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Kim Dotcom, Oh, you Scamp

Bob Maxey

Bob Maxey

Android Expert
Kim Dotcom Claims Ownership of Two-Factor Authentication | Threat Level | Wired.com

He is a rather noxious fella, but he has a curious history. For those of you who do not know him, he is quite a piece of work.

Apparently, he is claiming ownership to something called "Two Factor Authentication." Chances are, he will sue Twitter or FB or God only knows who else. Apparently, Twitter announced this thing called TFA and the Kimster is not pleased, apparently.

Quite the difference between now and his Megaupload days when he did not care about IP rights of others.

Perhaps he needs legal fees covered by an out of court troll based settlement?

His new site, Mega dot you can guess the rest, arrived and tens of thousands of folks are members. apparently, it will be business as usual with the government trying to find a way in. He billed it as a safe place to host. You get many GB of storage and you have NO CHOICE when it comes to file encryption.

KDC watchers say it is this encryption that will let him say, "I/We have no idea what the files are because we cannot view them." Or something like that.

The government can't subpoena records they cannot decrypt and the Supreme Court rules that you cannot be compelled to give up your keys and passwords. The president of his country had to apologize because the secret service (or whatever they are called in NZ) did many illegal things to collect evidence.

Apparently, the U.S. of A. might not be able to extradite due to the nature of the crime. They took his cars (most of them, including the pink Caddy) and he must live in his big house and get by on 20 grand a month.

He views the law and government as being evil and he is giving the government a healthy "up yours" see what I can do and you can't do" at every opportunity. Insert link to Stewart/Mad TV here. He is taunting the government and I bet he is not making them happy.

So, after telling the planet that the government needs to keep out of his business and others need to shut up; that the files you upload are your business, he caved to the government (?) when asked to remove the files for printed guns.

Some folks are wondering, if the files are encrypted, how does he know which files to remove? File names perhaps? If not by file names, how does Kim know and if he or his staff does know, how will he be able to say nobody will know? And will the government also know?

Not sure what to think, but his adventures are rather odd and strange.
 
He's as full of crap as he always has. He'll do and say anything to justify his actions, just to help himself sleep at night.
 
Yeah, I heard about this. Not really sure what to make of it. I initially got two impressions, one was "meh" and the other was "scumbag"... We'll see what happens. 2FA is being used by companies all over the world, at multiple levels. I'm not sure how much pull he'll have. Pandora's box has been opened as they say.

It'd be easier if everyone would just encrypt their files before uploading them...

Code: 
gpg -c [I]file[/I]

And truecrypt. People should use that. :)
 
dibblebill said:
He's as full of crap as he always has. He'll do and say anything to justify his actions, just to help himself sleep at night.
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I am not so sure. He is of strong opinions and that is/can be a good thing these days.

He can be rather abrasive and pointless at times, but still, he is a rather an interesting fella.
 
Bob Maxey said:
I am not so sure. He is of strong opinions and that is/can be a good thing these days.

He can be rather abrasive and pointless at times, but still, he is a rather an interesting fella.
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On the flip side, if you really think you invented something, you'll do everything in your power to keep that invention yours.

IMO, the real test of character will happen upon his reaction on when the prior art is or isn't introduced.
 
I've always been fascinated by the guy, to be honest. Sounds like the first legit in-real-life hacker since those good ol' days with the crazy basement dweller stereotypes they used to portray in movies. I hope he doesn't end up in jail though, he doesn't deserve that for his virtual crimes.. just like that poor kid Aaron Swartz.
 
bluebayou said:
I've always been fascinated by the guy, to be honest. Sounds like the first legit in-real-life hacker since those good ol' days with the crazy basement dweller stereotypes they used to portray in movies. I hope he doesn't end up in jail though, he doesn't deserve that for his virtual crimes.. just like that poor kid Aaron Swartz.
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I find him to be obnoxious, but fascinating none the less.

He started hacking Ma Bell and eventually ended up hosting a site where stolen phone cards and hacked games could be found. And he knew the nature of the files he hosted on Megaupload, so he is not the victim.

Then he simply got caught, but no doubt, he was on the radar for some time.

His current effort is to offer the exact same services to others that got him in trouble in the first place, but with a twist that he claims will save him from being busted down the road.

That said, I still want to know how he knew which files to pull off his new site when he was telling the world he would never know or be able to determine what was on his site.

It will be interesting to watch and to see if his 'screw you, government' rants will get him in more trouble. My guess is he will always be in one form of trouble or another and he is not helping himself.

Seems to me, the last thing you want to do is become a mission of the government. KD has money, but the government has plenty more and plenty of time.
 
9to5cynic said:
And truecrypt. People should use that. :)
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I love TrueCrypt. Although some say it has been broken, I am not so sure. For now, it is safe from most people.

Did you know you can use a file on your computer (image, music, doc, .DLL, etc.) as part of the encryption to further protect your files?

I think these days, people absolutely need to start protecting their stuff and keep as much off the net as possible.
 
From Hollywood Studios Want Google to Censor Dotcom’s Mega | TorrentFreak

Now here is something interesting . . .

Kim Dotcom has Hollywood studios begging Google to censor new Mega service
"Kim Dotcom’s new Mega file hosting service has gotten the attention of Hollywood. Warner Bros. and NBC Universal have asked Google to remove Mega from its search results, claiming that it is hosting copyrighted content on its servers."

If this happens, what are the implications for Google?
 
bluebayou said:
I've always been fascinated by the guy, to be honest. Sounds like the first legit in-real-life hacker since those good ol' days with the crazy basement dweller stereotypes they used to portray in movies. I hope he doesn't end up in jail though, he doesn't deserve that for his virtual crimes.. just like that poor kid Aaron Swartz.
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There's still tons of good hackers out there. The best ones don't get any publicity though ;)

You might want to check out The Jester (th3j35t3r) though... he's done tons of cool hacks. His QR code attack (curiosity pwn'd the cat on his site is the article in question) was especially cool. And he's been a master of OPSEC so far.
Bob Maxey said:
I love TrueCrypt. Although some say it has been broken, I am not so sure. For now, it is safe from most people.

Did you know you can use a file on your computer (image, music, doc, .DLL, etc.) as part of the encryption to further protect your files?

I think these days, people absolutely need to start protecting their stuff and keep as much off the net as possible.
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I haven't heard of that... does it just use the file as part of the key? That sounds pretty darn cool. Seems like a good way to add complexity to the encryption process.

And I heard a paranoid rumor about truecrypt being a ploy by government agencies, with secret backdoors in it to bypass keys and such... ... either way it's a cool program. :)
 
9to5cynic said:
I haven't heard of that... does it just use the file as part of the key? That sounds pretty darn cool. Seems like a good way to add complexity to the encryption process.

And I heard a paranoid rumor about truecrypt being a ploy by government agencies, with secret backdoors in it to bypass keys and such... ... either way it's a cool program. :)
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It is called a keyfile. It is combined with the password. You can also combine keyfiles.

Just do not delete the keyfile(s) or change it in any way ot you are screwed. You need to make sure nothing changes the file, either.

As for the gubbernment and TC being a ploy, I seriously doubt it. Or do I? Hmmm . . .

On the one hand, it is silly but OTOH, why not.
 
Mega was just hit with a DoS (Denial of Service) flood today; no accusations have been made or sources have come forth as to the origin of the attack.

http://[URL="javascript:void(0);"]en.kioskea.net/news/23695-kim-dotcom-s-mega-flooded-by-dos-attack[/URL]

Seems like this is one more reason to perhaps avoid Mega for now. The government is (apparently) not returning the legitimate files users uploaded to Megaupload.

I see KD in a huge fight that will end his "reign of terror" and users will be left with no access.
 
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