BITCOIN

 BITCOIN

In the no so distant past, there was this craze called Bitcoin. Bitcoin, the worlds leading cryptocurrency. It's like digital money that's spread out all over the world and nobody really owns it. It's kind of like the money of the Internet. Way back in 2009, you could buy one Bitcoin for less than a dollar! Can you believe that? But then, by February 2017, the price went up to around $4,000 for each Bitcoin. And by the end of 2017, it was crazy expensive, like $17,000 for just one!

But then, in January 2018, the price started going down a bit. Now it's around $11,000 for a single Bitcoin. Some people think it might go up to $40,000 by the end of 2018, and others even say it could reach $200,000 someday! Surprise surprise at the turn of 2024 one bitcoin is worth $43,175.70

You see, all these other digital coins, like Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, are kind of like branches of the Bitcoin tree. They all come from the same place, the Bitcoin "blockchain." It's like the main trunk of the cryptocurrency tree, and the other coins are like the branches or leaves. But unlike a tree that grows its own branches and leaves Bitcoin doesn't. In order for a Bitcoin investor's value to increase, somebody else have to loose theirs.

But there are also some other digital coins out there that aren't related to Bitcoin at all. They're like their own separate trees in the cryptocurrency forest. So yeah, Bitcoin is a big deal, and it's changing the way we think about money and the Internet. But who knows what the future holds? It's all just a big guessing game for now.

Crypterium

Crypterium

The Bitcoin and Ethereum wave continued its record-breaking surge for the better part of 2017, creating huge euphoria in financial markets. But as the year approached its end, the size of the wave diminished substantially and now it looks like a runaway market as Bitcoin is under pressure and struggles to climb. Meanwhile Ethereum, (not Etherium) the second biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation has benefitted by this Bitcoin price drop, and consequently climbed to a new record-high of around $880 on Tuesday 2nd January. However that record may now be under threat because there is currently a fierce battle playing out in the crypto arena between Ethereum and Ripple. Ripple's capitalisation is now standing at $91 billion, whereas Ethereum's is still around $85 billion. Having said that, predicticions and expectations for Bitcoin, is that it will surpass the $40 000 mark by the end of 2018. 

Ethereum at it new record high.

Bitcoin was the first decentralized digital currency, initially established as a worldwide payment system / cryptocurrency peer-to-peer network running on open-source software, without any need of an intermediary or central bank. This is because all bitcoin transactions are directly completed between parties, verified and validated by network nodes then recorded in a publicly distributed ledger known as a blockchain. Crytocurrencies in general follow this model, though each may have unique differences, like algorithms, hard forks, cross forks, authentication, protocols, security and new additional features.

By default subsequent cryptocurrencies shares a transaction history with Bitcoin up to a certain time and date. For example Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork of Bitcoin which occurred on August 1st 2017 in block 478558. Ethereum on the other hand is a cross fork of Bitcoin which occurred on the same date in block 478558 but uses the scrypt algorithm. Likewise Bitcoin classic, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Lite, etc are all forks of Bitcoin with Peercoin (PPC), Unobtanium (UNO), Bytecoin (BTE), etc, using SHA-256 algorithm native to Bitcoin.

Be that as it may, the next Cryptocurrency wave is about to start and Crypterium is destined to sit at its crest. Crypterium is being flaunted as "the-next-big-thing". Currently the Crypterium ICO (Initial Coin Offering) have amassed in excess of $36 million and climbing, and due to close within the next 10 days. Crypterium is flaunted as the most capable and convenient payment processing solution useing the most efficient technology developed to date. It focuses on future technologies and network infrastructure, using contactless payment technologies guaranteeing the lowest exchange rate and immediate exchanges, using CrypteriumSX technology. Crypterium is also the only cryptocurrencies that will generate standard interest profit much like a banking system in the blockchain based world.

Crypterium seems to be a revolutionary, newer, better and an easier cryptocurrency to use than both Bitcoin and Ethereum. It currently costs a little less than Ripple and a viable currency to buy into, but read the Crypterium  whitepaper before you do so.

DISCLAIMER:
NB!  The author holds and invests in crypto assets. However, the contents of this post should not be misconstrued as investment advice;  it's merely shedding much needed light on some lesser known cryptocurrencies that have the potential to grow far beyond that of Bitcoin.

The 10 Best Cryptocurrencies

CRYPTOCURRENCIES

Crytocurrencies (CC)  / aka kriptocurrencies (kc)

Bitcoin (BTC)!  Etherium (ETH)! Litecoin (LTC)! Unless you've been living your life wearing  blinkers, or you've been hiding under a rock for the past year, I'm almost certain you've heard about them or perhaps any of the 1324 other Cryptocurrencies. So what's Crtyptocurrencies and what's all the hype about, you my ask. Well in a nutshell ..., Cryptocurrencies are the new money, and the hype is all about making money and lots of it. Many, many people have made small fortunes virtually overnight by investing in Bitcoin.

MAKING MONEY WITH BITCOIN

Let me give you an example. Bitcoin sold for less than half a $1.00 in 2010 and today a single Bitcoin is worth $14290.00 and fluctuating. By implication if you bought just $10 worth of Bitcoin in 2010 it would have metamorphosed into a six figure sum by 2017.  Impressive? Having said that, I need to add that there is no better time to invest in Bitcoin than right now, even though some billionaires are avoiding it, calling it a "bubble".  In my humble opinion they're avoiding cryto cash purely because they don't understand blockchain technology and the host of advantages it holds for future technologies.  

Bitcoin as a virtual currency, and is probably the only Crypto coin referred to most of the time by everyone when speaking about it, however, there are numerous other Cryptocurrencies available. Among them are, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Veritaseum (VERI), Decred (DCR), Dash (DASH), Zcash (ZEC), etc, to name just a few. But remember, not all cryptocurrencies are born equal. Some are more popular than others, some will create more interest than others. Some will increase in value faster than others.

The reality of the matter is that a quarter of a million retailers globally will be accepting this new type of money shortly because it's doubling  its value virtually every week. Bitcoin has captivated the money markets and the demand for other digital coins are currently surging as financial institutions are raising millions of dollars in minutes. This is a rare opportunity to amass a small fortune from these emerging cryptocurrencies by investing sooner rather than later.

Blockchain Technology

Cryptocurrencies are based on Blockchain Technology and again in my humble opinion will become the  core of many future technologies. Governments will benefit from Blockchain Technology when it ties GIS systems to their land ownership and titling system. When I worked in Madagascar on a Geospacial project for land identification, I witnessed that their records / paper trail for land ownership was antiquated and inadequate.  We found at least two cases where title deeds were forged, in order to steal land from their rightful owners. A blockchain-based solution would easily have solved this problem by allowing the land chain to be traced from owner to owner upto and including its genesis. A heathcare blockchain-based solution would solve  numerous patient health record problems, if  all doctors contribute to the blockchain. A patient's entire medical records from birth to current date would be on-hand and in a single volume, accessible from anywhere in the world.

There are so many other uses for Blockchain Technology and should never be considered a bubble. Cryptocurrencies are potential replacement currencies and the popularity behind them, is the fact that they are completely decentralized, and cannot be manipulated by government and other authorities like Federal Reserve bank. Crytocurrencies are safe and allows you to buy commodities on the international markets without paying forex and other expensive banking fees in the process. Cryptocurrency payments, permits  private transactions with total anonymity, is completely irreversible  and nearly impossible to forge or counterfeit. Hence Cryptocurrencies have been growing in popularity at a blistering speed so much so that it is starting to "challenge gold" as the investment of choice.

Bitcoin Mining

There are two ways of getting onto Cryptocurrency band wagon, the first is to open an account at a brokerage that invests in Bitcoin, Etherium, Litecoin or other Crytocurrencies. This entails parting with a sizable amount of cash and trusting them to make your investment grow. The  second is to mine one or more Crytocurrencies  yourself, using a computer capable of a high hash rate , alternatively using an ASIC miner for mining Bitcoin or an ASIC miner manufactured for a specific Cryptocurrency. This entails investing your cash into some pretty expensive hardware, that's going to consume and enormous amount of electricity. ASICs are coin specific and are difficult to resell  whereas as a GPU based miner is essentially a regular gaming computer with plural graphics cards capable of mining different coin subject to the software installed.

ASIC Miner for mining Bitcoin.

CPU's have a low hash rate whereas GPU's have extremely high hash rates, so the more GPU's you install and the faster they process capability, the higher your hash rate and the faster they mine. Both ASICs and GPU's are power hungry and the trick is to balance out your initial hardware investment and your continuous electricity and internet connectivity bills against your Cryptocurrency mining earnings. The successive blog installment will cast some light on how to setup a mining rig for Bitcoin, Etherium and Litecoin, etc.

GPU Miner for mining Etherium, Litecoin Dash, Zcash etc.

CC is an abbreviation for Crytocurrencies and sometimes  KC is used for  Kriptocurrencies. Most cryptocurrencies have a three character abbreviation much like AUD - for Australian Dollar, GBP - for the Great Britain Pound, EUR - for Euro, JPY - for Japanese Yen, etc have. Like I mentioned above, there are in excess of 1324 crytocurrencies and other crytocurrencies are constantly emerging with just a few of them listed below.

BTC - Bitcoin 
LTC - Litecoin
ETN - Electroneum
XRP  - Ripple 
ETH  - Ethereum  
BCH - Bitcoin Cash
ADA - Cardano  
ZEC  - Zcash  
XMR - Monero  
EOS  - EOS 
NEO - NEO 
BTG - Bitcoin Gold
ETC  - Ethereum Classic
TRX  - TRON
XVG - Verge
IOTA - MIOTA

However the 10 crtypocurrencies to look out for during 2018 are:- 
LTC - Litecoin
XRP  - Ripple 
XMR - Monero
ETH  - Ethereum
ADA - Cardano
Iota  MIOTA 
BCH  - Bitcoin Cash
NEO - NEO
ADA - Cardano
TRON - TRX

DISCLAIMER:
NB!  The author holds and invests in crypto assets. However, the contents of this post should not be misconstrued as investment advice;  it's merely shedding much needed light on some lesser known cryptocurrencies that have the potential to grow between 10 and 100 times it's ICO.

CYBER ATTACKS

CYBER ATTACKS

Did you know that Cyber attacks for today exceed 1,523,196 and is about half a million less than yesterday's 2,043,871 cyber attacks. If you don't believe me, you can verify it for yourself here. The malware families that account for about 40 percent of all recorded attacks are from the Worm32.Conflicker, the Virus.Win32.Sality, the Cutwail botnet and the Neutrino Exploit kit. These treats have been  religiously turning MS Windows computers into DDoS and spam-spewing botnet drones for at least the  past five years. But now, that Cryptowall ransomware version 4 was released, corporate cyber security companies are on a back foot. This is exactly what is portrayed in the Series Mr. Robot when Evil Corp's entire data centre got hacked and  encrypted with 256-bit AES encryption.

Hacks taking place every the day

The trick to doing this, is to open a backdoor through some unauthorized remote administration software. Once this is done, you essentially own the target computer system. Trojans like Cryptowall, Netbus, Back Orifice and SubSeven have several customizable options to get the job done.

Looking at the daily cyber war far between attacking countries like USA, China,  Portugal,  Germany,  Russia,  Sweden,  United Arab Emirates,  United Kingdom,  Netherlands,  and Turkey, etc, and target countries like USA  India,  Chile, Sweden,  United Kingdom, Taiwan,  Poland,  Brazil,  Norway,  Russia, flinging virus and Trojans at one another is bound to strain relations.

Hackers are attacking targets across all borders

Some of the malware threats are:- 

Worm32 Conflicker
Banker.Win32.Bancos.K
Trojan.Win32.ZeroAccess.A
Worm.Win32.Brontok.B
Trojan.Win32.Virtu.A
Trojan.Win32.Mwzlesson.A
Virus.Win32.Sality.
Operator.Andromeda.gx
Operator.Cryptowall3.bbe
Operator.Trojan.Win32.Grafter.e.a
Trojan.Win32.Smokeloadr.C

RANSOMWARE

2015 WAS THE YEAR OF RANSOMWARE  

Computers and ICT networks are prone to electronic failure but with the expert help of ICT professionals, network up-time can almost be guaranteed to 99.98 percent. However, for the past decade computer and network redundancy and global replication services, ISP's and corporate networks have been under attack from, Heuristic Computer Viruses, Worms, Malware, Spyware, Trojan/backdoors, Adware,  Rootkits,  Scareware, Keyloggers, and the worst of all Ransomware attacks that appear to be more personal.  Not to mention the physical threats by hackers, making the jobs of network security personal more intense and challenging. Costing companies huge additional and unnecessary expenses globally. 

It is predicted that Ransomware is going to be the greatest emerging security risk in 2016 and the general consensus is that 2015 has been the year of Ransomware. The purpose behind all intrusion software is to disrupt, create chaos, steal data and extort money. The reasons, avarice, sadism, vindictiveness, arrogance, aggression, envy,  anger, bitterness, jealousy, hate, narrow-mindedness and plain unadulterated evil. Can you even imagine a cracker hacking your computer system stealing your personal information as well as take over your computer holding  it ransom until you make their specified payment and endure the uncertainty whether or not thy will release you computer once payment is made. 

Globally security experts are doing the utmost to reverse engineer Ransonware software in an attempt to put a stop to this thievery. 
Surprisingly there are number of them amongst which are TeslaCrypt, Alpha Crypt, CryptoFortress,  Chimera , CryptoWall, Ransomware infection, MBR Ransomware  (MBR stands for Master Boot Record), CryptoLocker and the worst of all CTB Ransomware (CTB atands for Curve-Tor-Bitcoin). Crowti (aka Cryptowall) and Tescrypt (aka Teslacrypt) are two Ransomware families that cyber gangs and e-criminals used  to infect  more than half a million Computers  running Microsoft Operating System and Microsoft Security Software. In fact the majority of Ransomware is targeted at the Microsoft Windows operating system and is sent as spam and e-mail attachments with the following names.

disgruntled.zip
facto.zip
headband.zip
woodworking.zip
firefly.zip

If the attachment, is unpacked, it unloads a .scr file, which if activated will launch a dropper of the Dalexis class.  It will then connects to a series of hard-coded URLs, from which it will download  CTB Locker.  CTB Locker will change  all your file name extensions to .crypt however the various flavours of Ransomware can change it to any of these  file name extensions listed below. (NB! This list is not exhaustive)

*.aaa
*.abc
*.cry
*.cpyt 
*.crypt 
*.crypto
*.darkness
*.ecc
*.enc
*.exx
*.ezz
*.kb15
*.kraken
*.locked
*.nochance
*.obleep
*.vault
*.zzz

One way to combat Ransomware is to keep a snapshots of the files in a secure area of your network that wouldn't be affected by Ransomware if the  machine is infected. Alternatively store an offline backup image of your hard drive so that your data can easily be restore. Refrain from downloading or access e-mail attachments from people you don’t know and never  click on  e-mails links you receive from unknown e-mail addresses. Also make absolutely sure your  anti virus / security solution is up to date and able to detect and block CTB Locker, and change your online security protection level by adjusting your web browser security settings.

THE DEEP WEB

THE DEEP WEB

For the past few months, Hackers have been making it to the news headlines virtually everyday and a lot has also been said about the "Deep Web". It is said that terror outfits flourish in the "Deep Web" and black market goods from illegal drugs, medical prescriptions, and firearms, etc, can be purchased directly from websites like Alpha Bay, Dream market, Korova, Outlaw Market, Valhalla (Silkkitie), etc,  and you can even hire a hit man to kill your mother-in-law. Having said purchase, implies online credit card transactions, but using this form of payment on the "Deep Web" could render your banking account empty. The way to transact on the "Deep Web" is to make payment with Bitcoins. Bitcoins are rapidly becoming one of the most popular currencies for both online and offline transactions. Bitcoins can be purchases from Silkroad and will require you to set up an account. Transactions are done with a a bitcoin address and a unique private key / PIN number (private wallet software). 

But first, the "Deep Web" is also known as the  "Invisible Web" and the "Hidden Web", which is Internet jargon (search terms) referring to the content on the World Wide Web that are not indexed by search engines. Many believe the "Hidden Web" to be 97 percent larger than the Internet as we know it, of which only 3 percent is available to search engines.  This is true to a degree because most private networks that make up a huge chunk of the Internet do not permit  web spiders to crawl their sites because their robots file denies access to web crawlers hence not available in regular search results. It is also said if you need to buy anything illegal from sites in the "Deep Web" you have to access the sites via a a VPN using a Tor browser in order to fly under the radar of the FBI and CIA and NSA. 

If you desire privacy and a degree anonymity when browsing the net, then the Tor network is an excellent idea, but you sacrifice speed. If you are using Linux then JonDo IP changer is a safer option than Tor. A Whonix-Gateway distro, provides even better protection against IP and location discovery on a Workstation. Then there is also the Tails distro which includes really cool networking features, using the Tor browser that does a good job of hiding  your identity and prevents traffic analysis by zig-zaging your connection through an array of anonymous servers.  These systems are secure but if you download anything fro the Internet via Torrent Network you still risk to expose your IP number which can be easily traced. The Tor browser can be downloaded here.

CYBER WARFARE

CYBER WARFARE

On Friday the 13th November 2015, social network giant Facebook deleted the group page of the Cyber Hacktivists  Anonymous which was exposing a list of more than a thousand pro-ISIS social media accounts. Facebook announced that the existence of the group was a "violation of their Terms of Service and Community Standards" and subsequently banned all Anonymous administrators, without prior warning and without giving any reason. Exposing the pro-ISIS accounts was in retaliation to the bloody terror attacks in Paris that claimed the lives of more than 130 people and left over 352 injured. The hacktivist collective Anonymous has publicly declared total war against ISIS. One of their spokespersons, spoke in French, on a video posted on YouTube saying  "Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down. Expect massive cyber attacks" whilst hiding behind their signature Guy Fawkes mask.  

The French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve also said that "war" had been declared on France and that "anybody who attacks the Republic, the Republic will fight back." "They will not destroy the Republic, it is the Republic will destroy them," he added. In retaliation French jets have been bombing  the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria since Monday the 16th November. 

Meanwhile, in response to Anonymous' statement, the militant group ISIS  released a statement, responding to Anonymous’ declaration of total war, calling them IDIOTS, and suggesting anti-hacking tips to their supporters to protect themselves against cyber attacks. The reply from ISIS to the Anonymous group was sent via one of the ISIS-affiliated official channels, dubbed “Elite Section of IS”, using the messaging app, Telegram.

An Anti-terrorism "ethical" hacker group known as Ghost Security Group (GSG), going after ISIS says that ISIS regularly use cryptocurrencies to fund its terrorist operations.  Adding that they hired a team of blockchain analysts to trace several Bitcoin addresses and found one  account containing $3 Million in US dollars worth of Bitcoins. 

Even though ISIS is called the Islamic State is has very little to do with Islam if any. ISIS is an abbreviation for Israeli Secret Intelligence Service a.k.a  Mossad (Israel's intelligence agency). ISIS is in fact a collective American-CIA-Mossad-Saudi Intel Covert Operation. Fidel Castro  slammed the  USA/Israel for creating ISIS and retired Lieutenant  General  Ian McInerny said “We have helped create ISIS”. NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that British and American intelligence agencies and Mossad worked together to create the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).”  The leader of ISIS is known as Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi but his real name is Elliot Shimon, a Zionist Jew born from two Jewish parents, trained by Mossad in espionage and psychological warfare against Arab and Islamic societies.  He is a blackhat hack. The ISIS objective is to create unrest and chaos in the middle east -from Pakistan to the Mediteranian Sea, by deceiving the brain-dead public with the "Renegade Muslim" facade in plain sight while they steal the oil and gas.

The Iran-Iraq-Syria Pipeline and the Qatari pipeline needed access via Syria to reach the Mediterranean coastline for the oil tankers to transport it to the Americas. In order to control the the pipeline from end-to-end America declared war on Sadam Husain for weapons of mass destruction and in the process vanquished Iraq killing thousands of Iraqis, taking control and setup several US army bases. A blink of an eye later, America's war on terror attacks Afghanistan demanding that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda, vanquishing the country killing thousands of Afghans, taking control and setting up several US army bases. Then, sanctions against Iran for their used of Uranium  for electrification and its possible use for weapons of mass destruction. But  they still working on Iran. Meanwhile Syria the last piece of the puzzle goes up in flames  with barrel bombs being dropped on the masses and America declaring was on ISIS on all fronts  and bombing the Syrians into submission. All the ISIS killings are purely collateral damage  because with the pipe line is more valuable than people. With all this middle  eastern turmoil, ISIS has now grown into veritable armies with modern advanced weaponry and vehicles with thousands of foot-soldiers covering the faces so that the masses cannot identify them as Caucasians. To achieve their goal of  world domination / new world order, with America at the helm, they have unceremoniously killed tens of thousands of innocent bystanders. 

Be that as it may, France is currently in the global spotlight because as few as 130 innocent people were killed yet the entire civilized world turns a blind eye when tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians men women and  children are massacred by  Israeli settlers, gunmen and Israeli Government policies. Conservatively speaking, between 2000-2005 as many as 4,907 Palestinians were killed and as many as 8,611 wounded and between 2006 and 2015 as many as 5,500 Palestinians were killed and as many as 20 400 wounded, but spotlight, not even a candle. Shame on all of you!

ONLINE PRIVACY

ONLINE PRIVACY

Social media has taken the world by storm and has provided the powers that be, the ideal way to hack you and me.  Adult dating sites, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, YouTube, Google+, Meetup, Disqus, Medium, Renren, Pinterest, Instagram, Secret, Vine, WhatsApp, Flickr, Qzone, VK, Tumblr, and the rest of the social media slice of the Internet can be equated to a  global collection of profiles, admissions, personal ledgers, or even diaries. It constitutes the largest collection of volunteered personal information ever and the greatest incentive to would be hackers to mark you. In days gone by, personal ledgers were kept by many in which to tabulate their thoughts, record their ideas and purposefully expose their fears to a book. A  book that played the role of a non-human psychologist, if you like.  It merely acted as a wall to bounce ideas off, tell your secrets to, share you deepest thoughts, reveal you innermost desires, even talk to if needs be, though never expecting a reply. 

Personal diaries and personal ledgers helped many people to retain their sanity and deal with their demons, but as personal ledgers slowly died out, it was replaced by the psychologist and his couch. For many a "would be patient", bouncing the mental anguish off a quack was often a futile and expensive exercise, whereas for many a physiologist, a very lucrative money spinner. The more people who thought they needed the help of a psychologist, the more psychologist brain washed them into using their services. 

I don't deny nor dispute that there is a need for psychologist in society, but they tend to diagnose everyone with  some sort of schizophrenia or the other. Prescribing the same regimen of drugs to everyone from Retalin, to Adderall, to Concerta, to Vyvanse, to Imipramine, to Inderal, to Invega Sustenna, to Ambien, to Celexa, to Prozac, to Thorazine, to Valium, to Zoloft, to mention but a few, even  though we all have a biochemical individuality, in fact and absolutely  unique biochemical individuality.

Some parents even felt the need to send their children to psychologist for evaluation who then became regular couch subjects. This turned out to be an ingenious cash cow model that kept psychologist near the top of the food chain for some time and also kept the masses sedated and conditioned to be perfect zombies. But the psychologist are being phased out by the social media networks, where the masses are comparing notes,  with fake  friend discussing their personal issues, their mental issues, their health issues, their psychological issues, etc...  entrusting their deepest and darkest secrets to strangers, and others soliciting commentaries who are as effed-up. Besides bolstering their own achievements and lying through their teeth about it, exposing themselves, divulging personal data and volunteering way too much information about themselves. So much so, that the bullshit on the social media networks is fast replacing the bullshit that their patients construed as insight. 

As if it's not bad enough that everyone out there have their own share of problems, be they chicks with daddy issues, or guys with mommy issues, sex addictions, drug dependencies, need for acceptance, dependency syndrome, peddling drugs, kleptomania, alcoholism, prostitution, bullying, theft, lies, cheating wives and sugar daddies, etc. The NSA and the FBI are also added to this mix. Yes, the NSA has been pushing for cooperation from Google, Yahoo and other search engines to feed them with profiles of "misfits", suspect offenders, pedophiles, etc... This means that you and I and everyone else we know, are being poured though a sieve, being judged for what we say or do online, for what we buy and sell online, and the websites that we visit. 

Google is god of the internet and stores all your search history and I'm not talking about your browser history that is stored on your computer which can easily be erased or configured by selecting the paranoid tick in your control panel  Control panel \ Internet Properties \ General \ browser history \ settings \ history \ 0 days. Here I'm referring to your Web & App Activity that may go back several years and can by found in the settings menu in the bottom right hand side of Google's search page. Why you may ask, why does Google do this?  Because governments compelled them to do so. Google and Yahoo have maps on their sites that you can visit to see how many of your fellow countrymen or women is in the NSA's spotlight, all thanks to social networks.

The Tor browser is an option  if you feel that its best to surf anonymously but the FBI is trying their utmost to get the profiles of people who surf anonymously and wish to enjoy some privacy. There are rumours that the FBI hackers are too lame to do it themselves, so they agreed to pay Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, USA, $1 million to hack the Tor network and deanonymize its users.  So who’s hacking who? However, the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation)  is doing their level best to get court injections against the FBI and the NSA's abuse of power and save us all from becoming suspects or victimized for what we say online..  



Meanwhile, a type of malware known as ransomware has been restricting users from accessing their own website or computer system by uploading the above notice, locked by the FBI or Justice Department on their systems. It forces   "offenders" to pay a ransom / fine in Bitcoins via specified online methods before they can  get your own systems or data back. The hacker known as Slavik  who also wrote the Zeus banking trojan, is responsible for the   CryptoLocker Ransomware Virus and has been using the FBI  to extort money from victims. 

CYBERCRIME

CYBERCRIME FRENZY

It is common knowledge that Cybercrime cost global business more than £200bn last year. Statistically one in six companies have been hacked in the past year alone, and the financial and legal sectors are especially targeted but no exclusively. Having said that, the Talk Talk Telecom Group got hacked last Thursday  and the customers' bank details were stolen for the third time in eight months. TalkTalk previously got hacked in August and again in February. Management speculated that the hackers made off with some the 4 million client accounts, but after further investigation realized it to be a lot less. In an attempt to appease worried customers, Dido Harding apologized for the hacking before TalkTalk released official figures based on their internal investigation.  Announcing that some 20,000 bank account numbers and 28,000 partially obscured credit card details were accessed. Their investigation further showed that some 1.2 million customer email addresses, names and phone numbers were accessed.  

TalkTalk just got hacked

To add insult to injury, these very customers' bank details are already up for sale for £1.62 each (Bitcoins) on Alpha Bay Website by a hacker with the alias 'Martian'.  It is believed that Eastern European criminal gangs are the main buyers of such stolen financial data. A  hacker claimed that he could make £150,000 by getting hold of the data and selling it on to many gangs.

Beware of Alpha Bay on the deep web

Tuesday marked the 98th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, and Pro-Palestinian hackers on took over over the Twitter feed of the Hebrew-language Haaretz news website and sending threatening text messages to journalists. Among the tweets posted by the unknown hackers: “The Holocaust of the Balfour Declaration will continue the knife intifada”; “The mothers of our martyrs will drink the blood of your soldiers and settlers,” and “The memory of the Balfour Declaration has changed the situation, wait for the massacre that will be arriving soon.” Apart from the tweets, a sms expressing similar sentiments and threats was sent out to cell phones around Israel. “A continuous Holocaust upon you until you give back the right to its owners,” 

Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investment Group have just coughed up $35 million to a Cybersecurity company to secure their computer network because in 2014 hackers gained access to confidential and personal information of 83 million of JP Morgan's customers. The credentials of the Cybersecurity company has been verified by Deloitte and their hype seems very promising but only time will tell. This is the type of mark that hackers find very, very interesting and a challenge to prove that any and all forms of cybersecurity is purely a deterrent and not hacker proof.