Skip Navigation
Crypto Under Seige
  • šŸ¤

  • Would you like to contribute Monero but don't know programming or where to start? Here's compiled list for it!
  • Nice list. You should add this monero.town Lemmy instance to the Have XMR knowledge section.

  • We're up and running - Monero p2p on RS
  • A 100% decentralized Monero p2p experience, you say? Sounds cool!

  • Community about trading and XMR
  • MoneroTalk has a price report with Bawdyanarchist to open most episodes and he covers price trends and technical analysis and the like. I don't follow that stuff much, but it's all I've got as a jumping off point for more resources for you. Maybe you could contact Bawdyanarchist or the team there to ask where the good discussions happen?

  • Update: Feather wallet 2.6.7 Released. [fixes issue]
  • Thank you. Great work!

  • UK seized new powers starting today [including destroying Monero]
  • Fair enough perspective. What do you favor? Paper wallet? Something like cryptosteel? Hardware wallet? Memorization? Other airgapped digital device solutions? Shamir secret sharing? Something else?

    It's always good for others to hear and gather approaches and try to choose amongst them for what may work best.

  • UK seized new powers starting today [including destroying Monero]
  • Smart way to do it. But if you need to travel and take your data with you, the device itself is at risk of seizure or destruction. Alternately you could reload your needed data backups at your destination when you arrive, say after crossing unfriendly borders, but then you'd want to find the safest most secure way to transfer the data. There are plenty of solutions, but with more and more news like this, most people will need to think a bit more than they have been about their threat model opsec and procedures.

  • UK seized new powers starting today [including destroying Monero]
  • Good kick in the butt to memorize passwords and seedphrases I guess.

  • Update: Feather wallet 2.6.7 Released. [fixes issue]
  • Thanks. More info to come in the post-mortem too when released it looks like.

  • Founders And CEO Of Cryptocurrency Mixing Service Samurai Wallet Arrested And Charged With Money Laundering
  • There is no such thing as free. This instance is a light in the darkness of Lemmy when it comes to issues like this. Keep it up in here everyone who contributes. Long live Monero.

  • The FBI warns Americans against using crypto transmitting services that are not registered
  • Don't give them more ideas. If you haven't noticed, no amount of logic or reasoning will keep them from using their systems, and your tax dollars, to hassle who they please to send a message.

  • Update: Feather wallet 2.6.7 Released. [fixes issue]
  • Yeah, I hadn't had any issues with 2.6.5 then all of the sudden did. Failure to construct transaction errors. So I'm wondering the same.

  • Is it just me or does every online Monero community feel like a ghost town recently?
  • You've generated a pretty decent discussion right here in this thread you started. Stick around. I think it will continue to grow here.

  • Is it just me or does every online Monero community feel like a ghost town recently?
  • This is a good approach. Monero works as intended and has a strong use case. Use it when and where you can.

    functionality > hype

  • Binance broadens ā€˜monitoringā€™ tag to cover 10 more tokens, including Monero
    coinmarketcap.com Guest Post by TheBitTimes: Binance broadens ā€˜monitoringā€™ tag to cover 10 more tokens, including Monero and Zcash | CoinMarketCap

    Today, Binance revealed its plan to expand the Monitoring Tag coverage to encompass 10 additional tokens starting from Jan. 4. Notably, Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC) are now included in this extension.According to a press release, the...

    Guest Post by TheBitTimes: Binance broadens ā€˜monitoringā€™ tag to cover 10 more tokens, including Monero and Zcash | CoinMarketCap

    šŸ˜‚

    1
    FBI Seizure of Mastodon Server Data is a Wakeup Call to Fediverse Users and Hosts to Protect their Users
    www.eff.org FBI Seizure of Mastodon Server Data is a Wakeup Call to Fediverse Users and Hosts to Protect their Users

    Weā€™re in an exciting time for users who want to take back control from major platforms like Twitter and Facebook. However, this new environment comes with challenges and risks for user privacy, so we need to get it right and make sure networks like the Fediverse and Bluesky are mindful of past...

    FBI Seizure of Mastodon Server Data is a Wakeup Call to Fediverse Users and Hosts to Protect their Users

    Hi everyone. I'm new to monero.town and Lemmy. This community and instance is great so far.

    I want to share an article from EFF that seems relevant to Mastodon, Lemmy and the rest of the fediverse.

    Below I'll list an archive.is link as well as copy>paste of the full text of the article for those that prefer it.

    https://archive.is/LLGLb

    Weā€™re in an exciting time for users who want to take back control from major platforms like Twitter and Facebook. However, this new environment comes with challenges and risks for user privacy, so we need to get it right and make sure networks like the Fediverse and Bluesky are mindful of past lessons.

    In May, Mastodon server Kolektiva.social was compromised when one of the serverā€™s admins had their home raided by the FBI for unrelated charges. All of their electronics, including a backup of the instance database, were seized.

    Itā€™s a chillingly familiar story which should serve as a reminder for the hosts, users, and developers of decentralized platforms: if you care about privacy, you have to do the work to protect it. We have a chance to do better from the start in the fediverse, so letā€™s take it.

    #A Fediverse Wake-up Call

    A story where ā€œall their electronics were seizedā€ echoes many digital rights stories. EFFā€™s founding case over 30 years ago, Steve Jackson Games v. Secret Service, was in part a story about the overbroad seizures of equipment in the offices of Steve Jackson Games in Texas, based upon unfounded claims about illegal behavior in a 1990s version of a chat room. That seizure nearly drove the small games company out of business. It also spurred the newly-formed EFF into action. We won the case, but law enforcement's blunderbuss approach continues through today.

    This overbroad police ā€œseize it allā€ approach from the cops must change. EFF has long argued that seizing equipment like servers should only be done when it is relevant to an investigation. Any seized digital items that are not directly related to the search should be quickly returned, and copies of information should be deleted as soon as police know that it is unrelatedā€”as they also should for nondigital items that they seize. EFF will continue to advocate for this in the courts and in Congress, and all of us should continue to demand it.

    Law enforcement must do better, even when they have a warrant (as they did here). But we canā€™t reasonably expect law enforcement to do the right thing every time, and we still have work to do to shift the law more firmly in the right direction. So this story should also be a wake-up call for the thousands of hosts in the growing decentralized web: you have to have your usersā€™ backs too.

    #Why Protecting the Fediverse Matters

    Protecting user privacy is a vital priority for the Fediverse. Many fediverse instances, such as Kolektiva, are focused on serving marginalized communities who are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement. Many were built to serve as a safe haven for those who too often find themselves tracked and watched by the police. Yet this raid put the thousands of users this instance served into a terrible situation. According to Kolektiva, the seized database, now in the FBIā€™s possession, includes personal information such as email addresses, hashed passwords, and IP addresses from three days prior to the date the backup was made. It also includes posts, direct messages, and interactions involving a user on the server. Because of the nature of the fediverse, this also implicates user messages and posts from other instances.

    To make matters worse, it appears that the admin targeted in the raid was in the middle of maintenance work which left would-be-encrypted material on the server available in unencrypted form at the time of seizure.

    Most users are unaware that, in general, once the government lawfully collects information, under various legal doctrines they can and do use it for investigating and prosecuting crimes that have nothing to do with the original purpose of the seizure. The truth is, once the government has the information, they often use it and the law supports this all too often. Defendants in those prosecutions could challenge the use of this data outside the scope of the original warrant, but thatā€™s often cold comfort.

    #What is a decentralized server host to do?

    EFFā€™s ā€œWho Has Your Backā€Ā  recommendations for protecting your users when the government comes knocking arenā€™t just for large centralized platforms. Hosts of decentralized networks must include possibilities like government seizure in their threat model and be ready to respond in ways that stand with their users.

    First of all, basic security practices that apply to any server exposed to the internet also apply to Mastodon. Use firewalls and limit user access to the server as well as the database. If you must keep access logs, keep them only for a reasonable amount of time and review them periodically to make sure youā€™re only collecting what you need. This is true more broadly: to the extent possible, limit the data your server collects and stores, and only store data for as long as it is necessary. Also stay informed about possible security threats in the Mastodon code, and update your server when new versions are released.

    Second, make sure that youā€™ve adopted policies and practices to protect your users, including clear and regular transparency reports about law enforcement attempts to access user information and policies about what you will do if the cops show up ā€“ things like requiring a warrant for content, and fighting gag orders. Critically, that should include a promise to notify your users as soon as possible about any law enforcement action where law enforcement gained access to their information and communications. EFFā€™s Who Has Your Back pages go into detail about these and other key protections. EFF also prepared a legal primer for fediverse hosts to consider.

    In Kolektivaā€™s case, hosts were fairly slow in giving notice. The raid occurred in mid-May and the notice didnā€™t come until June 30, about six weeks later. Thatā€™s quite a long delay, even if it took Kolektiva a while to realize the full impact of the raid.Ā  As a host of other peopleā€™s communications, it is vital to give notice as soon as you are able, as you generally have no way of knowing how much risk this information poses to your users and must assume the worst. The extra notice to users is vital for them to take any necessary steps to protect themselves.

    #What can users do?

    For users joining the fediverse, you should evaluate the about page for a given server, to see what precautions (if any) they outline. Once youā€™ve joined, you can take advantage of the smaller scale of community on the platform, and raise these issues directly with admin and other users on your instance. Insist that the obligations from Who has Your Back, including to notify you and to resist law enforcement demands where possible, be included in the instance information and terms of service. Making these commitments binding in the terms of service is not only a good idea, it can help the host fight back against overbroad law enforcement requests and can support later motions by defendants to exclude the evidence.

    Another benefit of the fediverse, unlike the major lock-in platforms, is that if you donā€™t like their answer, you can easily find and move to a new instance. However, since most servers in this new decentralized social web are hosted by enthusiasts, users should approach these networks mindful of privacy and security concerns. This means not using these services for sensitive communications, being aware of the risks of social network mapping, and taking some additional precautions when necessary like using a VPN or Tor, and a temporary email address.

    #What can developers do?

    While it would not have protected all of the data seized by the FBI in this case, end-to-end encryption of direct messages is something that has been regrettably absent from Mastodon for years, and would at least have protected the most private content likely to have been on the Kolektiva server. There have been some proposals to enable this functionality, and developers should prioritize finding a solution.

    The Kolektiva raid should be an important alarm bell for everyone hosting decentralized content. Police raids and seizures can be difficult to predict, even when youā€™ve taken a lot of precautions. EFFā€™s Who Has Your Back recommendations and, more generally, our Legal Primer for User Generated Content and the Fediverse should be required reading. And making sure you have your usersā€™ backs should be a founding principle for every server in the fediverse.

    Update: This post's title has been updated to clarify that the FBI seized Mastodon server data, not control over the server itself.

    7
    VolunTerry VolunTerry @monero.town
    Posts 2
    Comments 182