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Mysterious Hackers Donating Stolen Money (bbc.com) 49

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
A hacking group is donating stolen money to charity in what is seen as a mysterious first for cyber-crime that's puzzling experts. smooth wombat writes: Darkside hackers claim to have extorted millions of dollars from companies, but say they now want to "make the world a better place." In a post on the dark web, the gang posted receipts for $10,000 in Bitcoin donations to two charities. One of them, Children International, says it will not be keeping the money. The move is being seen as a strange and troubling development, both morally and legally. In the blog post on 13 October, the hackers claim they only target large profitable companies with their ransomware attacks. The attacks hold organisations' IT systems hostage until a ransom is paid. They wrote: "We think that it's fair that some of the money the companies have paid will go to charity. No matter how bad you think our work is, we are pleased to know that we helped changed someone's life. Today we sended (sic) the first donations." The cyber-criminals posted the donation along with tax receipts they received in exchange for the 0.88 Bitcoin they had sent to two charities, The Water Project and Children International.
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Mysterious Hackers Donating Stolen Money More

Mysterious Hackers Donating Stolen Money

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  • Robinhood (Score:4, Funny)

    by Thelasko ( 1196535 ) on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @04:12PM (#60629388) Journal
    Must be the same people that hacked Robinhood. [slashdot.org]

  • Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lengel ( 519399 ) on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @04:19PM (#60629410)

    So they steal millions and give 10,000 to charity so they can say "Look at us, we are standing on such moral high ground" You know the Mafia used to donate large sums of money to churches in their community to buy goodwill. Apparently that washes away all of your transgressions and crimes.

    The sad thing is this will probably endear them to some people.

    • Ya, this isn't a First. IIRC some group like AnonSec did something similar a few years back (before the FBI busted them all) and I highly doubt they were the first either.

      • Virtual signaling... (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Matthew 6:2 / 6:3 had it right.

        "So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be praised by men."

        "When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing."

    • It's not moral grounds (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @04:27PM (#60629426)
      they're testing their money laundering. Charities are a popular way to do that. This article in incredibly stupid as that's very well known.

      • Surely if they wanted to do that they wouldn't tell anyone they had made the donation? Are you trying to suggest there are other donations and this is just a publicity drive or something?

        • I can promise you the Charities would have already figured out the donations weren't legit. Any charity of any size is used to being used for money laundering tests. If I had to guess I'd say they're putting out some disinformation.

      • Re:It's not moral grounds (Score:4)

        by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @04:59PM (#60629484)

        they're testing their money laundering. Charities are a popular way to do that. This article in incredibly stupid as that's very well known.

        I'm not sure how that would work in this case.

        I can see a charity being useful for money laundering if you run the charity (and pay yourself admin expenses or skim money otherwise), but that's not the case here.

        Alternately you could claim the tax deductions.... But again, that doesn't work if you post the receipt.

        I think the "moral high ground" is probably what is going on, and it doesn't even have to completely cynical.

        If you're stealing from a rich corporation it's probably easy to justify to yourself that their wealth is almost entirely illegitimate and any fraction given to charity is a net-win for society.

        It sounds ridiculous, but would you rather be a "thief" with $100k or a "robinhood" with $90k?

        • Donate to a bunch of charities, one of which you control. The rest are buying you goodwill.

          • Nah, that's a waste. Have two - a big one that is normal looking charity with a broad mandate of do-gooding, and a small one that claims to provide direct support to people in impoverished areas with weak/corrupt public institutions. Funnel all your money into the big normal one, throwing the occasional gala or whatever, and use whatever legitimate funds you can bring in for public displays of giving, while giving all of your laundered cash to the smaller organization. Make up a realistic-sounding name f

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Edge ( 640 )

        Money laundering through charities only works when you A) control the charity, or B) are a recipient of funds from the charity. Neither is likely the case here.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Jarwulf ( 530523 )
      I call it the Bill Gates Approach.

    • Re:Huh? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Krishnoid ( 984597 ) on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @05:18PM (#60629522) Journal

      And then there's this guy [ny.gov].

    • Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)

      by gosso920 ( 6330142 ) on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @05:31PM (#60629540)
      Now they can be seen as philanthropists, like Bill Gates.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by beep54 ( 1844432 )
      Al Capone was revered by some for his, er, generosity.
    • What if Capitalism is a crime?

    • Yep. Had they donated all of it to a charity I might then cheer them on. Of course, their original intent was not to be Robinhood, this is just a move to perhaps assuage their guilt over being enriched through criminal enterprises, and also to receive some form of social credit.

      Generally, the sort of people who engage in criminal behavior are not selfless, upstanding individuals. That is why the idea of Robinhood endures, it is a nice dream.

  • Don't delay, donate to me now: bc1xj6KgnG6NoBx4gH81gOaM72

  • Too Many Secrets (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mikkeles ( 698461 ) on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @04:23PM (#60629414)

    Maybe they work for Setec Astronomy.

  • No one likes to think they are evil (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @04:25PM (#60629424) Homepage

    Almost every member of the 3rd Reich thought they were the good guys. Racists dickheads think they are saving their own race. Rapists say the vile 'she wanted it'.

    And criminals think they are not so bad because they donate money.

    • "One man's villain is another man's hero, captain." - Gul Dukat, Star Trek: Deep Space 9.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kryliss ( 72493 )

        It's funny how I read that in his voice.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by aitikin ( 909209 )

          It's funny how I read that in his voice.

          Likewise. Although, I did just complete a rewatch of DS9 last month.

          • Recently finished rewatch of TNG, now moving on to DS9 (of which I've seen very little) and enjoying it so far.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by aitikin ( 909209 )
              Never watched DS9 until about 2010. Discovered it's my favorite of that era of Trek by far. Watched TNG and Voyager as they aired, but I couldn't handle the fact that if you missed an episode of DS9, 9 times out of 10, you were lost come the next episode.

    • And criminals think they are not so bad because they donate money.

      So the story of Robin Hood is really about people rooting for the criminal? Are we the baddies?

      • Difference between 'donating to charity' and returning money that was taken is:
        1) Not keeping most for yourself.
        2) Directly returned back rather to a generic charity
        3) Express claim of immeidate, described, specific crime being undone rather than 'generic'.

        But honestly, #1 is the most important. If you keep most for yourself, you are a criminal no matter what. if you return most (i.e. >90%) then you are an agent for the victims.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by clovis ( 4684 )

      Almost every member of the 3rd Reich thought they were the good guys. Racists dickheads think they are saving their own race. Rapists say the vile 'she wanted it'.

      And criminals think they are not so bad because they donate money.

      Funny you should mention that.
      They are donating .88 bitcoin.
      88 == HH for Heil Hitler.
      It could be a coincidence, but because it's coming from a ransomware group, I kinda think it's not.

    • And criminals think they are not so bad because they donate money.

      s/criminals/the rich/

  • Corporations and rich people do it all the time to cover up their greedy looting of society. It's good PR and they feel better about themselves. They may even do some good.

  • Sneakers (Score:4, Funny)

    by spiritplumber ( 1944222 ) on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @04:29PM (#60629434) Homepage
    I'm a little salty that a late-80s-or-early-90s hacker movie plot happened IRL and I wasn't in it.
    • Yeah, I mean, incidentally... HACK THE PLANET! HACK THE PLANET! THEY'RE TRASHING! TRASHING! HACK THE PLANET! (insert ambitiously homosexuals Rqazor and Blade now along with a cheap animation of an oil tanker going down.)
      • [a few dozen keystrokes later by Good Guy, the tanker rights itself and begins sucking up the oil in an awkward reverse playback of the original video]

    • One thing is certain. If by some chance these folks get bank account information of the con artist, they won't find anything to donate. Unlike what happened to Nixon (in the movie).

  • These assholes don't get to donate a tiny fraction of their loot to make themselves feel better and to sway the court of public opinion.

    Remember, these large corporate IT systems that they're holding for ransom are hospitals [wired.com] and payroll systems [krebsonsecurity.com]. Whilst they say they're only target large profitable companies, the damage is really felt by every-day people.

    Screw them, and the horse they rode in on.

    • "These assholes don't get to donate a tiny fraction of their loot to make themselves feel better and to sway the court of public opinion."

      And yet, some billionaires do exactly this to pass off as philanthropists.
    • It's too bad for hospitals, but payroll systems should really have better security. No sympathy there.
  • One of the best places to hire a hacker will be from Dark Basin group. They are one of the places I have stuck with for the past 3 months . Another place is hacforum . net but I strongly prefer Dark Basin forum because almost all the hackers there are screened with pen-testing before allowing them to list their services on there. By experience , I got a phone hack ( Android Phone precisely ) from Barrysanchez AThackermail dotcom as they had more reviews on the field. It took nearly 9 hours to get a comple
  • At risk of spoiling a 42 year old story, I have to wonder if they've been reading too much William Gibson; Burning Chrome in particular.
  • The processing and shitstorm that this stunt has caused will cost the charity a lot more than the 10 thousand they received.

  • Anarchy in the USA (Score:3)

    by WierdUncle ( 6807634 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2020 @08:54AM (#60631044)

    This does not appear to be a way to launder money. If a Robin Hood gives $10,000 to charity, how do they get hold of the money after that? Just giving money away strikes me as an unlikely criminal motivation.

    I think this is much more likely to be an anti-corporatist political statement. I think there is resentment that the country is ruled by rich people and corporations. So good old "rob the rich and give to the poor" has a particular resonance these days. Is this possibly related to the rather incoherent Antifa movement?

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