What do you make of this story?

[danb]

I read these article about cyber crime in Kenya last night. Here is a link to that artclie:

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30327412

 

"Military-style dormitories,cyber crime, Hacking and money laundering, 77 Chinese arrested, one person dead, ATM machines, unauthorized radio operations, and list goes on.

 

The artcles goes on to say:

 

Kenya's Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed summoned China's ambassador on Wednesday and "made it clear that the Chinese government should fully cooperate on this matter," Fred Matiang'i, the communications minister, said.

"China promised to send investigators to work with ours on this matter," he added.

I also read somewhere that the raided housse were near some foreign embassies. A bit of intrigue in Africa. What do you all make of this? Danb

[Randy W]

I read these article about cyber crime in Kenya last night. Here is a link to that artclie:

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30327412

 

"Military-style dormitories,cyber crime, Hacking and money laundering, 77 Chinese arrested, one person dead, ATM machines, unauthorized radio operations, and list goes on.

 

The artcles goes on to say:

 

Kenya's Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed summoned China's ambassador on Wednesday and "made it clear that the Chinese government should fully cooperate on this matter," Fred Matiang'i, the communications minister, said.

"China promised to send investigators to work with ours on this matter," he added.

I also read somewhere that the raided housse were near some foreign embassies. A bit of intrigue in Africa. What do you all make of this? Danb

 

 

Sounds like a bunch of goof-balls. The kind of thing that might be more likely to generate a movie deal than anything of use to anyone.

 

Starting fires with computers? How much incompetence does it take to do THAT?

 

There may or may not be more to it than the article suggests, but it reads like they were just playing a Keystone Kops-style Chinese fire drill!

[Dennis143]

I read these article about cyber crime in Kenya last night. Here is a link to that artclie:

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30327412

 

"Military-style dormitories,cyber crime, Hacking and money laundering, 77 Chinese arrested, one person dead, ATM machines, unauthorized radio operations, and list goes on.

 

The artcles goes on to say:

 

Kenya's Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed summoned China's ambassador on Wednesday and "made it clear that the Chinese government should fully cooperate on this matter," Fred Matiang'i, the communications minister, said.

"China promised to send investigators to work with ours on this matter," he added.

I also read somewhere that the raided housse were near some foreign embassies. A bit of intrigue in Africa. What do you all make of this? Danb

Most of the news wires are carrying this story... apparently this is a big bust.

[Randy W]

In Al-Jazeera

 

Kenya arrests 77 Chinese over 'hacking'

Police say gang that lived near US embassy in Nairobi was "preparing to raid the country's communication systems".

 

 

"The suspects are being interrogated to establish their mission in the country and what they wanted to do with the communication gadgets. They have been charged in court," said the director of Kenya's Criminal Investigation Department, Ndegwa Muhoro.

 

"We have roped in experts to tell us if they were committing crimes of espionage,'' he told the Associated Press news agency.

 

. . .

 

Police said it appeared the group was also manufacturing ATM cards, and that the suspects may have been involved in money laundering and Internet fraud.

 

 

 

More like the Keystone Kops going to the source

 

China says will help Kenya with hacking probe

 

A statement from the Chinese embassy in Nairobi said initial investigations pointed to a “telecommunication fraud case“, an apparent response to Kenyan concerns that those detained may be Chinese spies.

 

“China and Kenya enjoy long-standing friendship, and the Chinese side resolutely supports the Kenyan side in combating all forms of illegal and criminal activities,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in the statement.

 

[danb]

Initially when I read the story I thought, "Oh that's interesting.....just another story , nothing really special." But as Dennis mentioned : " Most of the news wires are carrying this story... apparently this is a big bust." If it was only 5 or 6 people arrested then it may just a small group of criminals trying to make an extra yuan or two. But with 77 people being arrested and one dead person it seem like there is more to the story.

 

I got this from another link this morning " The arrests began on Sunday, when computer equipment in one of the upscale houses the Chinese nationals had rented near the U.S. Embassy and U.N. headquarters caught fire, killing one person." That link was:

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/77-chinese-nationals-cuffed-for-internet-hacking-in-kenya/#postComments

 

Later in that same article it said: " The 37 suspects arrested Sunday were charged with operating an illegal radio station. Many of those arrested cannot speak English and some don't have identification such as a passport, police detective Nicholas Kisavi said."

The comments about illegal radio stations , are they talking about wifi type operations or are they talking about satellite type hacking? If Paul Harvey was still around I wonder what he would say about, "the rest of the story." Is this a James Bond type story or a more of a Keystone cop story. I hope we hear more about what is happening. It could be an interesting story. Danb