Cryptome
Cryptome is the independent precursor to Wikileaks trolling governments and organisations since 1996. Owned and operated by John Young who believes all information should be free (except his). Cryptome is known for releasing government documents, satellite photos of government installations and officials houses. Cryptome is like the crazy old homeless man who claimed to have been in the CIA during the 60s. Always saying crazy shit about the government but no one listens to him.
— Cryptome gets real with its readers | ||
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Microsoft is butthurt
In 2010, Cryptome leaked Microsoft's "Global Criminal Compliance Handbook” a detailed document on Microsoft's surveillance services for law enforcement agencies on its various online platforms, which includes detailed instructions for IP address extraction.
This generated much lulz because Microsoft dropped a DMCA notice alleging copyright infringement on John Young which in turn brought his webhost to pull down the site and lock the domain name at Microsoft's request.
— Graeme Grant Internet Investigator on behalf of Microsoft Corporation | ||
Soon after the complaint, the document was uploaded to Wikilinks and p2p.net. Microsoft thus saw that they were not going to win and that in the whole, it would be bad P.R. to get Cryptome removed from the Internets so they rescinded their DCMA notice.
Furthermore Paypal jumped in on the bandwagon and froze all of Cryptome's accounts which made the whole Cryptome community to Delete fucking everything
— John is Pissed | ||
The Fall of Cryptome
October the second in the year of our LORD two thousand and ten, a day that will live in infamy. It was a great injustice that happend to our good friend John Young. Allegedly Script kiddies from the group kryogenics defaced Cryptome, Deleted Fucking Everything and put up a lulzy vanity page.
—John at his finest | ||
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When the site went up again, John went batshit insane and proceeded to post a shitton of articles about the hack.
Here's a few choice pieces:
These alleged Cryptome hackers are known to:
- Blackmail for payment by threatening to expose confidential information after providing tips to reporters about a break-in or sending demands to the victim with samples of evidence.
- Make demands on ISPs for payment to conceal security vulnerabilities with taunting disclsoures to journalists for stories and samples of evidence.
- Sell confidential information to others who will blackmail or mark-up and sell to others for criminal use.
- Snitch on and blame others to cover their tracks using multiple levels and methods of snitching and blaming.
- Provide confidential information, legitimate and forged, to officials and law enforcement to punish a victim.
- Provide confidential information, legitimate and forged, to law enforcement for payment.
- Provide confidential information, legitimate and forged, to law enforcement as part of a deal to escape prosecution.
- Claim to destroy their computers to avoid being prosecuted for what is on them.
- Claim they were only bragging about exploits but did not actually do them.
- Claim they are protected by contacts in law enforcement through family and friends.
- Claim they hacked for patriotic reasons and not for personal gain (hmm, smells like Lamo, Wikileaks and TLAs).
- Claim they hacked to demonstrate skill at exposing the truth but not cause harm. (like Lamo and Wikileaks)
- Claim they were too inexperienced to understand the consequences of what they were doing.
- Claim hacking was just teen-age fun and should not be taken as a real threat.
- Claim they do not hack for payment or for publicity or for anything non-hackers do for success.
- Cloak their behavior with pretentious language, clothing, insults, arrogance, mock humility and cowardice when caught, and much more, as fabulously described and exemplified at encyclopediadramatica.rs (no other website so deftly deflates pretentiousness, stupidity, vainglory and perfidy on- and offline -- cringe and laugh at your heroes, enemies and yourself there laid bare).
As you can clearly see John is losing his fucking mind. One would ask why he would be losing his grip on reality; after all, websites get hacked on a daily basis. Even Cryptome has been hacked before but John is seeing this as a attack on his personal self.
Cryptome here interleaving has no objection to its website being hacked, that helps spread public knowledge. The cause of "John losing his fucking ming" is the Wired report of hacking his email and LAN and downloading "shittons" of files no hacker will comprehend except for malicious handoff to Wikileaks or worse a news outlet. If that break-in was actually done it is a vile crime beyond kiddie website defacement. John asked Kim Zetter to see the evidence of hacking email and the LAN, not just hear brag about it on the phone. She refused, and then went off to peck an F1 Wired digital security promo for security advertisers -- luridly entitling her piece a Breach of Cryptome without substantiation by evidence, only spit. As spit here too. Wipe your smirk ED, credit Cryptome's aid to your lipsticked ads with wise-ass Daily Show fake news. You are better than Stewart's family-censored prattle, no question. And a spring breeze aerating Wired's zero humor. Addling brains plea for sanity against the prattling defacement of what Cryptome intends against failure, from "The Hegel Variations," Fredric Jameson, 2010:
What may well prove more congenial to a contemporary or a postmodern public is the invocation of Marx's notion of "General Intellect" (which has also been foundational for the Negri/Hardt theory of the multitude). Marx's expression (found in the "Grundrisse") evokes an historically new kind of general literacy in the mass public, most strikingly evinced in the trickling down of scientific knowledge (and technical know-how) in the population at large, a transformation that might also be described in terms of the displacement of a peasant (or feudal) mentality by a more general urban one (and in hindsight also comprehensible as a fundamental consequence of literacy and mass culture)."
—John not giving a fuck | ||
Over the years, John has developed in his disillusioned mind the belief that the whole world is out to get him and nowhere is this more prevalent than on his ongoing feud with Wired magazine. Wired ran a article interviewing the hackers that broke into the site detailing the exploits of the attack. In the article Wired said the hackers came in, changed his passwords and stole his 7gb directory. They added that they did it so they could pin it on some other Script Kiddie they all hated. Basically they did it for the lulz.
—The hackers letting John know it was all a joke | ||
After receiving news that it wasnt the government but just some dumbass teenager, John went off on the deep end. He refuses to believe that it was some kid and still insists that his ISP was in league with the government trying to find out where he hides his massive porn stash.
—Hackers, The most dangerous people in the world. | ||
John, butthurt that Wired wont give him the information on the interview, believes it was all fabricated to sell Wired. So he did what any other paranoid website owner would do, he used the awesome powers of BACKTRACING to find out who the hackers are.
The 1337 Hackers
Based information sent to Cryptome and found elsewhere - Wired in particular has valorized, monetized and lied about them - the alleged Cryptome hackers, operating collectively as Kryogeniks, are:
- XyriX/Ruxpin
Corey Barnhill 541 Hamilton St Apt A Harrison, NJ 07029 IP Address: 76.124.84.68. Host name: c-76-124-84-68.hsd1.nj.comcast.net.
- Virus
Mike Nieves 20-30 Merle Place, Apt 3F Staten Island, NY 10305-3751 SSN: [omitted, ends in 916] Birthday: 10/21/1948 Driver Licences: [omitted, ends in 979] Home telephone: 347-466-4996 [Omitted] = sister Old home phone (347) 466-4996 Mikenieves[at]tmail.com - T-mobile line 3476731499 = grandcentral number IP Address: 96.250.224.79. Host name: pool-96-250-224-79.nycmny.fios.verizon.net.
Kryogenics' reaction
Kryogenics understandably was pissed that John Young accused them of being Script Kiddies, so they released a statement regarding the allegations:
— Kryogenics, Gentlemen Hackers | ||
Cryptome Leaks Itself
— John Young on the leak | ||
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In 2007, Cryptome began mailing out its user logs on DVDs and USBs that John Young made to people that ordered a copy of the Cryptome Archive. When this was found out, Cryptome denied the whole thing until John Young was contacted by the press. Then Cryptome admitted the logs were real, in what John called a deliberately understated statement. Cryptome then announced it was for sale, along with 19 years of user log info. Apparently, this was John's idea of a prank and the logs don't exist. Readers are expected to ignore the pictures of logs that Cryptome posted, because just be cool guys.
Other Controversies
Due to the sensitive nature of the content posted on Cryptome, many Idiots bitch about treachery and whatnot. One of the more lulz worthy articles written against Cryptome was by Michael Crowley of Reader's Digest.
The incident in question was due to the fact that the Republican National Convention was badly secured and Young reported upon it without alerting the authorities. It escalated when he was visited by two FBI agents (which probably didn't help his paranoia). Young went on to tell Michael Crowley that he was looking for faults in the president's Secret Service detail when asked if there would be anything that he wouldn't host on his site.
John Young and Public Appearances
Aside from the posts he makes on his site and the occasional curious journalist trying to pry him open for an interview, John is a rather quiet person and is equally camera-shy, something of a rarity these days. In this regard, he can be viewed as the opposite of Wikileaks' Julian Assange.
Photos
Videos
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External Links
- Archive of sensitive material
- Archive of uploaded video
- Web Threats
- Wired coverage of the hack
- Threatpost coverage
- Cryptome coverage 1
- Cryptome coverage 2
- Cryptome coverage 3
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Cryptome is part of a series on Visit the Truth Portal for complete coverage. |
| Featured article November 19, 2010 | ||
| Preceded by Sniff Heinkel |
Cryptome | Succeeded by Strutting Leo |
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Cryptome is part of a series on Visit the Sites Portal for complete coverage. |