Google and Amazon Helped the FBI Identify Z-Library’s Operators
torrentfreak.com
torrentfreak.com
In every country the companies have to comply to the government.
The thing about OpSec is that most people don't think about it before they need it. And by that time it's too late. That may not apply here though, because it appears they were loose with OpSec until the very end.
As a poor kid who put themselves through college, I definitely sympathize with, and understand that, the price of text books and academic work is insane. I may or may not have even used the website or its analogues once or twice.
But at the end of the day, they had to know what they were doing. If you're doing ransomware/carding/etc. you don't target Russia or its friends. And if you're trying to get around copyright law, you don't operate within reach of the US government. These are things that anyone who has been around security for even a couple of months understands.
Do I think people should be grabbed from foreign countries over copyright? No. But if you're operating in that world, it's colossally stupid to not take OpSec seriously.
So if in my country I make a program that is legal where I live, but illegal in the US then the US can come and steal me away?
That’s more than a little scary.
This looks like a decent starting point https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspectives/advisories/2020...
It doesn't seem like they made a serious effort to keep their identities hidden from law enforcement or they wouldn't have been that sloppy. But as long as they stayed in Russia they'd be fine.
Leaving Russia seems awfully risky if you're running a site like that, without taking far more extreme precautions.
Surely this would be a more accurate headline?