DDoSecrets - A New Darknet Platform Publishes a Huge Amount of Data, from Around the World

guest · Mar 20, 2019

A New Darknet Platform Publishes a Huge Amount of Data, from Around the World
March 19, 2019
https://cis.verint.com/2019/03/19/new-darknet-platform/

In the past few months, an alleged group of transparency advocates, headed by activist Emma Best (@NatSecGeek), created an online repository of leaked data similar to WikiLeaks, named “Distributed Denial of Secrets” (@DDoSecrets).
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Our initial examination revealed that the repository includes a great volume of data aggregated from past leaks, but also several new ones. The data is extremely diverse and consists of documents, hacked emails, leaked credentials, and other data, which has been leaked over the years, by a variety of actors (hacktivists, APTs, etc).

The platform received most of its publicity after it published a Russian data leak dubbed “Dark Side of the Kremlin.” The leak was published on January 25, 2019, and dealt with different aspects of Russian operations internally and externally.

The platform is a Darknet website, accessible only from a Tor browser. The main reason for this, is to maintain the anonymity of the website’s owners, and it also makes it difficult to take the platform down.
Here is what our researchers discovered while analyzing the platform and its contents.
DDOSECRETS – WHAT’S IN IT, WHO’S BEHIND IT? [...]
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guest · Jun 22, 2020

‘BlueLeaks’ Exposes Files from Hundreds of Police Departments
June 22, 2020
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/06/blueleaks-exposes-files-from-hundreds-of-police-departments/

Hundreds of thousands of potentially sensitive files from police departments across the United States were leaked online last week. The collection, dubbed “BlueLeaks” and made searchable online, stems from a security breach at a Texas web design and hosting company that maintains a number of state law enforcement data-sharing portals.

The collection — nearly 270 gigabytes in total — is the latest release from Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets), an alternative to Wikileaks that publishes caches of previously secret data.
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In a post on Twitter, DDoSecrets said the BlueLeaks archive indexes “ten years of data from over 200 police departments, fusion centers and other law enforcement training and support resources,” and that “among the hundreds of thousands of documents are police and FBI reports, bulletins, guides and more.”

The NFCA alert noted that the dates of the files in the leak actually span nearly 24 years — from August 1996 through June 19, 2020 — and that the documents include names, email addresses, phone numbers, PDF documents, images, and a large number of text, video, CSV and ZIP files.
The NFCA said it appears the data published by BlueLeaks was taken after a security breach at Netsential, a Houston-based web development firm.
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A new group devoted to transparency is exposing secrets Wikileaks chose to keep

“THE TRUTH IS ITS OWN GOAL,” Emma Best says of the new journalist collective, Distributed Denial of Secrets. Think of DDoSecrets (a play on the name of a type of cyberattack called a “distributed denial of service”) as an alternative to Wikileaks—indeed, in some cases it hosts the same material—that devotes more attention to explaining its standards for the material it distributes and less to eye-catching press releases.

At the moment, the entire project is a labor of love for Best, The—or at least or at least an—Architect, and their undisclosed colleagues.
The DDoSecrets website also includes a “Wanted” section—a list of hacked documents the group is actively seeking.
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guest · Jun 24, 2020

Twitter bans DDoSecrets account over 'BlueLeaks' police data dump
June 23, 2020
https://www.zdnet.com/article/twitter-bans-ddosecrets-account-over-blueleaks-police-data-dump/

A Twitter spokesperson has told ZDNet today that they've permanently suspended the @DDoSecrets Twitter account for violating its policy about the distribution of hacked data after the account shared links to hacked data stolen from US law enforcement agencies.

Prior to the ban, enforced earlier today, the DDoSecrets account belonged to an activist group going by the formal name of Distributed Denial of Secrets.
On Friday, last week, the group published 296 GB of data they claimed to have received from the Anonymous hacker collective.
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In an interview with Wired, investigative journalist Emma Best, the main DDoSecrets figurehead, said the DDoSecrets group tried to avoid sharing sensitive information. Best said her team spent a week scrubbing files for "especially sensitive data about crime victims and children, as well as information about unrelated private businesses, health care, and retired veterans' associations."

However, Best conceded that they might have missed certain sensitive information.
Earlier today, Twitter told ZDNet that the BlueLeaks data did indeed contain unredacted information that could have put individuals at risk of real-world harm.
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Minimalist · Jun 28, 2020

An embattled group of leakers picks up the WikiLeaks mantle

For the past year, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has sat in a London jail awaiting extradition to the US. This week, the US Justice Department piled on yet more hacking conspiracy allegations against him, all related to his decade-plus at the helm of an organization that exposed reams of government and corporate secrets to the public. But in Assange's absence, another group has picked up where WikiLeaks left off—and is also picking new fights.
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https://arstechnica.com/information...oup-of-leakers-picks-up-the-wikileaks-mantle/

guest · Jun 29, 2020

Security Breach Impacts State Police Database
June 29, 2020
https://www.securityweek.com/security-breach-impacts-state-police-database

A data breach has impacted Maine State Police’s information sharing database for federal, state and local law enforcement officials, the agency confirmed late Friday.

State police say they were notified on June 20 by Netsential that a data breach may have included information from the Maine Information and Analysis Center, or MIAC.
The agency has contracted the Houston, Texas-based company, which provides web hosting services to hundreds of law enforcement and government agencies across the country, since 2017.

“Earlier today we received confirmation that datasets submitted to the MIAC by partner organizations and are maintained by Netsential have been compromised and made public through various unlawful means,” state police said in a written statement.
MIAC is a so-called “fusion center” meant to help law enforcement agencies work together to prevent terrorism and other major crimes.
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guest · Jul 1, 2020

How the BlueLeaks data breach happened
June 29, 2020
https://blog.avast.com/understanding-blueleaks-avast

Earlier this month, a group of hackers published a massive dataset stolen from various local law enforcement agencies. The data has been labeled BlueLeaks and contains more than 269 GB of thousands of police reports that go back at least two decades from hundreds of agencies from around the US.

The leak came about through a compromised account at the managed hosting provider Netsential.com based in Houston.
The provider’s website has been changed to show very minimal information after the breach, but earlier versions found on Archive.org state the claim that they build sites that are easy to use: “If you can cut and paste - you can maintain and update your website with Netsential's browser-based software.” That doesn’t bode well for their security protocols however.

The fusion centers are tempting for hackers because they consolidate so much data in a single place.
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What BlueLeaks shows is that third-party IT providers need to be properly vetted for their internal security methods.
While having an easy-to-update website is great, it needs to be secure and all accounts should use multi-factor authentication and other tools to ensure that only authorized users have access.
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guest · Jul 7, 2020

Germany Seizes Server Hosting 'BlueLeaks' Data Dump on US Police Practices
July 7, 2020
https://uk.pcmag.com/encryption/127...ng-blueleaks-data-dump-on-us-police-practices

German authorities have confiscated a server hosting the “BlueLeaks” data dump, a 269GB trove of internal police documents that leaked last month.

The Wikileaks-style group Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDOS) had been using the server to enable the public to download the files, but prosecutors in Germany recently seized it, according to Emma Best, a journalist and co-founder of the group.
DDOS says it obtained the files from the “hacktivist” collective Anonymous, and then made the files searchable on a dedicated website on July 19. However, the site now appears to be down.

The hosting provider has only said the takedown came from the “department of public prosecution Zwickau,” which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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However, the same data has been sourced back to a breach at Netsential, a company that provides web services for law enforcement agencies across the US.

“Netsential can confirm its web servers were recently compromised,” the company said in a statement.

Despite the server's confiscation, Best is indicating the BlueLeaks data dump won’t remain offline for long. “Don't worry. I've been planning for this for days. And days,” she said in a tweet. In addition, DDOS had been sharing the 269GB trove of information via a torrent download.
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Minimalist · Jul 15, 2020

After Assange indictment, DDoSecrets publishes old WikiLeaks chats, strategy sessions

Every anti-secrecy group operates in the long shadow of WikiLeaks. But that doesn’t mean WikiLeaks is off limits.
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https://www.cyberscoop.com/assangeleaks-ddosecrets-wikileaks/

guest · Jul 20, 2020

ICE Questions an Admin of The-Eye Archive Site That Hosted ‘Blue Leaks
July 20, 2020
https://www.vice.com/amp/en_us/arti...min-of-the-eye-archive-site-hosted-blue-leaks

On Thursday, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents questioned a woman who hosted on her site a copy of allegedly stolen U.S. police internal documents, a trove nicknamed BlueLeaks, Motherboard has learned.

The woman, Meghan, who asked to be only identified by her first name because she fears retaliation from law enforcement, is an administrator of The-Eye, a site that has undertaken several high profile archiving projects,
Meghan said she replied saying she doesn’t curate what ends up on The-Eye, and that BlueLeaks was sourced from Distributed Denial of Secrets. The agents, she added, also asked if she personally knew Best.

“They kept probing to see if I had any connections to [Distributed Denial of Secrets],” Meghan said.
“And then eventually asked me to become an informant and offered to pay me for any information that led to arrests.”
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guest · Aug 13, 2020

Feds are treating BlueLeaks organization as ‘a criminal hacker group,’ documents show
The group says it’s not involved in hacking
August 13, 2020
https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/13/...tributed-denial-secrets-dds-ddosecrets-police

The transparency activist organization Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) has been formally designated as a “criminal hacker group,” following the publication of 296 gigabytes of sensitive law enforcement data earlier this summer, known colloquially as “BlueLeaks.”
The description comes from a bulletin circulated to fusion centers around the country in late June by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

“DDS leaked ten years of data from 200 police departments, fusion centers, and other law enforcement training and support resources around the globe, according to initial media and DHS reporting. DDS previously conducted hack-and-leak activity against the Russian Government.”
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From the beginning, DDoSecrets has faced intense difficulties keeping the BlueLeaks material online. In late June, Twitter suspended DDoSecrets’s account in response to the leaks and mass-blocked hyperlinks to the leaked dataset, making it impossible to share on the platform.

The bulletin’s description of “a criminal hacker group” will only strengthen suspicions that federal law enforcement is building a criminal case against DDoSecrets, particularly combined with the recent server seizures.
It is not illegal to publish classified information in the United States, and most of the BlueLeaks data is marked “For Official Use Only” rather than classified.
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Still, Best maintains that DDoSecrets is simply a publisher devoted to freedom of expression and transparency both at home and abroad. “Calling us “criminal hackers” (while ignoring the numerous facts and evidence that undermines that accusation) gives them the excuse to circumvent the First Amendment,” Best told The Verge.
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guest · Aug 19, 2020

Law Enforcement Websites Hit by BlueLeaks May Have Been Easy to Hack
Some 270GB of police files were obtained, possibly in a single evening
August 19, 2020
https://theintercept.com/2020/08/19/blueleaks-hack-fusion-centers/

Whoever broke into 251 law enforcement websites and obtained the BlueLeaks trove of documents appears to have reused decades-old software for opening “backdoors” in web servers.

The use of the widely available backdoors provides evidence that the hacktivist who compromised the sensitive sites, including fusion centers linked to federal agencies, didn’t need to use sophisticated digital attack methods because the sites were not very secure.
Other leaked files provide further clues about how the hacktivist operated.

Two of the files are a type of malware known as “web shells”: malicious files that, when placed on a server, provide an online entry point through which a hacker can download and upload files or issue commands of their choosing.
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For the record: I’m an adviser for DDoSecrets, the transparency collective that received the BlueLeaks data — from a source identifying with the hacktivist collective Anonymous — and then published it.
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guest · Aug 23, 2020

Massive data breach affects SD COVID-19 patients
August 20, 2020
https://www.keloland.com/news/investigates/massive-data-breach-affects-sd-covid-19-patients/

The so called “BlueLeaks” data breach, which compromised the information of hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers across the nation in June, has a whole new twist tonight that involves South Dakota and people who tested positive for COVID-19.

KELOLAND Investigates has obtained a letter sent by the director of the South Dakota Department of Public Safety’s Fusion Center, letting victims know that their personal data was compromised.
The center used the Texas web design and hosting company, known as Netsential, which maintains a number of state law enforcement data-sharing portals.
Neidringhaus wrote in the letter that Netsential added labels to the file, which would allow a third party to identify someone’s COVID-19 medical status.
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The center says the list does not include financial information, social security numbers or passwords.
The Fusion Center says it was Netsential’s responsibility to inform the victims of the data breach, but it has not confirmed it will do so, which is why the Fusion Center is now letting them know.
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guest · Aug 23, 2020

mood said: ↑

Massive data breach affects SD COVID-19 patients August 20, 2020
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FBI investigating COVID-19 data breach in South Dakota
August 22, 2020
https://apnews.com/cfdfc0b77303664b165faf4866887612

The FBI is investigating a data breach that may have compromised the identity of people with the COVID-19 virus in South Dakota.

Paul Niedringhaus, who directs the South Dakota Fusion Center that handles emergency calls, sent a letter to people who may have been affected by the June 19 breach, the Rapid City Journal reported Friday.
The server was the source for a trove of files, dubbed BlueLeaks, that were shared online by a transparency collective called DDoSecrets.

South Dakota Department of Public Safety spokesman Tony Mangan confirmed to The Associated Press in a short telephone interview that the FBI was investigating but had no further comment.
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Public officials in at least two-thirds of states share addresses of people who have tested positive with first responders, including police, firefighters and EMTs. An Associated Press review in May found at least 10 states also share patients’ names.
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guest · Jan 6, 2021

Anti-Secrecy Activists Publish a Trove of Ransomware Victims' Data
January 5, 2021
https://www.wired.com/story/ddosecrets-ransomware-leaks/

But now one leak-focused group is mining a controversial new vein of secrets: the massive caches of data stolen by ransomware crews and dumped online when victims refuse to pay.

Today the transparency collective of data activists known as Distributed Denial of Secrets published a massive new set of data on its website, all collected from dark web sites where the information was originally leaked online by ransomware hackers. DDoSecrets has made available about 1 terabyte of that data, including more than 750,000 emails, photos, and documents from five companies.
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guest · May 10, 2021

Massive hack exposes emails from top Lightfoot officials
May 7, 2021
https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-h...-ddosecrets-lucy-parsons-cpd-police-wikileaks

A massive cache of tens of thousands of hacked emails detailing the inner workings of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration was leaked to the public last month apparently in response to the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo.

The emails were posted online on April 19 by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a nonprofit whistleblower group similar to WikiLeaks that’s facilitated other recent high-profile data dumps. An unrelated hacker gang initially stole the files during a series of data breaches that swept up sensitive information from corporations, universities and government bodies.
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Freddy Martinez, a local activist and member of DDoSecrets’ board, said his team discovered the files on the “dark web,” an unchecked portion of the Internet that’s a haven for cybercriminals. DDoSecrets ultimately posted the voluminous collection of emails after realizing they contained information “the public should know,” Martinez said.
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guest · Aug 20, 2021

The New WikiLeaks
How the transparency collective DDoSecrets eclipsed Julian Assange
August 18, 2021
https://newrepublic.com/article/163106/ddossecrets-new-wikileaks-julian-assange

For Martinez, watching the investigators play the videos for millions of Americans was “surreal”—“a cyberpunk moment,” Martinez heard someone call it.

Distributed Denial of Secrets, or DDoSecrets, had been a thorn in the side of secretive governments, corrupt corporations, and powerful law firms since its founding in late 2018. In June 2020, in a release known as BlueLeaks, the group published 269 gigabytes of law enforcement data, which exposed police malfeasance and surveillance overreach across the United States.
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These revelations have spawned numerous news stories in the public interest, making DDoSecrets a valuable source for journalists, but also rendering it a target: In July 2020, German authorities seized one of the organization’s servers. August of last year brought ominous news of a Department of Homeland Security bulletin labeling DDoSecrets a “criminal hacker group.”

Such are the contradictions that come of being in the vanguard of the journalistic transparency movement in the post-WikiLeaks era. One part of the U.S. government uses group members’ work; another describes them as criminals.
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Of all the transparency organizations, hackers, whistleblowers, and leakers that have emerged since WikiLeaks stopped publishing data in December 2018 (before resuming in August), DDoSecrets stands apart, not just for its collaborative discipline, technical sophistication, and a wide network of sources, but also for its lack of ego and aggressive commitment to transparency.
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guest · Feb 7, 2023

Anonymous leaked 128GB of data stolen from Russian ISP Convex revealing FSB’s warrantless surveillance
By Pierluigi Paganini - February 7, 2023

The collective Anonymous released last week 128 gigabytes of documents that were allegedly stolen from the Russian Internet Service Provider Convex. The huge trove of data was leased by an affiliate of Anonymous’s affiliate group called Caxxii.
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The stolen documents contain evidence of a dragnet surveillance activity conducted by the intelligence service FSB.
The Russian government illegally monitors citizens and private organizations across Russia.

According to collecting, Convex company launched a project code-named ‘Green Atom’ that aims to spy on Russian citizens by using surveillance equipment. The warrantless surveillance of Russian citizens violates the country’s laws and their rights.
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Such surveillance activities are classified as unauthorized wiretapping, espionage, and warrantless surveillance of civilians, which are against the country’s laws.

“‘Green Atom’ (TS ORM fsb) refers to the installation and maintenance of wide-ranging surveillance equipment that is used to monitor the online activity of all traffic in and out of Convex.” reads a statement sent by Caxxii to the Kyiv Post.” “This can be classified as espionage, unauthorized wiretapping, and surveillance of civilians without a warrant, which circumvents the laws of the Russian Federation and all public statements of the Russian authorities,”
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Stolen data were leaked through the leak site DDoSecrets.

“According to the hackers, the Green Atom data confirms the extent to which these legal structures are abused. They say the internet provider captured and mirrored virtually all data from every switch in the largest regions of Russia, which is then passed on to Moscow for use by the security services” states DDoSecrets.
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