Category Archives: Owl Cybersecurity

Tor’s ex-director thinks ISS World gets a bad rap

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The man who was once in charge of overseeing Tor will soon turn to law enforcement in order to explain how to de-anonymize the service’s users. Andrew Lewman, once revered as a giant in the world of hacking and privacy activism, is slated to headline the ISS World conference in Malaysia, a controversial surveillance tech and government trade show that features hacking heavyweights like Italy’s Hacking Team, Germany’s FinFisher and Israel’s NSO Group. Lewman will be attending as vice president of dark web intelligence firm DarkOWL (previously OWL Cybersecurity). Although it’s one of the most contentious conferences in tech, Lewman says ISS World isn’t nearly as bad as it’s made out to be by critics. “I don’t think ISS World is controversial at all,” he said. “I think it’s a training exercise. If you’re working with law enforcement, that’s where they go to learn about the cool new technology.” “It’s like RSA for law enforcement,” he […]

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Jeff Sessions made investors want to throw money at dark net intelligence firms

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When U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions stepped in front of cameras and told the world about the international law enforcement operation that resulted in the bust of at least two multimillion-dollar dark net markets, investors’ ears perked up. OWL Cybersecurity is a two-year old Denver-based dark net intelligence firm currently closing a funding round. In the one week since Sessions and other federal law enforcement officials announced the AlphaBay dark net bust, OWL vice president Andrew Lewman says he has received a mountain of phone calls from potential investors. “Regardless of your politics, when Jeff Sessions stands up and says ‘the dark net is a concern, that gets a lot of attention,” Lewman said. “In the past two weeks, we’ve had all these people we’ve talked to in the past saying they didn’t understand it, didn’t know what it was come at us and say, ‘About that investment, are you still taking offers?’” […]

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Tor’s ex-director: ‘The criminal use of Tor has become overwhelming’

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Nearly two years to the day since Andrew Lewman quit his job as executive director of Tor, the anonymity software meant to shield users from government intervention, he found himself rushing between meetings with European law enforcement. Boosted by endorsements from internet activists like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, Lewman had been at the helm of Tor as it became synonymous with internet user privacy. Now, as the newly minted vice president of dark web intel firm OWL Cybersecurity, his meetings with governments have gone from educating officials on how people use Tor to helping law enforcement investigate criminal activity occurring on Tor. As Lewman spoke to CyberScoop last month in between two of those meetings, it became clear that his perspective on the software has shifted. “What’s changed most about Tor is the drug markets have taken over,” Lewman said. “We had all these hopeful things in the beginning but ever since Silk Road has proven you […]

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