Sorry to be hesitant to speak bluntly. This hack falls in the "duh" category. Unfortunately it is the norm for people to have little education in history, so the same shit keeps happenening over and over.

Here are some links to help. I just looked on google and it is actually very difficult now to find the relevant stories there. Weird.

https://www.americanbanker.com/news/did-regulatory-meddling-cause-bitfinex-hack

http://www.coindesk.com/cftc-bitcoin-exchange-bitfinex-trading-violations/

I'm leaving out the best links in case anybody does research it. I do have more information than most people about this case.

The screenshots show the hacker is asking for a certain us dollar amount. Is that normal? Doesn't really seem like a bitcoiner doing it, more likely a usdollarer.

For financial gain? Huh?

Read the initial post again and spend just a few minutes researching the hack.

I am not an expert in this, but Windows uses one kind of file system and Linux another, so nothing that existed on your Windows install would carry over to a Linux install.


It may not be what you want, but here is a more practical answer. Government types, people who have lived only for their bureaucracy, are taking enormous steps to control crypto. Look at the vast sums being spent to prop up Ripple, Ether, Monero etc, before coins are even mainstream.

No matter what you do and which operating system you use, there are government agencies that want access to your coins. They would not let you have cash that they could not control, and those types of people are not happy that they do not control your coins.

Linux is probably as hacked as Windows. Governments have not just been sitting by saying "oh, we cannot hack Linux, we will stick with hhacking Windows".

The smarter solution to bitcoin security is physical limitations on access to keys, such as offline computers, rather than os changes.

You always have to worry about hackers, and it is a shame that the most dangerous and harmful hackers are cowardly bureaucrats in our own governments, but there is little we can do.

Be aware of threats, usb driver hacks, Windows hacks, antivirus cooperation with govts etc, do your best, and when the day is over go to sleep.

Opiates are usually used for pain, and marijuana is usually used for a variety of things, so marijuana doesn't really overlap with opioids.

The original link to the peer reviewed study gives a 404 error now.

But a person can go to http://oatext.com/ and search the word "vaccinated" and the first link is to the 404 page.

Many other sites cite the study. http://www.ageofautism.com/2017/05/pilot-comparative-study-on-the-health-of-vaccinated-and-unvaccinated-6-12-year-old-us-children.html

Creativity does not have to be 'incentivized'. It just has to be 'not stifled'.

The key to a dog running is to take off it's leash, not "give it something" or "teach it something".

What's up with the mentality that the government has anything whatsoever to do with creativity, aside from being able to harm it?

Many problems can probably be summarized as "they need more guns". You can buy more groceries with a .38 than you can with a $5 bill. But ultimately most countries do not benefit from using guns to solve problems, especially domestic ones.

A few concerns though.

From the article

"A keylogger is a piece of software for which the case of dual-use can rarely be claimed. This means there are very few situations where you would describe a keylogger that records all keystrokes as 'well-intended'. A keylogger records when a key is pressed, when it is released, and whether any shift or special keys have been pressed. It is also recorded if, for example, a password is entered even if it is not displayed on the screen." https://www.modzero.ch/modlog/archives/2017/05/11/en_keylogger_in_hewlett-packard_audio_driver/index.html

Remember, this is an audio driver.

" So what's the point of a keylogger in an audio driver? Does HP deliver pre-installed spyware? Is HP itself a victim of a backdoored software that third-party vendors have developed on behalf of HP? The responsibility in this case is uncertain, because the software is offered by HP as a driver package for their own devices on their website. On the other hand, the software was developed and digitally signed by the audio chip manufacturer Conexant."

"Conexant is a manufacturer of integrated circuits, emerging from a US armaments manufacturer. Primarily, they develop circuits in the field of video and audio processing. Thus, it is not uncommon for Conexant audio ICs to be populated on the sound cards of computers of various manufacturers. Conexant also develops drivers for its audio chips, so that the operating system is able to communicate with the hardware."

And here we start wandering onto fluffy ground...

"Apparently, there are some parts for the control of the audio hardware, which are very specific and depend on the computer model - for example special keys for turning on or off a microphone or controlling the recording LED on the computer. In this code, which seems to be tailored to HP computers, there is a part that intercepts and processes all keyboard input."

"Actually, the purpose of the software is to recognize whether a special key has been pressed or released. Instead, however, the developer has introduced a number of diagnostic and debugging features to ensure that all keystrokes are either broadcasted through a debugging interface or written to a log file in a public directory on the hard-drive."

I'm going to call that probably utter bullshit.  

"Furthermore, the OutputDebugString API provides a covert channel for malware to record real-time keystrokes without using native Windows functions, usually under the watchful eye of antivirus software." https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/keylogger-found-in-audio-driver-of-hp-laptops/

One of the recurring themes in government spyware has been built in tools that provide access to governments and at the same time deniability to the company. This looks like it falls in that category, rather than 'accidentally poor design'.

'

"Its bad form to be even accessing this information! Aren't there OS hooks to install shortcuts for specific key sequences? There is no reason why an audio driver should be sifting through every keystroke looking for hotkeys. If installing a global keyboard input hook is actually the "correct" way to create keyboard shortcuts to mute the microphone, then at least 10% of the blame here goes to MS."

"Setting a global hook through SetWindowsHookEx instead of using the RegisterHotkey API is indeed a strange way to do this. That, along with the other things mentioned makes me wonder about the developers that wrote this. " Public comment from https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/05/hp-laptops-covert-log-every-keystroke-researchers-warn/

'

An interesting comment about Lenovo / superfish "Surprisingly, the behavior largely escaped the notice of security and privacy advocates, until now." https://arstechnica.com/security/2015/02/lenovo-pcs-ship-with-man-in-the-middle-adware-that-breaks-https-connections/ Very different, but the comment is significant.

Oldest reverences I can find to the news are 4chan and http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/notebook-clinic-77/hp-users-beware-keylogger-found-audio-driver-hp-laptops-5616858.html and https://www.codeproject.com/Insider.aspx?msg=5395039  


You may not be part of the U.S. but the U.S. owns you. Now get back to work.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/19/67/de/1967dec50c88ca01ba9e13715e1c6ac9.gif

Honestly, it depends on what your priority is.

If your goal is to produce a small minded society of petty people who look at 'innovation' as a financial issue then intellectual property is a useful concept.

If you want society to really develop though it is probably better not to use laws to monetize and restrict ideas.

'

As for your scissors idea, most people who have 'invented' stuff are adult enough to realize that they were only building on ideas that had preceded. If somebody came to me and said he wanted credit for inventing the scissors, or whatever, and wanted protection from other people possibly using that idea for popular benefit, I would kick him in the nuts and tell him to invent stronger pants.

What makes you say "more like very bad design decision than intentional keylogger"?

The Vault 7 stuff https://wikileaks.org/ and other material shows that a lot of computer companies, Microsoft et al, have assisted in providing backdoors into computers, manufacturing weaknesses into computers used by individuals.

Do you really believe that this case, a rather delayed discovery, was an inadvertant 'bad design decision'

I copy that phrase to emphasize it, and I offer no money to you for doing so. Thus, I can pay you in bitcoin for using your idea and I do not even need your bitcoin address.

There have been whispers from the start that people within the U.S. government were involved in hacking Bitfinex. Some people say there is compelling circumstantial evidence.

Raphael was warned in 2013/2014 that his sloppy use of dollars in margin funding would lead to him being targeted by the United States.

 

There have been a number of cases of government agents using their official 'powers' to steal bitcoin. Considering all the spyware we are finding out governments have on most computers, is this going to become a big issue?

Petraeus was accused of giving classified information to a woman he was having sex with. He also had ties to another woman who would create difficult 'optics' for Trump vis the Russian issue. Petraeus was not so much 'sacked' as he was 'unprosecuted', considering on a very basic level there have been many people who commited lesser offenses, for better motives, and who were prosecuted seriously.

What do you mean by malicious?

Not exactly.

If you do that then you will be targeted as a person trying to avoid surveillance. What are you trying to cover up? What is it that you do not want authorities to see? What are you hiding?

You will jump from "level one / general scrutiny" to "level two / enhanced scrutiny" by the security services in your country. 

https://www.modzero.ch/advisories/MZ-17-01-Conexant-Keylogger.txt

If you copy somebody else's work, writing for example, and claim that it is your own, in a word 'plagiarism', then you are lying, which is a separate issue.

It has never been acceptable in universities to lie regarding information, whether lying about the source of the information, lying about its content or lying about some other aspect. There has never been a university or other organization that said "we are not sure whether lying and / or plagiarism are okay".

There has never been a need, and hopefully never will be, to decide whether a student can lie in order to prove expertise. It is a subject people agree on, students lying is not good. But that is a completely separate issue from 'intellectual property'.

https://www.modzero.ch/modlog/archives/2017/05/11/en_keylogger_in_hewlett-packard_audio_driver/index.html

On a lot of Windows computers, so called "audio" software has properties that are not consistent with what one would expect.