Co-Founder of IOTA Suspected to be a Criminal Hacker

in #crypto6 years ago

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In this article we’re going to cover the connection of Dominik Schiener, Co-Founder of IOTA, to a ”hacker” from hackforums.net who claimed to have engaged in criminal activities.

Who is the IOTA Co-Founder?

Dominik Schiener is the Co-Founder of the IOTA Foundation, a non-profit corporation that coordinates and funds development in the IOTA ecosystem.

At age 14, Dominik began to “hack” computer games and sold these modifications and achieved a fairly adequate income for his age and effort. Read: (http://untangled.world/interview-dominik-schiener-co-founder-iota/).

Yet, that wasn’t the only thing he “hacked”. From 2011 to 2013, Dominik Schiener was allegedly involved in compromising (through defacing) numerous vulnerable websites, DDoS attacks, selling and buying malware and infecting unsuspecting victims through malicious software.

We wanted to establish that connection, so we started with his LinkedIn profile and Medium account.



source(1): https://www.linkedin.com/in/schiener/
source(2): https://medium.com/@DomSchiener/reposium-dco-the-future-of-wikipedia-4be080cfa027
archived(1): https://archive.fo/8cAWB
archived(2): https://archive.fo/lAWOT

According to his Medium and LinkedIn profile, Dominik was connected (as the Founder) to the startup “Fileyy” (fileyy.com), an affiliate marketing platform.

After searching with some web crawling algorithms to cross-reference relevant keywords with “Fileyy”, one of them, “hack”, gave some relevant results to follow a lead.


source: https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=2968074
archived: https://archive.fo/gXkq2

We found a user going by the alias “Alhalama” on the hacking website (https://hackforums.net) that was looking for a logo design to his new website called “Fileyy”.

So we decided to find a bit more information about the user “Alhalama”.


source: https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=2166691
archived: https://archive.fo/NtBfO

It seems like the user is Italian and also speaks German. And guess who also has a project called “Fileyy”, is Italian and currently lives in Germany?


source: https://twitter.com/DomSchiener
archived: https://archive.fo/aISzq


source: https://myspace.com/cystomatic
archived: https://archive.fo/GCa2W

Both the user “Alhalama” and Dominik Schiener speak Italian and live and/or speak German/Germany.

Now let’s see what kind of content “Alhalama” is sharing on the hacking forums.


source: https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=1402132
archived: https://archive.fo/Hieve


source: https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=1376571
archived: https://archive.fo/B4VrL


source: https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=1391891
archived: https://archive.fo/xUhoZ


source: https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=1372176
archived: https://archive.fo/23DWa


source: https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=1356388
archived: https://archive.fo/ZVET5


source: https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=1858649
archived: https://archive.fo/JY0Fk


source: https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=2672110&page=2
archived: https://archive.fo/W4Y07


source: https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=2261545
archived: https://archive.fo/SC1Pe

We’ve found that the user “Alhalama” AKA “Cystomatic” has committed multiples crimes by defacing/hacking several websites, applying keyloggers to unsuspecting victims, selling compromised credentials, selling compromised data, selling protected data, and selling one of the most controversial, FBI-wanted hacking products at the time: BlackShades Products (https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/international-blackshades-malware-takedown-1)

But it seems like the user “Alhalama” AKA “Cystomatic” survived the “purge” at the time from the FBI on BlackShades users and sellers.

But it’s still all redundant, as there was no direct connection from “Alhalama” AKA “Cystomatic”. So, we decided to investigate further, and we found some interesting results.


source: http://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=218279
archived: https://archive.fo/b0oaq


source: https://en.99designs.pt/logo-design/contests/create-next-logo-fileyy-175594
archived: https://archive.fo/OK6QO

That logo looks oddly familiar, doesn’t it? That’s because it is.


source: (already mentioned throughout the article)

And just to add a bit more fuel to the flame.


source: https://myspace.com/cystomatic
archive: https://archive.fo/GCa2W

We can actually conclude, from circumstantial evidence, that Dominik Schiener is “Alhalama” AKA “Cystomatic”, a criminal hacker who was left undetected and unpunished.

What makes things worse is the fact that Dominik Schiener is the Co-Founder of IOTA, a cryptocurrency which is 13th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, and is partnered with established companies such as Bosch, Volkswagen, Fujitsu, Microsoft and dozens of other respectable, extremely established businesses.

Keep in mind that IOTA contained an intentionally secret backdoor: https://twitter.com/malwarejake/status/964927551230496768

Keep in mind that Dominik Schiener had access to that backdoor. Keep in mind that Dominik Schiener is a criminal hacker.

Let that sink in.

You should always investigate your sources thoughtfully, and take your conclusions from your own investigations.

Think!

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You got a 17.41% upvote from @upmewhale courtesy of @thinkexclamation!

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Dom was born in 1995, in 2011-2013 he would have been 16-18 when this alleged "hacking" occurred (not a member on hackforums so I can't see the post or the archive posts you have provided, I can however 300% zoom in on the images you posted to half read their contents). Let's be honest; what teenager hasn't hacked a poorly secured website, DDoS'd a website, dropped malware onto a terribly secured system, or engaged in other questionable activities online if they are gifted in computers?

Some of my friends from high-school did these sorts of things back in the early 2000's "hacking" the admin password for the school library, dropping a key logger on the system, then screwing with whom ever was unfortunate enough to use those computers. Many of those friends went on to college and university for computer programming and other computer sciences and got good. high level jobs as a result. The high-school didn't offer any computer courses remotely close to the level of skill these friends had/have, the programming courses were basic and offered no challenge to them, no one was there to teach an "ethical hacking" course with dummy systems to test out. I imagine it would have been similar for Dom during high-school. If you want to learn a system one of the best ways to do so is to break/crack that system.

It seems like a natural outcome for someone interested in computers, computer sciences or cyber security. Many hackers hired by top level security firms or governments get their starts this exact way.

Also many countries do not enforce "adult" laws on minors, Italy is one of those countries that has punishments for ages 14-18 but a person is not deemed fully criminally responsibility till 18 in most cases. additionally some countries do not keep record of crimes committed before the age of "adult" or "age of criminal responsibility" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_infancy)

I guess I just don't understand why a potentially bored, computer gifted teenager, being a teenager, is the cause of doom and gloom.

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This post has received a 12.07 % upvote from @boomerang.

holy cow, what an effort to exhume such old, dusty stuff. But -you- were the Virgin Mary with 14 years or what. xD

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