Anon Bulgaria Returns, Hacks Azerbaijani Embassy - Selling Data for 1 BTC
After Going Silent for a Month Anon Bulgaria Re-emerges with a Fresh Hack of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Austria
In July of 2017, Anon Bulgaria released a cache of hacked data detailing the illegal shipment of arms from Europe to the Middle East. The substantial leak provided by the Twitter handle @Anon_bg implicated US contractors, the government of Azerbaijan, weapons from Eastern European countries and a commercial civilian airline.
Silkway Helps Terrorists
- Azerbaijani Silkway Airlines
- The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan
- US military contractors: Purple Shovel, Orbital ATK, and Chemring Groups
- Suppliers: Bulgarian, Serbian, and Belarusian arms manufacturers and stockpiles
- Destination countries: Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Africa, and many more
- Shipments of: White Phosphorus, Depleted Uranium, Rocket Propelled Grenades, Konkurs Missiles, ‘Non-standard’ weapons and ammunition.
- Shipments concealed using Diplomatic Immunity
- Arming Terrorists
For a complete overview please visit @v4vapid archive at Steemshelves.com
The documents released by Anon Bulgaria originated from the Azerbaijani embassy in Bulgaria and formed the basis of a groundbreaking report by, now former, Trud reporter Dilyana Gaytandzheiva who was dismissed from her position for reporting on the operation.
Fresh Embassy Hack
Now, Anon Bulgaria has returned with several tweets indicating that even more potentially damaging data has been hacked from the Azerbaijani embassy, this time in from Austria.
Unlike the previous data dumps from July, this leak is not free - will cost 1BTC. (Approximately $4800 USD at the time of posting).
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The size of the data dump is comparable to the late-July leak:
From Embassy in Bulgaria (July, 2017)
- 65 Gb
- 8 900 Files
From Embassy in Austria (October, 2017)
- 53 Gb
- 34 279 files
- 27, 1000 emails in .pst
- 465 contracts
The original data dump is available at truthleaks.org.
[Take necessary precautions if you're considering downloading any files - eg. sandbox]
The inclusion of 465 contracts is quite interesting. One can only speculate as to what these emails and contracts contain, but judging from the documentation in the previous leak, I would imagine they likely contain sensitive information on the illicit weapons trade.
The price tag of 1 BTC marks a change in tactics from Anon Bulgaria. Whether the contents of this data set are worth 5K is also unverifiable. Yet, in our day and age, information is power and it probably is worth 5k or more to affected parties.
Certainly, the government / foreign ministry of Azerbaijan may want to think about coughing up 5k to suppress further revelations of their involvement in illegal arms trading using diplomatic immunity as cover.
UPDATE - The October 9th Tweets have now been removed from Anon Bulgaria's Twitter feed -
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Great work (as always) thanks for bringing this to our attention @v4vapid The more spotlights that are shone on this murky world of murder and death the better. The one aspect that does worry me is the stipulation of payment for information. Yes knowledge is power, people have to eat and I don't have a problem in believing that to the right people this information is potentially priceless. But does that mean at the right price the government of Azerbaijan could buy it back? If so this sets a dangerous trend that risks a contagion that could spread across the movement and indeed empower those to use ther term "anonymous" for further clandestine activities. It would certainly leave a bitter taste in the mouths of those operate on "power to the people basis". Anyway just a thought. Thanks again!!
Thanks, I appreciate this comment very much. It also worries me that this time around a demand for payment was included. Hopefully, this is not a sign of things to come concerning government leaks.
It's interesting that Anon Bulgaria has since taken down the tweets I highlighted in this post. Not sure how to interpret this action. It's possible that AB has had a change of heart but it might also signal that someone has paid the bounty.
The lack of a top-down structure has enabled them to resist infiltration but equally once you add a montetary element, infiltration becomes both very easy and multi-facted. If I was a member of Anon Bulgaria and I needed a monetary gain I would tease the information for a week and then load the links etc onto steemit. And although I'm well aware that this could cause problems and hence might not be the right platform, some kind of blockchain format information bank for the free (yet monetised) spread of information could be an angle that's worth exploring. I certainly hope they've had a change of heart, but I also fear they've been paid. I guess only time will tell.
Filthy Business could be popular to date! There are conspiracies out there, but given what governments have done in the past, these claims might be closer to the truth than what's aired in the news.
When the heck
What a filthy business.
I'd imagine the information is worth much more than the current asking price to those involved. The dark and shady world of illegal arms trading is worth billions so I would suspect all parties would pay up to ensure this information doesn't get into the wrong hands. Then again who'd expose them other than rival criminals? The MSM are so corrupt themselves they'd more than likely bury the story. Maybe a crowd fund here to obtain it and release it on Steemit?!
Great work V.
That's an interesting point TP, a rival criminal organization could very well be responsible.
If there are no takers on the data, a crowd fund may be in order... maybe wikileaks might be more interested this time round too;) I love a good dig myself and going through government data is one of my favs.
Standard MO for criminal gangs is to take out the opposition at any sign of weakness. Being able to be hacked and have your criminal operations exposed would be considered weak so I wouldn't be surprised. Could be an ABC organisation however, they're criminal gangs too!
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This is no way to act at Steemit.
Producing posts people want to read and appreciate is what you need to do.
Begging for votes and followers will get you flagged and a reputation as a spammer.
Please stop for your own good.
Isn't Azerbaijan the country whose warlord president was paraded around by Bill Clinton to give him legitimacy after charges of human rights violations???
...and the Podesta Group represents/represented the Azerbaijani Embassy in the US for at least 7 years up until 2016.
Not surprising. Everything those scumbags touch is nefarious or outright criminal.
That's what I thought... he gave a ton of loot to the Clinton Foundation. Hey, I wonder if I gave them some... Oh never mind!
i uvpote yours plz upvote my.
thank you.
Dont do this @anis365.. i can assure you that you will be flagged before long..
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yeah . . . thats the world we live in
The dirty deals that go on behind closed doors are scary, intriguing and cause for concern. A lot of is going on that the public is unaware of and the journalists that risk their lives to uncover it are doing a great service to the public. Conversely, because so many back room deals have been going on, it seems that every new issue that comes to light may have some truth, no truth or just publicized to take heat off another issue.
After watching a few different media outlets cover the Las Vegas shooting and reading forums on line, I really have no idea what to think. There are some crazy ass conspiracies out there, but given what governments have done in the past, these wild claims might be closer to the truth than what's aired in the news
Thanks for the comment. I haven't weighed in on the LV shootings yet as information is still coming in. It surely has the potential to distract from other issues as it dominates the headlines.
There are absolutely 'crazy conspiracy' theories floating around but many of these are deliberately put out there to muddy the waters and to undermine those that question the official narrative (which at this point already shows a lot of holes aka lone-wolf shooting).
As for Anon Bulgaria's leaks... they're providing a multitude of government documents from the embassies and shipping bills that show the transfer of weapons. At least here, we can be more certain about what's really happening.
Yeah, you’re right. It’s a scary world we are living in these days. Hopefully someone, or a group of people will pay the btc fee and get these files released to the public
This is just like Iran Contra and Fast and Furious. It's all about supplying a created enemy. Justification for the Corporate War Machine makes the government go round.
Spot on!
Destabilize. Generate conflict. Maximize profit through weapon sales (legal/illegal).
great post buddy
While I applaud Anonymous's effort to shine a spotlight on the dark underbelly of clandestine government operations, I have to question their tactics.
Do they think about the impact they are making on the regular Joe that works at the embassy they are hacking? As a former government employee that worked for the military, I had access to lots of Secret and Top Secret information, but in the end I was just a normal guy with a family.
The law of unintended consequences also applies to Anonymous...
I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Are you saying that innocent government workers can lose their jobs because of the hack?
I think that's possible, but it pales in comparison to a multi-billion dollar illegal weapons operation that ultimately fuels the destruction of nations (eg. Syria, Iraq) and the senseless killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.
The main issue with Anonymous is that anyone can claim they are part of Anonymous, this is both their greatest strength and weakness.
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