Daily Archives: July 1, 2017

NATO’s Support Crucial For MoD’s Four-Year Plan: Waziri – TOLOnews

Posted: July 1, 2017 at 8:59 am

MoD spokesman Dawlat Waziri said NATOs decision to send a few thousand more troops to Afghanistan will help with the implementation of the security plan.

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) has commended the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for their commitment to support Afghanistan and to train the Afghan security and defense forces, saying that the organizations help is vital for the future of the country.

NATOs commitment to continue its support to Afghanistan and to our security forces is crucial for implementing the Defense Ministrys four-year security plan, the MoD's spokesman Major General Dawlat Waziri said at a press conference on Saturday.

Based on the plan, Waziri said the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANDCOP) and the Border Police would be merged with the Ministry of Defense.

He went on to say that according to the plan, the size of the Afghan Commando Unit would be doubled and upgraded to Corps level.

The Afghan Air Force would be equipped and reinforced, Waziri said when giving details about the four-year security plan.

He stressed the need for NATOs help to train and equip the Afghan forces so they could put the plan into practice. NATOs recent commitment to send a few thousand additional troops to Afghanistan will help us in this respect, Waziri said.

Last week, the acting defense minister Tariq Shah Bahrami attended NATOs defense ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium.

NATO allies reaffirmed their continued support to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) to ensure security in the country.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the meeting that NATO and its allies have reconfirmed their commitment to Afghanistan and that they will sustain the Resolute Support Mission beyond 2017.

Our military authorities have requested a few thousand more troops for the mission and today, I can confirm that we will increase our presence in Afghanistan, Stoltenberg said at a press conference on Thursday.

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NotPetya developers may have obtained NSA exploits weeks before their public leak [Updated] – Ars Technica

Posted: at 8:58 am

Enlarge / A computer screen displaying Eternalromance, one of the NSA exploits used in Tuesday's NotPetya outbreak.

Update:This post was revised throughout to reflect changes F-Secure made to Thursday's blog post. The company now says that the NotPetya component was probably completed in February, and assuming that timeline is correct, it didn't have any definitive bearing on when the NSA exploits were obtained. F-Secure Security Advisor Sean Sullivan tells Ars that the component weaves in the NSA exploits so well that it's likely the developers had access to the NSA code. "It strongly hints at this possibility," he said. "We feel strongly that this is the best theory to debunk." This post has been revised to make clear that the early access is currently an unproven theory.

Original Story:The people behind Tuesday's massive malware outbreak might have had access to two National Security Agency-developed exploits several weeks before they were published on the Internet, according to clues researchers from antivirus F-Secure found in some of its code.

On Thursday, F-Secure researchers said that unconfirmed timestamps left in some of the NotPetya malware code suggested that the developers may have had access to EternalBlue and EternalRomance as early as February, when they finished work on the malware component that interacted with the stolen NSA exploits. The potential timeline is all the more significant considering the quality of the component, which proved surprisingly adept in spreading the malware from computer to computer inside infected networks. The elegance lay in the way the component combined the NSA exploits with three off-the-shelf tools including Mimikatz, PSExec, and WMIC. The result: NotPetya could infect both patched and unpatched computers quickly. Code that complex and effective likely required weeks of development and testing prior to completion.

"February is many weeks before the exploits EternalBlue and EternalRomance (both of which this module utilizes) were released to the public (in April) by the Shadow Brokers," F-Secure researcher Andy Patel wrote in a blog post. "And those exploits fit this component like a glove."

Whereas the two other main components of NotPetyaan encryption component and a component for attacking a computer's master boot recordwere "pretty shoddy and seem kinda cobbled together," Patel said the spreading component seems "very sophisticated and well-tested." It remains possible that the February timestamps found in some of the code was falsified. Assuming the stampsare correct, they suggest that developers may have had access, or at least knowledge of, the NSA exploits by then. By contrast, Patel added:

WannaCry clearly picked [the NSA] exploits up after the Shadow Brokers dumped them into the public domain in April. Also WannaCry didn't do the best job at implementing these exploits correctly.

By comparison, this "Petya" looks well-implemented, and seems to have seen plenty of testing. It's fully-baked.

The weeks leading up to the possible February completion of the NotPetya spreader was a particularly critical time for computer security. A month earlier, the Shadow Brokers advertised an auction that revealed some of the names of the exploits they had, including EternalBlue. NSA officials responded by warning Microsoft of the theft so that the company could patch the underlying vulnerabilities. In February, Microsoft abruptly canceled that month's Patch Tuesday. The unprecedented move was all the more odd because exploit code for an unpatched Windows 10 flaw was already in the wild, and Microsoft gave no explanation for the cancellation.

"Meanwhile, 'friends of the Shadow Brokers' were busy finishing up development of a rather nifty network propagation component, utilizing these exploits," Patel wrote.

When Patch Tuesday resumed in March, Microsoft released a critical security update that fixed EternalBlue. As the WCry outbreak would later demonstrate, large numbers of computersmainly running Windows 7failed to install the updates, allowing the worm to spread widely.

If the timeline is correct, it might mean the NotPetya developers had some sort of tie to the Shadow Brokers, possibly as customers, colleagues, acquaintances, or friends. It might also make NotPetya the first piece of in-the-wild malware that had known early access to the NSA exploits. Patel didn't speculate how the NotPetya developers might have gotten hold of EternalBlue and EternalRomance prior to their public release in April.

Early speculation was that Shadow Brokers members acquired a small number of hacking tools that NSA personnel stored on one or more staging servers used to carry out operations. The volume and sensitivity of the exploits and documents released over the next several months slowly painted a much grimmer picture. It's now clear that the group has capitalized on what is likely the worst breach in NSA history. There's no indication that the agency has identified how it lost control of such a large collection of advanced tools or that it knows much at all about the Shadow Brokers' membership. The group, meanwhile, continues to publish blog posts written in deliberately broken English, with the most recent one appearing on Wednesday.

The F-Secure theory adds a new, unsettling entry tothe Shadow Brokers' resume. The world already knew the group presided over a breach of unprecedented scope and leaked exploits to the world. Now, we know it also provided crucial private assistance in developing one of the most virulent worms in recent memory.

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John W. Whitehead column: A dangerous proposition: Making the NSA’s powers permanent – Richmond.com

Posted: at 8:58 am

The Trump administration wants to make some of the National Security Agencys vast spying powers permanent. Thats a dangerous proposition, and Ill tell you why.

Since 9/11, Americans have been asked to sacrifice their freedoms on the altar of national security. Weve had our phone calls monitored, our emails read, our movements tracked, and our transactions documented.

Every second of every day, the American people are being spied on by the U.S. governments vast network of digital Peeping Toms, electronic eavesdroppers and robotic snoops.

These government snoops are constantly combing through and harvesting vast quantities of our communications.

They are conducting this mass surveillance without a warrant, thus violating the core principles of the Fourth Amendment which protects the privacy of all Americans.

PRISM and Upstream, two of the spying programs conducted under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, are set to expire at the end of this year.

Heres why they should be allowed to expire.

PRISM lets the NSA access emails, video chats, instant messages, and other content sent via Facebook, Google, Apple, and others.

Upstream lets the NSA worm its way into the internet backbone the cables and switches owned by private corporations like AT&T that make the internet into a global network and scan traffic for the communications of tens of thousands of individuals labeled targets.

Ask the NSA why its carrying out this warrantless surveillance on American citizens, and youll get the same Orwellian answer the government has been trotting out since 9/11 to justify its assaults on our civil liberties: to keep America safe.

Yet warrantless mass surveillance by the government and its corporate cohorts hasnt made America any safer. And it certainly isnt helping to preserve our freedoms.

Frankly, America will never be safe as long as the U.S. government is allowed to shred the Constitution.

Now the government wants us to believe that we have nothing to fear from its mass spying program because theyre only looking to get the bad guys who are overseas.

Dont believe it.

The governments definition of a bad guy is extraordinarily broad, and it results in the warrantless surveillance of innocent, law-abiding Americans on a staggering scale.

Under Section 702, the government collects and analyzes over 250 million internet communications every year. There are estimates that at least half of these contain information about U.S. residents, many of whom have done nothing wrong.

The government claims its spying on Americans is simply incidental, as though it were an accident but it fully intends to collect this information.

Indeed, this sensitive data is not destroyed after the NSA vacuums it up. Rather, the government has written its own internal rules called minimization procedures that allow spy agencies such as the NSA to retain Americans private communications for years.

Far from minimizing any invasion of privacy, the rules expressly allow government officials to read our emails and listen to our phone calls without a warrant the very kinds of violations that the Fourth Amendment was written to prohibit.

Finally, once this information collected illegally and without any probable cause is ingested into NSA servers, other government agencies can often search through the databases to make criminal cases against Americans that have nothing to do with terrorism or anything national security-related. One Justice Department lawyer called the database the FBIs Google.

In other words, the NSA, an unaccountable institution filled with unelected bureaucrats, operates a massive database that contains the intimate and personal communications of countless Americans.

Warrantless mass surveillance of American citizens is wrong, un-American, and unconstitutional.

Its time to let Section 702 expire or reform the law to ensure that millions and millions of Americans are not being victimized by a government that no longer respects its constitutional limits.

Constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People, is the president of The Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties and human rights organization that is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging Upstream surveillance under Section 702. Contact Whitehead at johnw@rutherford.org.

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John W. Whitehead column: A dangerous proposition: Making the NSA's powers permanent - Richmond.com

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In aftermath of Petya, congressman asks NSA to stop the attack if it knows how – TechCrunch

Posted: at 8:58 am

Today Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu of California wrote to the NSA in an appeal for the agency to do anything in its power to stop the spread of the globalransomware (or potentially just disguised as ransomware) attack that began yesterday.

Lieu seeks to hold the NSA accountable for its leaked exploit, known as EternalBlue, which appears to have facilitated the malwares spread. Last month, the ransomware known as WannaCry also leveraged EternalBlue in order to spread between networked machines that have not been updated to protect them from the vulnerability, which Microsoft issued a patch for back in March (MS17-010).

Based on various reports, it appears these two global ransomware attacks likely occurred because the NSAs hacking tools were released to the public by an organization called the ShadowBrokers, Lieu wrote.

My first and urgent request is that if the NSA knows how to stop this global malware attack, or has information that can help stop the attack, then NSA should immediately disclose it. If the NSA has a kill switch for this new malware attack, the NSA should deploy it now.

Lieu went on to implore the spy agency to communicate more openly with major tech companies about the vulnerabilities that it discovers in their systems. In the case of EternalBlue, the NSA is believed to have known about the exploit for years. Naturally that makes one wonder what other massive exploits the agency has up its sleeve and how easily those could be exposed in a new Shadow Brokers leak.

Given the ongoing threat, I urge NSA to continue actively working with companies like Microsoft to notify them of software vulnerabilities of which the Agency is aware, Lieu said.I also urge the NSA to disclose to Microsoft and other entities what it knows that can help prevent future attacks based on malware created by the NSA.

Some things about yesterdays ransomware attack make it even nastier than its predecessor WannaCry. As IEEE Senior Member and Ulster University Cybersecurity Professor Kevin Curran explained to TechCrunch: One key difference from WannaCry is that Petya does not simply encrypt disk files but rather locks the entire disk so nothing can be executed. It does it by encrypting the filesystems master file table so the operating system cannot retrieve files.

The other big difference: WannaCry had a kill switch, even if it wasserendipitous.

It does seem to have the same deadly replication feature of WannaCry which enables it to spread quickly across an internal network infecting other machines, Curran said. It seems to also be finding passwords on each infected computer and using those to spread as well. There seems to be no kill switch on this occasion.

We reached out to the NSA with questions about its ability to stop the spread of the current ransomware and its perceived responsibility moving forward. You can read Lieus full letter, embedded below.

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In aftermath of Petya, congressman asks NSA to stop the attack if it knows how - TechCrunch

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Gang membership doesn’t color a crime, court says – Greensburg Daily News

Posted: at 8:57 am

INDIANAPOLIS -- While wearing gang colors may be suspicious, its not enough to justify a stop by police unless criminal activity is involved, the Indiana Supreme Court said this week.

As a result of the decision, Jordan Jacobs, Indianapolis, had his conviction reversed for Class A misdemeanor possession of a handgun. The state court ruled that a police search leading to Jacobs arrest in 2015 was not allowed under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

On Aug. 31, 2015, there had been numerous reports of gunshots fired on Indianapolis northeast side by youths wearing red clothing, indicating gang membership. The location near 30th Street and Keystone Avenue was known as a high crime area and police placed more attention on patrols.

Two days later during the afternoon, an Indianapolis police officer saw young men who looked like they should be in school at Beckwith Park, according to court records. Some of the teens were wearing red clothing. Jacobs, then 18, had been seen earlier carrying a red T-shirt.

When a park rangers car was in the area, Jacobs and another man walked away. They returned after the car left and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer Terry Smith, who is a gang detective, called for assistance. Smith ordered Jacobs to stop but he walked away. Another officer assisted in ordering Jacobs to the ground. Although handcuffed, Jacobs was told he was not under arrest but police saw a gun outlined in Jacobs pocket.

In Marion County court, Jacobs attorney objected to admitting the handgun into evidence on the grounds that the officers did not have reasonable suspicion to stop him under the Fourth Amendment. During a bench trial, Jacobs was found guilty and sentenced to one year probation.

In November, the Indiana Court of Appeals was split but found that Jacobs behavior in evading police in a high crime area provided enough suspicion that a crime was afoot.

The Indiana Supreme Court said that the officers belief that Jacobs was truant at 2 p.m. that day was enough for an investigatory stop. But the actual stop occurred after school had let out for the day.

The court also addressed Jacobs clothing. Membership in a gang, by itself, does not provide the basis for prosecution for criminal gang activity, Justice Mark S. Massa wrote. The State must prove that the individual was aware of the gangs criminal purpose.

He continued, Jacobs display of a red garment (which he was never wearing, and did not have at the time police approached), while standing among those clad in red, was thus insufficient to justify an investigatory stop under the Fourth Amendment.

The court said there was nothing to link Jacobs to the earlier gunfire.

Fourth Amendment

The Fourth Amendment states, The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

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Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream? – The Guardian

Posted: at 8:54 am

Bitcoin is the worlds biggest cryptocurrency but there are now close to 800 digital currencies work around $96bn total. Photograph: Alamy

Last Sunday a message posted on message board 4Chan started the rumor that Vitalik Buterin, the founder of cryptocurrency Ethereum, had been killed in a car crash. News of the 23-year-old, Russian-born programmers demise was soon proved false but not before 20%, or roughly $4bn, had been wiped from Ethereums soaring market value.

The hoax not only drew attention to Ethereum, the second largest digital currency after bitcoin, which had seen its value rise fiftyfold since the start of the year to $300 a coin, but also to the booming market in other so-called cryptocurrencies that could now be on the cusp of mainstream financial credibility.

Last week Barclays CEO for personal and corporate banking, Ashok Vaswani, revealed the lender had opened discussions with UK regulators about adopting digital currencies.

We have been talking to a couple of fintechs [financial technology companies] and have actually gone with the fintechs to the FCA [the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK regulator] to talk about how we could bring the equivalent of bitcoin, not necessarily bitcoin, but cryptocurrencies into play, Vaswani told CNBC at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Obviously [its] a new area, obviously an area weve got to be careful with. We are working our way through it.

Vaswanis comments came after several central banks from across Europe and Asia said they were looking into establishing digital-only currencies in addition to traditional denominations.

The Peoples Bank of China has reportedly run trials, while the Danish central bank is considering a digital-only e-krone.

On 19 June, the International Monetary Fund issued a staff discussion note stating that banks should consider investing in cryptocurrencies, saying: Rapid advances in digital technology are transforming the financial services landscape, creating opportunities and challenges for consumers, service providers and regulators alike.

At the same time, IBM announced it had made a deal with the Digital Trade Chain Consortium a group of seven European banks that includes Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Rabobank, Societe Generale and Unicredit to build a digital trade platform that will run on IBMs cloud.

Andrew Levin, professor of economics at Dartmouth and co-author of a study on central bank digital currencies, told the Guardian that the concept of private institutions creating new forms of payment was not in itself new, but the greater need is for consumers and businesses to have access to money that has a stable value and is practically costless to use. We think theres a strong case for central banks to issue digital currencies that would be free to use.

Crypto- or cyber-currencies are digital-only currencies in which encryption and registry techniques, often called blockchains, are used to regulate the generation of units of currency independent of a central bank.

It is a booming, dizzying market. Since the start of the year, bitcoin, the worlds biggest cryptocurrency, has almost tripled in value to $2,565. By some estimates, the cryptocurrency business could be worth $5tn by 2022. There are now close to 800 cryptocurrencies worth, in total, around $96bn.

One of the newest offered to market is Tazos, backed by billionaire venture capitalist and early bitcoin investor Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. According to a prospectus, a total of US$893,200.77 worth of XTZ tokens will be issued on 1 July.

The best thing I can do is lead by example, Draper told Reuters last month. Over time, I actually feel that some of these tokens are going to improve the world, and I want to make sure those tokens get promoted as well. I think Tezos is one of those tokens.

Tezos founders, Kathleen and Arthur Breitman, anticipate their ICO will become a digital commonwealth or self-governing network. The couples background in finance speaks to the seriousness of the endeavor: Arthur worked at the high-frequency trading desk at Goldman Sachs; Kathleen at Bridgewater Associates, the worlds largest hedge fund.

We think our competitive advantage is in our ability to assign governance, Kathleen told the Observer. The thing about blockchain is its very interdisciplinary. You have to have an understanding of finance and economics, but also game theory, pure science and networking theory.

She concedes that blockchain complexity is also cause for investor skepticism. A lot of people struggle to understand its value proposition, because it offers something different to everyone. I like the idea of putting business logic in a decentralised network, and hopefully, it will help people to conduct business more easily.

Brock Pierce, managing partner of Blockchain Capital and a relative veteran of the ICO market, recently launched a tradeable, digital securities token called BCAP that he considers the next giant leap in the democratization of venture capital and liquidity where everybody has equal access.

Three days ago, Pierce launched the crowd sale of EOS, a blockchain coin (or token) offering thats already taken in $100m. This is a 340-day project thats already broken every record. Its 100% certain were going to surpass Bancor, the most successful ICO to date.

Pierce predicts that the underlying technology of blockchain essentially a public record of actions is going to impact our world more than the internet has.

He added: The implications are huge, and its going to have huge implications not only on venture, but private equity, real estate, digitizing currency. This is going to be the technology that democratizes the global financial system so everybody has equal access.

But such rapid increases in value is cause for concern. Five-year-old Ripple XRP, which is connected to 75 banks, including Bank of America and Royal Bank of Canada, has increased in value by 40 times this year alone. According to CNBC, 100 billion XRP are in existence, each priced 26 cents.

A lot of lessons will be learned and a lot of money will be lost, before a lot of money can be made, Peter Denious, head of global venture capital at Aberdeen Asset Management, told Bloomberg last week. Prices right now arent being driven by network usage, theyre being driven by speculation that tokens are going to appreciate. Its a gold-rush mentality.

But Les Borsai, an early investor in Ethereum, believes that what is under way is a re-ordering of the financial systems. At root, he argues, blockchain technology shows we dont need a centralized solution for anything. Its a liberated attitude and the implications are huge.

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Cryptocurrency: Funds of the future? – THE BUSINESS TIMES

Posted: at 8:54 am

VIRTUAL currencies have been said to capture the imagination of some, strike fear among others, and confuse the heck out of the rest of us. What exactly are they? Should we invest in them? Where do we even start? Here are some of the most popular questions answered.

What is cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is digital money created from code. Most cryptocurrencies are built on blockchain, an incorruptible digital ledger of all economic transactions made in virtual currency. The cryptocurrency economy is free of all government oversight and monitored by a peer-to-peer Internet protocol.

What are the major cryptocurrencies?

Bitcoin (founded in 2008), Ethereum (2015) and Ripple (2014).

How much are these worth today?

Let's just say anyone who's bought cryptocurrency before 2017 would have made astronomical gains (see graphs below).

Why invest in cryptocurrency now?

Cryptocurrency is said to be one of the best-performing assets in the last two years. Its market added nearly US$7 billion in value in just the first quarter of 2017, going by a CoinDesk report.

Bitcoin, whose price topped US$2,000 per coin for the first time in May, has arguably entered the mainstream. You can actually use it to buy stuff now, at retailers such as Microsoft, OkCupid and even Subway.

How to invest - where to even start?

First, there are two ways one can invest using cryptocurrency:

1. Buy and sell cryptocurrency. One can do this through platforms such as Coinbase, Coinhako and CoinMama using a credit card, debit card or bank transfer. Identity verification may be required for large transactions on some platforms.

Notably, a majority of cryptocurrency investors conduct only this form of investment, where they wait for prices of virtual currencies to appreciate before selling them.

2. Buy cryptocurrency, and participate in initial coin offerings (ICOs). One can do this on token markets or cryptocurrency crowdfunding sites such as TokenMarket or FundYourselfNow (Singapore-founded).

An ICO allows startups with innovative products to issue their own digital tokens that can be bought by investors or backers using virtual currencies. Digital tokens typically entitle backers to monetary rewards (such as profit sharing), or non-monetary rewards (exclusive products).

Notably, only a minority of cryptocurrency investors buy virtual currencies and participate in ICOs. The latter is considered a more speculative form of cryptocurrency investment, as it entails backing a young and thus high-risk company, and profiting only if the company succeeds.

How much to invest for the first time?

The rule of thumb is to not invest what you cannot afford to lose. The cryptocurrency market is uniquely unregulated and extremely volatile: prices can one day rise by 100 per cent and plunge 50 per cent the next day. Panic selling is very common.

One should therefore not invest in cryptocurrency if he or she is unaccustomed to wild price fluctuations.

Early adopters recommend S$4,000 as a good first amount to set aside for such investing, and to never let cryptocurrencies occupy more than 50 per cent of one's portfolio.

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Cryptocurrency Gambling Company Monster Byte Inc. Launches ICO – The Merkle

Posted: at 8:54 am

Monster Byte Inc. owns a suite of long standing and profitable gambling websites that have been custom-built with proprietary technology owned by Monster Byte. Monster Byte is looking to raise additional funds to not only enhance their current consumers sites but also begin to resell their intellectual property and enter the B2B iGaming space. This ICO is unique because the company has been generating revenue, adding users and enhancing its products since 2013. Instead of wondering if you are buying vaporware with the ICO you have a chance to share in the growth and profits of an established company.

From Sports Betting to Provably Fair Games

Monster Byte owns and operates Peerbet.org, Bit777.com, and BitcoinRush.io. Bitcoin Rush offers sports betting and a provably fair casino all custom built and originally founded as casinobitco.in in 2013. The sportsbook currently offers highly competitive odds and a daily cashback system that is not available at any other bitcoin sportsbook. Peerbet was established in 2012 and offers 1% edge dice games and an on-site exchange for various cryptocurrencies. Finally, Bit777 was acquired by Monster Byte in 2014 from UltraPlay LTD and is a flash based casino with 49 different games.

What will the ICO funds be used for?

First and foremost, Monster Byte is hiring several functions, including additional developers, and community managers.

The BitcoinRush.io sportsbook will be updated with a new UI/UX model and implement a system that earns between 2-4% per bet regardless if the player wins or loses.

Peerbet.org will be relaunched with a new modern design that will be responsive for tablet and mobile device play.

BitcoinRush.io will start accepting more coins including Waves, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, and others in time for the next NFL season in September.

B2B syndication of its games and API access to both traditional fiat and cryptocurrency gaming portals. The new line of business will supplement existing revenue streams.

Telegram messenger betting support. People will be able to place bets from their telegram app.

What do token holders get?

Monster Byte Token will be issued exclusively on the Waves Platform due to the ability to easily trade tokens against other assets and cryptocurrencies all within the DEX, a very liquid decentralized exchange in the Waves LiteApp Wallet.

On a quarterly basis, all Monster Byte token holders are entitled to their share of the collective profit (revenue expenses) of Monster Byte. Dividends will be paid in bitcoin, and detailed quarterly reports will be published to provide full transparency on all operations. A dedicated Slack channel will also be created to follow the day-to-day operations and development progress with the team itself.

When is the ICO? I want in NOW!

The ICO pre-sale will begin on July 3rd, 2017 at 16:00 UTC, and extend until July 8th 16:00 UTC or whenever the pre-sale is sold out, whichever occurs first. During the pre-sale, 2,500,000 Monster Byte tokens will be sold at $0.08 USD, a 31.5% discount over the general sale. The general sale will open at July 8th at 16:00, and 7,500,000 Monster Byte tokens will then be sold at $0.11 USD.

Is there a cap?

Yes, in total, Monster Byte anticipates raising $1,025,000 USD which gives Monster Byte a $4.4M post-money valuation. They chose not to have an open cap as savvy investors should know exactly what they are buying into, with a well-defined capitalization model.

A unique opportunity

This is your chance to invest in one of the fastest growing industries. Sports betting and online gambling is one of the best use cases for cryptocurrencies. Currently, online gambling as a whole is a $46 Billion/year market. Depending on estimates, it is expected to be approximately $50 Billion/year by 2019. At the same time, due the benefits of both the player and operator, cryptocurrency gambling is going to eat into this market gradually year over year.

Based on Monster Bytes solid reputation and long-standing history in this young niche market, as well as their expansion into B2B operations this is an ICO that is sure to go quickly.

Visit our website and sign up for our newsletter to get the latest updates on the ICO and presale.

https://www.monsterbyte.io/ico

Slack https://monsterbyte.slack.com/

Bitcointalk https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1980482

This is a sponosored Press Release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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UK dealer charged in US over multimillion-dollar fake Bitcoin site scam – The Guardian

Posted: at 8:53 am

Renwick Haddow is accused of duping investors into investing in a fake Bitcoin trading platform. Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters

US authorities on Friday charged a British businessman with securities fraud, accusing him of deceiving investors over what turned out to be a fake trading platform for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged the clandestine Renwick Haddow, a UK citizen living in New York, diverted funds invested in a phoney Bitcoin site as well as from a flexible workspace firm Bar Works into accounts in Mauritius and Morocco, totalling $5m.

It said he touted experienced senior executives as behind the operations who turned out to be phantoms, and misrepresented the details and success of both companies.

Andrew Calamari, director of the SECs New York office, said: Haddow created two trendy companies and misled investors into believing that highly qualified executives were leading them to quick profitability.

In reality, Haddow controlled the companies from behind the scenes and they were far from profitable.

Bitcoin Store claimed to be an easy-to-use and secure way of holding and trading Bitcoin that had generated several million dollars in gross sales. The SEC alleged that in fact it never had any operations nor generated the gross sales it touted.

In 2015, Bitcoin Stores bank accounts allegedly received less than $250,000 in incoming transfers, none of which appear to reflect revenue from customers, the SEC said.

Haddows investors pumped more than $37m into Bar Works, which claimed to provide workspaces in old bars and restaurants, but in fact primarily sold leases coupled with sub-leases that together functioned like investment notes, the SEC said in a statement.

The commission alleged that throughout Haddow was hiding his connection to the companies given his checkered past with regulators in the UK, where he has faced similar charges for investment schemes.

According to a report in Crains, 27 investors from China filed suit in the state supreme court on 16 June seeking repayment of more than $3m invested in Bar Works, which they called a Ponzi scheme.

Another investment group filed a similar case against Bar Works in Florida in recent weeks.

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SpaceX Dragon Cargo Spacecraft Set To Depart International Space Station Sunday – SpaceCoastDaily.com

Posted: at 8:53 am

arrived at the station June 5

After delivering about 6,000 pounds of cargo, a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is set to leave the International Space Station on Sunday, July 2. (NASA image)

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA After delivering about 6,000 pounds of cargo, a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is set to leave the International Space Station on Sunday, July 2.

Space Coast Daily TVwill provide live coverage via NASA of Dragons departure beginning at 11:15 a.m. EDT.

Flight controllers will use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach the Dragon capsule, which arrived at the station June 5, from the Earth-facing side of the stations Harmony module.

After they maneuver Dragon into place, Expedition 52 Flight Engineers Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson of NASA will command release of the spacecraft at 11:38 a.m.

Dragons thrusters will be fired to move the spacecraft a safe distance from the station before SpaceX flight controllers in Hawthorne, California, command its deorbit burn.

The capsule will splash down about 5:16 p.m. in the Pacific Ocean.

Recovery forces will retrieve the capsule and its more than 4,100 pounds of returning cargo, including science samples from human and animal research, biotechnology studies, physical science investigations and education activities.

NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, the nonprofit organization that manages research aboard the U.S. national laboratory portion of the space station, will receive and process research samples, ensuring they are distributed to the appropriate facilities within 48 hours of splashdown.

In the event of adverse weather conditions in the Pacific, the backup departure date is Monday, July 3.

Dragon, the only space station resupply spacecraft able to return to Earth intact, launched June 3 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, for the companys 11th NASA-contracted commercial resupply mission to the station.

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