Thank god! A take-down! (Positive for Business & Victims).
A core group of Hive Actors were operating out of co-working hubs in SF & Costa Rica '14, bragging about Tor + methods of attack.
Their collective, was generally brilliant. Not all, but most.
Alternative. Druggie hackers (outside looking in).
Not all were bad; some desired to disrupt in a good way.
Overall I felt uncomfortable at their space. They were also generally more organized & more nice, than other co-working.
I met Jered Kenna (brief intro; I don't know him). I liked his presence. I have a sense, that he is working on something, for good (Don't know, just a feeling whether true or untrue.)
(SIDEBAR: I personally have been against BitCoin ever since HIVE. Recently I watched a documentary - Kenna wasn't in it - and got an entirely different sense about what it was, than before. It improved my perception. I though, am still Gen-X, Brick & Mortar & against all things needing to be hidden (different from protecting your IP).)
His partners; R was abusing his gf. It was the awfulest thing. I was upset by it; not understanding how others there, saw it too & said, did, or felt nothing.
He bragged of Wall Street Riot. (He was engaging in terrorist activities, which is VERY BAD.)
Kenna's other partner S, I inititally appreciated how he carried himself; but he was up & down: a red-flag. He talked about "Acting Troup" (shell company; crime for hire), hacking code, gaming, + referenced laundering through condominiums & farms.
He liked farms best, as he could defraud the gov't by receiving grant funding from non-real numbers.
(I told him he was corrupt & contacted FBI '14 about him. He was hurting women + stealing from others.)
(I did not report his cohorts as they said nothing to me beyond bragging at a party. I saw the writing on the wall & walked away.)
Please know, 2000-13, I reported finances & fraud. '12, Det Gomez said "go deeper" when I wanted to get to bottom of BREACHES. Primary goal was to explore HEALTHY co-living & co-working. Other goal to learn more about Safety, Security, Prevention.
I like to listen. I'm not law enforcement. I absolutely report fraud for my career when it comes up & report crime as a Good Samaritan when able.
My experience at the space the "inner-circle" called "The Hive" was out of curiosity for what made live/work work vs what damaged. I hated most time spent at their location.
I also had Gomez's words in the back of my head "go deeper". The men I interviewed there, did tell me what I needed to know, but it took many years & research, for me to put it together, as they spoke in code, and there is a whole language maintained, both with linguistics & programming. When men referenced violence openly, I left.
They never told me who committed the breach prompting my investigation in the 1st place. (It wasn't them, it was GG.)
Some reached out to me after, even currently, but the thing with Scorpions, is that if you're a frog: DON'T.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-department-justice-disrupts-hive-ransomware-variant
