U.S. authorities have recovered roughly $2.3 million in digital currency that the operators of the Colonial Pipeline had paid to the hackers who conducted a ransomware attack in early May, according to the Justice Department. The company paid 75 bitcoin, roughly $4.4 million at the time, in ransom, and the government recovered 64 bitcoin from a digital wallet belonging to the hackers. Due to fluctuations in the price of cryptocurrency, the dollar value recovered was a little more than half of the dollar value of the ransom payment.
While Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger emphasized the importance of avoiding ransomware payments, CNN reported that Colonial Pipeline officials, behind the scenes, had notified the FBI of the attack, and the agency provided instructions on making the payment in order for investigators to track it to one of the cryptocurrency wallets used by the hackers.
Neuberger said, “The misuse of cryptocurrency is a massive enabler here. … Individual companies feel under pressure — particularly if they haven’t done the cybersecurity work — to pay off the ransom and move on, but in the long-term, that’s what drives the ongoing ransom [attacks]. The more folks get paid, the more it drives bigger and bigger ransoms and more and more potential disruption.”
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm warned that “very malign actors” are targeting the U.S., with attacks on the pipeline, government agencies, a Florida water system, schools, health care institutions, the meat industry, and the Massachusetts Steamship Authority which operates ferry services to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.
Using App Against Organized Crime
Computer Weekly reports that police in 16 countries have launched several raids after intercepting the communications of organized criminal groups involved in drug deals, money laundering, and other criminal activities.
Criminal groups in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States were sending messages on an encrypted communications network, An0m, that claimed to offer secure communications on Android phones and a computer platform. They were unaware that the FBI had created An0m as a closed encrypted platform to target organized crime, drug trafficking, and money laundering, attracting 9,000 users worldwide.
The platform is among a string of encrypted communications networks, known as criminally dedicated secure communications (CDSC) networks, that law enforcement officials are monitoring.
Note: This section has been updated to correct the list of crimes.
What Happened To The Right To Know?
Republican Senator Harold French of Franklin, who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee and generally is among the most conservative members of the state legislature, offered a voice of reason in the dispute over the extent to which the people’s right to know reaches into municipal decision-making.
Speaking of Laconia Republican Representative Gregg Hough’s bill, HB 232, that would require cities and towns considering the purchase of property to hold general discussions in public while conducting price negotiations outside of the public’s eye, French said the bill might benefit from minor revision. Saying he expects the failed bill to reappear in the future, French said, “My concern is to make sure it works for everybody. I want transparency in government, but at the same time, I don’t want to cost municipalities. Overall it’s a good bill that would bring more transparency.”
Hough’s bill would amend the section of RSA 91-A pertaining to exemptions from from the right to know. Currently, the law allows school and municipal officials to enter a non-public session for “consideration of the acquisition, sale, or lease of real or personal property which, if discussed in public, would likely benefit a party or parties whose interests are adverse to those of the general community.”
As applied by most communities, the law is clear: Officials can discuss and negotiate sales in private, but they return to public session to cast a vote. The Laconia City Council took an expansive interpretation of the law to keep a land purchase a secret, listing the bond for the purchase of a church property only as “XYZ.” Over the last three years, the Laconia City Council has used public money for the purchase of land near a pond, a lot close to a city facility, and property next to St. Joseph Church, all without public notification.
The city paid the Catholic Diocese of Manchester $1.14 million for the Holy Trinity school and rectory, selling the Busiel House (rectory) to a Gilford couple for $480,000 and the school to an apartment developer for $1.
“Selling property for a dollar is not a reasonable return on investment,” Hough said. “It’s not the City Council’s money. Their job is to make sure roads are decent and things like that.”
The taxpayer-financed New Hampshire Municipal Association, which bills itself as “a member-funded, member-governed, and member-driven association that works to strengthen New Hampshire cities and towns and enhance their ability to serve the public,” heavily lobbied in opposition to HB 232, arguing that holding even general discussions about property purchases in public would lead land owners to seek higher prices for their properties. Cordell Johnson, speaking on behalf of the NHMA, said, “If I’m the guy wanting to sell and I hear them say we want this at any cost, I raise the price by 50 percent. It’s just like if you go to buy a car or house, the conventional wisdom is you act like you’re not all that interested. The more eager you seem, the worse deal you’re likely to get.”
If Laconia officials had not exploited the language of RSA 91-A — just as the Newfound Regional School District had exploited the provisions of the Official Ballot Act to spend money that voters had never approved — a revision in the law would not be necessary. Extraordinary abuses like those require action; but, as French indicated, there may be a middle ground that “works for everybody.”
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