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| Photograph: Craig Hudson/Getty Images |
The US says a Chinese national operated the “911 S5” botnet, which included computers worldwide and was used to file hundreds of thousands of fraudulent Covid claims and distribute CSAM, among other crimes.
The United States Department of Justice on Wednesday announced charges against a 35-year-old Chinese national, Yunhe Wang, accused of operating a massive botnet allegedly linked to billions of dollars in fraud, child exploitation, and bomb threats, among other crimes.
Wang, identified by numerous pseudonyms—Tom Long and Jack Wan, among others—was arrested on May 24 and is accused of distributing malware through various pop-up VPN services, such as “ProxyGate” and “MaskVPN,” and by embedding viruses in internet files distributed via peer-to-peer networks known as torrents.
The malware is said to have compromised computers located in nearly every country in the world, turning them into proxies through which criminals were able to hide their identities while committing countless crimes. According to prosecutors in the US, this included the theft of billions of dollars slated for Covid-19 pandemic relief—funds allegedly stolen by foreign actors posing as unemployed US citizens.
According to an indictment, the infected computers allegedly provided Wang’s customers with a persistent backdoor, allowing them to disguise themselves as any one of the victims of Wang’s malware. This illicit proxy service, known as “911 S5,” launched as early as 2014, the US government says.
“The 911 S5 Botnet infected computers in nearly 200 countries and facilitated a whole host of computer-enabled crimes, including financial frauds, identity theft, and child exploitation,” says FBI director Christopher Wray, who described the illicit service as “likely the world’s largest botnet ever.”
The US Treasury Department has also sanctioned Wang and two other individuals allegedly tied to 911 S5.
Wang is said to have amassed access to nearly 614,000 IP addresses in the US and more than 18 million others worldwide—collectively forming the botnet. 911 S5’s customers were able to filter the IPs geographically to choose where they’d like to appear to be located, down to a specific US zip code, the DOJ claims. --->READ MORE HERE
Officials who lie to Americans and cause significant damage should return at least part of their pay or retirement benefits funded by taxpayers.
Dr. Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health, reprised his parodied musical act for a second time to serenade Yale School of Medicine graduates, reciting a version of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” with pandemic-themed lyrics. While the act garnered laughs from the crowd, it further codified the lack of seriousness and responsibility public health officials have expressed while toying with the American public, through unfounded and baseless Covid-19 policy decisions.
While these unelected policy officials go unchecked, one way to hold people like Collins accountable is through implementing “clawback” clauses in employment contracts. By definition, the clauses are “a contractual provision whereby money already paid to an employee must be returned to an employer or benefactor, sometimes with a penalty, [due to] misconduct, scandals, poor performance, or a drop in company profits.” Following the 2008 financial crisis, private companies, especially banks, incorporated clawbacks in employment contracts for senior executives to help “restore the confidence and faith of investors and the public.” In the post-Covid-19 era, we must implement a similar structure to hold public officials accountable for the harm caused by their actions.
Thanks to the unrelenting efforts of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, the American public learned this month that Collins finally admitted in a congressional testimony that there was no scientific evidence and data to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s six-foot social-distance guideline. Collins’ admission came several months after his former pal at NIH, Anthony Fauci, conceded in his testimony to the same House subcommittee that the six-foot social-distance rule “sort of just appeared” without scientific input. Plenty has been written about Fauci’s disgraceful role during the Covid-19 pandemic (see here, here, and here). However, not enough spotlight was shone on Collins until recently.
Dr. Vinay Prasad is a hematologist-oncologist and professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California San Francisco. He has been an outspoken critic of the U.S. government’s Covid-19 response early on. In a recent video on his YouTube channel, Prasad reminded the public that in August 2020, Collins produced his first music video rendition of himself playing the guitar and singing to the tune of “Puff, the Magic Dragon” with lyrics including, “No one can travel or leave their houses, schools are closed, and all kids must know to avoid the danger zones. We all must do our part to protect the ones we love. So if you meet at least six feet, handle doors with gloves.”
Diane Baker, the woman who played the red dragon in Collins’ music video, did not wear a mask or keep a six-foot social distance from Collins. One profound lesson the public learned from the pandemic was that the ruling class always exempts themselves from the horrendous and ludicrous rules they demanded the public follow. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
Broadway sings New York’s blues as crime, costs slow post-COVID comeback
COVID erased decade of health progress as global life expectancy dips by 2 years
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
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