasm. He is known to promote cryptocurrency in return for payment. That led to the accusation of running a pump-and-dump scheme, as he never mentioned those coins again.

Trustworthiness

McAfee is an intelligent man. His image as a tech cowboy earned him fame and significant wealth. When it comes to developing and innovating, he seems to be chasing trends more than setting them.

Only time will tell whether Ghost will live up to its promises. However, McAfee broke his promises many times before. He does not see that as immoral, though, referring to his libertarian beliefs.

We recommend caution using or investing in any of his projects. 

The post Should we trust John McAfee? appeared first on Rana News.

The German Public Prosecution Service confirmed that a bunker functioning as an illegal cyber center had ties to a right-wing dissident movement and possibly to WikiLeaks. These revelations came to light when the main suspect – Herman Johan Verwoert-Derksen (60), also known as ‘Johan X.’ – reacted to his criminal case for the first time.

According to German media, the employees of the cyber center saw the hosting of servers for dissident groups as a lucrative endeavor. One group is specifically mentioned: Generation Identity. That right-wing movement has chapters in several European countries, such as France, Germany, Austria, and the United Kingdom.

Through encrypted messages, an employee of the bunker communicated with a member of Generation Identity. For just thirty euros a month, the cyber bunker would host a cloud server for the group. A very competitive price because other tenants paid hundreds of euros a month for the same service. That may indicate that the employees of the bunker had some degree of sympathy for the ideology of Generation Identity.

@NATO is not involve in this affair, but let's just say it's ironic… #Darknet #cybercrime servers hosted in former NATO #bunker in #Germany – https://t.co/sTjdpKxqAA #infosec #cyebrsecurity #darkweb @infosecsw pic.twitter.com/pMldc7zBf2

— Steve Waterhouse (@Water_Steve) September 29, 2019

The cyber bunker offered a host of IT services, without requiring contracts or personal details. Furthermore, the bunker hosted many websites on the dark web involved in the distribution of drugs, weapons, and even child pornography. The center was also connected to dark web markets such as Wall Street Market, Cannabis Road, and Flugsvamp 2.0. Moreover, massive cyber attacks were conducted from the bunker, sometimes targeting a million routers at the same time.

In 2013, Johan X. – the head of the organization – bought the former NATO bunker located in Traben-Trarbach, a town in Western Germany. In secret, he converted the former bunker into an underground data center. In addition to the main suspect, the police arrested twelve other men, all German and Dutch nationals. They claim to provide a high degree of privacy and thus do not know illegal content was hosted on their servers.

In 2002, Johan X. was involved in a similar case, running a data center in the South West of the Netherlands. His customers were mostly legal pornographers. The police also discovered an ecstasy laboratory in the same building, although he was never convicted in that case.

architectureofdoom: Former Cold War bunker turned into a dark web cyberbunker, Traben-Trarbach, Germany https://t.co/1h5fKSiGO6

— Tim Munn (H) (@amish_man) May 8, 2020

Johan X. claims to be a victim of political persecution. He believes the German authorities only showed interest because his data center hosted the servers of WikiLeaks. The public prosecutor denies those allegations, stating that investigators did not found any server belonging to WikiLeaks. Furthermore, WikiLeaks is not even mentioned in the indictment.

Regardless of the outcome, (former) employees of Johan X. are already making plans for a new data center. Several countries showed interest, including Bahrain, Moldova, Zimbabwe, and Vietnam.

The post Darknet bunker plot thickens: ties to right-wing dissidents and WikiLeaks appeared first on Rana News.

A 41-year-old man from the Californian city of Martinez was charged with possession of equipment for producing counterfeit drugs. At the time of his arrest, Jeremy Donagal – an old school dark web vendor previously known as ‘Xanax King’ – was on supervised release from a 2015 conviction for manufacturing and selling counterfeit drugs.

According to a federal complaint, Donagal leased a warehouse in the city of Concord as soon as his supervised release began. Inside the building, law enforcement encountered professional medical equipment such as pill presses, plastic trays with punches and dies in them, and materials for packaging and shipping. Furthermore, the building also housed thousands of counterfeit pills, containing markings of Sandoz, a legitimate pharmaceutical company.

Moreover, Donagal was building a dark web vendor site to sell the pills nationwide.

Before his 2014 indictment, Xanax King was one of the largest distributors of counterfeit drugs on the dark web. He was arrested along with eight others for manufacturing and distributing counterfeit drugs, (international) money laundering, and structuring. As soon as Donagal was detained, his moniker ‘Xanax King’ was hijacked by other dark web vendors, hoping to profit from its reputation.

Jeremy Donagal, 41, aka “Xanax King,” charged by @USAO_NDCA w/having punches & dies to make fake alprazolam or Xanax pills at Concord warehouse he leased, per @DEASANFRANCISCO. Donagal has previous conviction for making fake Xanax pic.twitter.com/14ERmLSAH0

— Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) May 16, 2020

At its height, Xanax King’s operation manufactured and distributed over one million Xanax tablets in a single week, selling them for up to one dollar per pill, depending on the quantity of the order.

In 2015, it appeared Donagal got off lightly, as he was caught making significant cash transfers to China, both for money laundering and promotion purposes. If convicted, that charge could have landed him in federal prison for up to fifty years. However, at that time the judge seemed to show leniency.

If Donagal is convicted again, he could at least spend the next seven years in prison.

The post Dark web legend ‘Xanax King’ arrested again appeared first on Rana News.