Kim Dotcom, the mastermind behind MegaUpload, is finally getting extradited to the U.S. from his New Zealand hideaway. For those who don’t know, Kim ran MegaUpload, the notorious file-sharing site, from 2005 until 2012—right up until the FBI decided to crash the party. They shut down the site, seized the servers, and probably threw a few hard drives into the ocean for good measure. But Kim's been playing a game of international "hide and seek" ever since. Well, the game might be up because just 15 days ago, a New Zealand judge decided that Kim can finally be shipped off to the U.S. for his alleged piracy shenanigans.
The U.S. authorities claim that Mr. Dotcom and his three trusty sidekicks cost the film and music industry a whopping $500 million. Now, $500 million sounds like a lot—because it is—but to put it in Hollywood terms, that’s about one and a half Star Wars movies. Seriously, the 2015 "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" had a budget of $432 million! So, what’s a few hundred million between friends?
If Kim is indeed extradited, he’ll be facing three charges: money laundering, racketeering, and copyright infringement. Or as they call it in the underworld, the “hat trick.”
In a twist that no one saw coming, infamous hacker USDod has been doxed! Apparently, he got "crowd struck" and decided it was time to hang up his virtual hoodie for good. The 33-year-old, whose real name is Luan Goncalves, is now calling it quits and plans to surrender himself to the Brazilian authorities. Yes, you read that right—a hacker voluntarily turning himself in. What’s next, cats and dogs living together?
Luan’s no stranger to being doxed, but this time it seems he's finally had enough. Before you think he's going out with a whimper, let’s not forget he’s the brains behind some pretty serious data breaches, including the Infragard hack—a network of professionals who work with the FBI to protect U.S. critical infrastructure. Yeah, that kind of serious.
Other hackers in the community are wishing him luck and patting him on the back for his illustrious (if illegal) career. USDod, always one for dramatic exits, left a parting note on hackread.com: “This is not my end. Thank you; see you around. Don’t worry, Brazilian authorities, I’m coming to meet you; I’m not a threat; in fact, I can do much for my country.” Now, if that’s not a retirement speech, I don’t know what is.
In the latest episode of “Who Got Arrested Today?”, Pavel Durov, the enigmatic founder of Telegram, has reportedly been taken into custody. Naturally, this has caused quite the uproar online. If Telegram gets back-doored by the FBI, expect a mass exodus of threat actors, drug dealers, and privacy enthusiasts alike to the next best end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) platform.
Of course, it’s not like crime isn’t happening on other social media platforms. Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat have their fair share of dodgy dealings, but those are all nicely under the control of Western authorities. But Telegram? That’s a whole different ball game. If the rumours are true, it's time to grab your usernames and get ready to migrate!
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