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A lot of phishing, and other online financial crime, is perpetrated by groups operating with the support of their home governments. There's no way to hold North

A lot of phishing, and other online financial crime, is perpetrated by groups operating with the support of their home governments. There's no way to hold North Korean state-backed phishing/criminal hacking groups accountable without disconnecting North Korea from the Internet or going to war with them. Similar issues apply to curtailing online crime committed by Russian mafia entities, as they are well connected to the Russian government. An alternative strategy would be to crack down on the money laundering channels used by criminal entities to get money from their victims, but this would be politically difficult as it would involve shutting down grey-market banks that are well used by the ultra wealthy to evade taxes and pay bribes.

darkerside 6y ago
Seems like something functioning governments should be able to resolve with extradition treaties, and sanctions for those who do not abide by them.
- bleepblorp 6y ago
  North Korea is already under severe economic sanctions for its nuclear weapons program and other geopolitical issues[0]. Russia is also under economic sanctions for invading Ukraine. There's very little the rest of the world can do to hold either of them accountable for sanctioning organized fraud groups in their territories.
Nextgrid 6y ago
Are there any sources for this? I'm not saying what you're saying is true, but I have a hard time believing the majority of scams and spam out there is state-sponsored as opposed to independent bad actors, and if accountability can at least weed those out then that's still a win.
- bleepblorp 6y ago
  North Korean state-sponsored criminal fraud activities: https://www.zdnet.com/article/north-korea-s-apt38-hacking-group-behind-bank-heists-of-over-100-million/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/north-korea-s-apt38-hacking-gr... https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/01/politics/north-korea-cyberattacks-cash-bank-heists/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/01/politics/north-korea-cyberatt... Connections between specific Russian financial crime organizations and the Russian government are much harder to pin down as people who try to investigate ties between the Russian mob and the Russian government often wind up dead. However, the Russian government is well known to be tightly linked connected to Russian organized crime[0]. Given the sheer scale of Russian financial fraud operations--Carbanak stole upwards of a billion USD[1]--the balance of probabilities suggest these operations exist with the tacit approval of the Russian government. [0] https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2019/12/16/gangs-and-gulags-how-vladimir-putin-utilizes-organized-crime-to-power-his-mafia-state/ https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2019/12/16/gangs-and-gulags-how-vla... [1] https://securityintelligence.com/carbanak-how-would-you-have-stopped-a-1-billion-apt-attack/ https://securityintelligence.com/carbanak-how-would-you-have...

darkerside 6y ago

Seems like something functioning governments should be able to resolve with extradition treaties, and sanctions for those who do not abide by them.

bleepblorp 6y ago
North Korea is already under severe economic sanctions for its nuclear weapons program and other geopolitical issues[0]. Russia is also under economic sanctions for invading Ukraine. There's very little the rest of the world can do to hold either of them accountable for sanctioning organized fraud groups in their territories.

Nextgrid 6y ago

Are there any sources for this? I'm not saying what you're saying is true, but I have a hard time believing the majority of scams and spam out there is state-sponsored as opposed to independent bad actors, and if accountability can at least weed those out then that's still a win.

bleepblorp 6y ago
North Korean state-sponsored criminal fraud activities: https://www.zdnet.com/article/north-korea-s-apt38-hacking-group-behind-bank-heists-of-over-100-million/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/north-korea-s-apt38-hacking-gr... https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/01/politics/north-korea-cyberattacks-cash-bank-heists/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/01/politics/north-korea-cyberatt... Connections between specific Russian financial crime organizations and the Russian government are much harder to pin down as people who try to investigate ties between the Russian mob and the Russian government often wind up dead. However, the Russian government is well known to be tightly linked connected to Russian organized crime[0]. Given the sheer scale of Russian financial fraud operations--Carbanak stole upwards of a billion USD[1]--the balance of probabilities suggest these operations exist with the tacit approval of the Russian government. [0] https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2019/12/16/gangs-and-gulags-how-vladimir-putin-utilizes-organized-crime-to-power-his-mafia-state/ https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2019/12/16/gangs-and-gulags-how-vla... [1] https://securityintelligence.com/carbanak-how-would-you-have-stopped-a-1-billion-apt-attack/ https://securityintelligence.com/carbanak-how-would-you-have...