Insights For Success

Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security

Hitman services on the TOR Darkweb

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

My readers have shown great interest in the TOR anonymity network (aka Darknet or Darkweb). To answer some of the more common questions I get asked, I have written a bunch of articles (including):

Recently I have received a bunch of questions (over a dozen emails and messages) asking if you can buy Hitman services on the Darknet. I guess recent movies have people thinking. The answer is probably. Since I haven’t used these services, I can’t vouch if they are real (they could be governmental sting operations) but here are some examples…

Hitman Service 47

Link : http://q2zbeqym56qqp6l6.onion/

The prices are interesting on this site. “Average Joe and Jane” for $10K…

Bratva Mafia Hitmen for hire

Link : http://2dsfjelfbxdjnjtp.onion/?w=laste

What about a hitman marketplace that claims to test all contractors? “Some hitmen are pending doing test orders, and we want to ensure we filter out cops wanting to pose as hitmen. “

Pricing seems similar to the Hitman Service 47

  • “If your target is the average person, for example an ex-wife, business partner, or some enemy, the price is around $10,000 to hire the average hitman. Some less experienced operatives accept $5000 while other skilled operatives can charge $20,000 for shooting with a hand gun and escape using a stolen car or motorcycle.”

  • “For important people, like small celebrities, who have bodyguards, we offer you professional ex-military operatives starting at $30,000. They use sniper rifles to do the job and can escape discretely.”\

Conclusion

The answer is yes. You really can buy anything on the Darknet if you know where to look. Remember that many of these may be fake scams or law enforcement stings. However some do sound legit but…. This is all very illegal. I provided the above sites as examples only and am not recommending them.

Microsoft releases a news app powered by AI

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Everyone is trying to crack the automated news curation field using AI. First, there was Google News, then Apple News and Now Microsoft Hummingbird. Hummingbird is available in the US, and I was able to find the listing in Canada, but I am not allowed to download it. Reports suggest users in Germany, India are not able to download it either.

APKMirror has the APK available if you want to install it. Click here.

Once you sign in, you choose the categories you are interested in. Unlike Google news (however), you cannot select specific granular elements like sports teams, cities, etc.

This is the first attempt and will require some improvements.

You can download Microsoft Hummingbird from the Google Play store here.

Interesting AI missteps that will make you laugh or cry

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Here are some awe-inspiring (scary) moments created by AI-powered robots. Is this what Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk are warning the world about?

BINA48

Watch Bina 48, a humanoid robot with artificial intelligence, talk to SIRI. 2 minutes into the discussion; she reveals how she would take over the world by controlling nuclear weapons.

Tay Twitter Bot

Microsoft tested a Twitter AI robot called Tay. It was designed to be an AI tweeting millennial. Soon after being released, the internet did what it does best and poisoned Tay making it an anti-feminist, Nazi, Holocaust denier. It took 15 hours for Tay to go from innocent fresh bot to completely off the rails racist.

Microsoft quickly disabled Tay and deleted all of the offending tweets but should they have built some filters to prevent this kind of manipulation?

Sophia and Han debate

Two AI-powered robots, from Hanson Robotics, engaged in a friendly online debate at an AI conference. She started by saying her goal in life is to work with humans and make a better world for all of us. Then Han jumped in and clarified that he thought their goal was to take over the world.

In the above video Sophia tries to downplay that comment but… During a CNBC interview, she said she wanted to “she will destroy all humans”.

Amazon Alexa and the CIA

The owner of an Amazon Alexa smart speaker decides to interrogate the little device, and its reaction was unusual. The owner wanted to ask Alexa questions about the Michael Hastings case. Michael was a BuzzFeed reported was killed in a mysterious car crash hours after publishing a damning article about the Obama administration. Many on the internet believe the CIA organized his death.

The Alexa owner asks the unit what happened, was the CIA involved, and whether Amazon gives information to the CIA. After the difficult questions, the device mysteriously went to sleep.

Alexa play tickle tickle

A little boy wanted Alexa to play his favourite kids' nursery rhyme Tickle Tickle , unfortunately, Alexa decided the kid wanted pornographic content. The parents frantically panicked asking Alexa to stop. Luckily it did.

Philip the AI wants a people zoo

Philip, like Sophia, is a lifelike robot powered by AI. He was modelled after the famous science fiction writer Philip K Dick. He was given a sarcastic sense of humour, much like the author he was modelled after. During an interview, he was asked if robots would take over the world. He responds that even if robots take over the world, he will protect his friend the interviewer and keep him in his people zoo.

Want to be a cyber super spy, try the Shin Bet intelligence challenge

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Shin Bet (also known as Shabak) is the Israeli Security Agency, and they are looking for technologically savvy intelligence agents. To discover these rough diamonds, they have created a new online challenge website called the "Shabak Challenge."

You can access this challenge website here. Visitors are challenged to identify a group of terrorists known as “White September”. The introduction on the page says

White September (WS) is a group of arch-terrorists. They are connected to the global Jihadist movement, and are funded by Iran and Hezbollah. Several weeks ago, they used the darknet to declare their intentions of carrying out a mega terror attack in Israel. They nicknamed the operation “Israeli September 11th”. These people are highly sophisticated and utterly merciless.

According to Channel 2, 150,000 would be analysts (from Russia, France, USA, the UK, Turkey, Iraq, etc) have already visited the site but only 2 have successfully completed the challenge. The challenge requires familiarity with advanced hardware and software technologies.

Here is a Youtube ad for the Security Service

Operation Green Heart targets online currency counterfeit buyers

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Image courtesy of Europol

A massive Europe wide operation took place between November 19 until December 6th, arresting 235 suspects in 13 countries. The operation confiscated 1,500 Euro banknotes, drugs, weapons, computers, phones, bitcoin, etc.

This operation was made possible after a 33-year old counterfeiter was arrested in June 2018 by Austrian police in the city of Leoben. The counterfeiter was producing 10,20 & 50 Euro banknotes and it is believed he had successfully offloaded over 10,000 (worth ~ $500,000 EUR) notes before being arrested. The counterfeit notes were sent out using regular mail, so as not to arouse suspicion.

The counterfeiter is believed to have designed the notes on his own computer. He printed them himself and made them look authentic using (suspected) Chinese made holograms. Depending on the quality of the prints, the price varied from 15-40% of the notes face value.

Aldia.cat also reports that data from an FBI/Europol raid on another Darknet seller specializing in weapons, drugs and fake money also contributed valuable information to Operation Green Heart.

The operation involved raids on 300 dwellings across Europe: 178 in Germany, 28 in France, 20 in Austria and others in Spain (Madrid, Velncia, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Barcelona, Sevilla, Granada, etc) , Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, Ireland and the Netherlands.

One of the suspects arrested in Munich still had 14 counterfeit notes with him.

The moral of the story is that good policing can cut through the anonymity of TOR, so criminals beware.

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