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My theory is that Binance execs were having these chats in an encrypted medium (e.g. WA or Signal) but didn't secure themselves against a defector. I think som

• arcticbull 3y ago
  Ahh yes Coley! So we finally find out where she's been stashed for the last two years.
• whiskeytuesday 3y ago
  insert XKCD five dollar wrench comic here
  • max_hammer 3y ago
    https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/
• PheonixPharts 3y ago
  > but didn't secure themselves against a defector Still a surprisingly amateur move. Once worked for the Federal Government where literally everything you write is potentially subject to a FOIA request. The message all new hires were told was, very clearly: "Never put anything into writing you wouldn't be happy to be see published on the front page of the Washington Post" Anything that was even vaguely close to failing this test was handled exclusively by a private phone call or, preferably, in person conversation. And this was for an org that was doing nothing sneaky or underhanded in the slightest. Still if something could be misunderstood in a negative way, don't put it in text. I'm still surprised when I see coworkers say things in slack, which is clearly able to be monitors by admins, that don't pass this test. Far more surprised when people knowingly engage in criminal activity and keep any kind of unnecessary record.
  • krageon 3y ago
    > And this was for an org that was doing nothing sneaky or underhanded in the slightest If public scrutiny is such an issue, it is absolutely doing sneaky and underhanded things. Perhaps you have not seen them, that could be true.
  • civilitty 3y ago
    How does one FOIA request for the written communications of government officials like that? Asking for a friend
    • PheonixPharts 3y ago
      The government has done a pretty good job of making the process very easy: https://www.foia.gov/ https://www.foia.gov/ But, just like with ChatGPT, you'll likely have to do a bit of "prompt engineering" to get a specific document. "Give me all the stuff you guys got on UFOS1!!" will likely be less fruitful then "I am requesting the email correspondence between X and Y related to the documented observation of an atmospheric event occurring on ..." In my experience these requests are taken quite seriously.
      • civilitty 3y ago
        How broad can the request get? Can I ask for any communications that are related to a decision made or drafting of something that goes into the CFR? How much should I expect to pay for these requests, especially while figuring out the prompt engineering?
        • mrguyorama 3y ago
          The "API" so to speak is the relevant laws in your jurisdiction. You may be looking for a lawyer
        • cavanasm 3y ago
          The cost of the request is often based on how many man hours it will take to fulfill. Different agencies have different rates / different capabilities for performing the document search itself. Some agencies may also reflexively deny requests, which would require a lawyer to sue them to get resolution if you believe the denial doesn't legitimately meet legal exception requirements.
• mytailorisrich 3y ago
  The main purpose of not to put things in writing and instead to discuss face to face has always been not to create incriminating evidence rather than avoiding and "unsecured channel". When you're using Signal or WhatsApp or whatever you're still putting things in writing to someone else and the risk, as we see again and again, is that this is leaked by the receipient(s). Plus ça change... This is almost the raison-d'être of posh private members clubs.
• yieldcrv 3y ago
  bounty program
• rodgerd 3y ago
  Work from home is great for preventing financial crimes because the criminals know not to write things down; the people who want you back in the office are the crooks: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eufm.12426 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eufm.12426 On edit: another example of the crypto world re-learning the rules of finance.
• EGreg 3y ago
  Also gun laws and drug laws. Trivial to get around. So what's the point of having them?
• Melting_Harps 3y ago
  > What's funny about this is it's a fine metaphor for what ails crypto as a whole. The technology is cryptographically secure, but not at all robust to much simpler betrayals, hacks, etc. If you trust overmuch in the tech and don't focus on less technically interesting but more fundamental threats, you're apt to get rekt. That applies to all things within technology, OPSEC/INFOSEC is the very study of how to mitigate those very leaky channels, which are impossible tasks to accomplish entirely because of Human nature. I recall a post here some time ago that says that most non-leak related hacks are mainly due to social engineering, as that is the most viable way to take down an asset/target. Honestly, CZ will likely brush this off; the US is being incredibly hostile to all things that threaten the USD; it make sense, and those that thought the USD and BTC could co-exist in the US were disillusion because of things like this. Even that scrub Armstrong is starting to see why his pursuits to cozy up to the VC crowds and US regulators only prolonged the inevitable wherein this will return to a regulatory nightmare that favours other nations; mainland China under the CCP will continue to ban it (for nth time) in order to stifle the immense amount of capital flight out of China but it will remain legal in Hong Kong with favourable and relaxed regulations. Once again favouring the afflurent and political;ly connected who can incorporate in an absurdly HCL safe-haven like HK and excluding the poors from utilizing financial services that could help them from the exposure to the collapsing banking sector. And thus proving again that unless its a situation like El Salvador where it becomes a national currency there is nothing to indicate that politicians have the will or ability to actually put clear regulation in place for Capital and innovation to progress in Fintech. Which would be obvious if you have any semblance of why Cypherpunks and renowned economist like Hayek considered a free-floating, non-state issued currency the most critical thing for a free Society. National Fiat currencies have a limited life-span, typically 35-40 years, and this always leads to economic turmoil and inevitably war; which always favours nations who can impose their neo-bondage via entities like the IMF and World Bank when the dust settles and then gain access to cheap resources, and Human capital. Anyhow, I'm not surprised this happened, but it's a nothing-burger that will be good for those DCA there way back into this market (myself included). [0]: https://cointelegraph.com/news/china-gains-from-strict-us-crypto-regulations-coinbase-ceo https://cointelegraph.com/news/china-gains-from-strict-us-cr...
  • TheDudeMan 3y ago
• davidgerard 3y ago
  A lot of this stuff was also in the CFTC complaint. I wonder if they snagged a backup of an insider's phone.
• TheDudeMan 3y ago
  > "a fine metaphor for what ails crypto as a whole. The technology is cryptographically secure, but not at all robust to much simpler betrayals, hacks, etc." I think you mean "crypto exchanges". Cryptocurrency itself is not subject to betrayals/hacks, for the most part (depending on how dumb you are at key management). And depending on how badly you selected your cryptocurrency (pro tip: just pick Bitcoin).
  • tsimionescu 3y ago
    Bitcoin is actually a perfect example, since it's impossible to do anything with it except moving it from one account to another without requiring trust of the other party.
    • TheDudeMan 3y ago
      Sending it is kinda the main point of it. Also, you can mine fresh bitcoin without trusting another party.
      • tsimionescu 3y ago
        Normally, the main point of money is to exchange it for goods. But you can't securely and trustlessly exchange bitcoin for goods, since goods are not on-chain. So all the fancy cryptography is not solving the main problem that it would have been useful to solve.
        • TheDudeMan 3y ago
          You can buy lots of things with bitcoin. Why would the goods need to be on-chain?
          • dangerlibrary 3y ago
            I believe the parent was elaborating on their point here: > it's impossible to do anything with it except moving it from one account to another without requiring trust of the other party. Goods may need to be shipped, they could be counterfeit, etc. Bitcoin provides no facility for escrow or refunds - just moving tokens from one wallet to another. So you need to trust your counter party even more than you would with e.g. a credit card in order to transact.
• nl 3y ago
  I think "defector" is the wrong terminology here, since it's likely that most - if not all - the US based execs who weren't charged handed over these chats to the SEC. It is noteworthy how often this happens. Many of the people found guilty of sedition after the DC riot had the same thing happen when the majority (or a large minority) of people in their encrypted chat groups handed over them over to the FBI. Is there an E2E encrypted chat app that does disappearing messages and doesn't cache them on the client?
• Dalewyn 3y ago
  >The technology is cryptographically secure, but not at all robust to much simpler betrayals, hacks, etc. If you trust overmuch in the tech and don't focus on less technically interesting but more fundamental threats, you're apt to get rekt. Isn't this the case with anything to do with cryptography, encryption, and digital security overall? Because let's face it: Who seriously cares if your password is cryptographically hashed with 40960-bit SHA-9001 encryption transmitted over TLS8.11 For Workgroups? Just call up the call center and convince the scriptmonkey you really are John Dickus the Fifth and get them to reset the password for you. Easy. Done. No quantum computer required to crack the code.