Jump to content

PureVPN keeping logs


reactor

Recommended Posts

Cyberstalking Suspect Arrested After VPN Providers Shared Logs With the FBI

 

VPN providers often advertise their products as a method of surfing the web anonymously, claiming they never store logs of user activity, but a recent criminal case shows that at least some, do store user activity logs.

 

PureVPN privacy policy page

 

 

The case in question is of Ryan Lin, a 24-year-old man from Newton, Massachusetts, arrested on Thursday, October 5, on charges of cyberstalking.

According to an FBI affidavit published by the US Department of Justice, Lin is accused of harassing and cyberstalking an unnamed 24-year-old woman — referred to under the generic name of Jennifer Smith — between April 2016 and up until his arrest.

 

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cyberstalking-suspect-arrested-after-vpn-providers-shared-logs-with-the-fbi/

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 8
  • Views 1.1k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Real Life or Horror Movie? How VPN Logs Helped FBI Unmask a Cyberstalking Suspect

 

https://s7d6.turboimg.net/sp/92602c98acae85cabbe875c277b49043/cyberstalking-740x493.jpg

 

 

 

We often turn to proxy and VPN services for protecting our identities online. But are these products actually hiding your late night searches? Perhaps not. Criminals increasingly use these anonymizing services to hide their tracks, however, a recent arrest, while creating questions about the authenticity of VPN services, could also help in deterring similar heinous criminal activities.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was able to track down a vicious internet stalker using logs provided by paid VPN services. In an announcement, the US Department of Justice said that the arrest of Ryan Lin, a 24-year-old from Massachusetts, was possible thanks to VPN logs provided by PureVPN. He was arrested on charges of cyberstalking a former roommate and harassing her family, her employers, friends, and her community.

Those who think they can use the Internet to terrorize people and hide behind the anonymity of the net and outwit law enforcement should think again,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the DoJ’s Criminal Division said.

“The Department of Justice will be relentless in its efforts to identify, arrest, prosecute, and punish the perpetrators of these horrendous acts and seek justice on behalf of their victims.”

Bomb threats, doxing, harassment – a cyberstalking campaign right out of Hollywood’s horror genre

The complaint filed against Lin in the Massachusetts District Court reveals that he stalked his former roommate (referred as Jennifer Smith in the court documents to protect her identity), who said the abusive online campaign against her began soon after Lin moved in and continued even after she had moved out two months later.

The charges against Lin include doxing, posting intimate photos suggesting they were Smith’s, sending “images that likely constitute child pornography” to her family and friends, among others. Private information, including Smith’s birth date, address, phone numbers, and passwords of accounts repeatedly showed up online. Lin is also alleged of having made a series of false police reports, sending anonymous tips of bombs and drugs at Smith’s residence.
Smith’s unprotected MacBook carried a document having all her passwords

The affidavit reveals that Smith had a document on her laptop (which wasn’t password protected) that carried passwords to all her accounts, including iCloud which was later used by Lin to steal her private pictures.

To cover his tracks, Lin used various privacy services, including Tor, anonymized international texting services, overseas encrypted email services, and VPN services. But what made it relatively easy for FBI to track him down was his work computer that he had used for some of his cyberstalking campaign.

After being terminated from work, his employers had reinstalled Windows to have the system reassigned to a new employee. However, FBI was able to follow the crumbs left by Lin, including the following:

 

https://s7d8.turboimg.net/sp/6d03a7b258f2838a78a77b699d4d4e1e/ryan-lin-cyberstalking-740x573.png

 

The logs from PureVPN and footprints left on his work computer helped the agents prove that it was indeed Lin who had been targeting Smith, her colleagues, friends, and her family with a year-long harassment campaign. The logs showed that the same VPN IP address that had logged into Lin’s Gmail account was used to log into another account that was used for making threats against her. PureVPN was also able to link the stalking campaign with Lin’s home and work IPs.

In its affidavit, the FBI has shared how Lin had ironically tweeted about VPN services keeping logs.

“There is no such thing as VPN that doesn’t keep logs. If they can limit your connections or track bandwidth usage, they keep logs.”

Investigators further became sure that Lin was the one behind this campaign after they were able to connect him to a Rover account that was used to get Smith’s new phone number. Lin had signed up on Rover using name “Ashley Piano” where Smith was offering pet sitting services. Using Rover, Lin was able to get Smith’s new number as she had changed her previous one after being harassed.

 

https://s7d3.turboimg.net/sp/44d5876490cac64250018c354e948da4/cyberstalking-740x588.png

 

 

As alleged, Mr. Lin orchestrated an extensive, multi-faceted campaign of computer hacking and online harassment that caused a huge amount of angst, alarm, and unnecessary expenditure of limited law enforcement resources,” Harold H Shaw, FBI Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Field Division, said.

“This kind of behavior is not a prank, and it isn’t harmless.”

FBI agent who oversaw the campaign added that “no one should feel unsafe in their own home, school, or workplace, and the FBI and our law enforcement partners hope today’s arrest will deter others from engaging in similar criminal conduct.”

Lin faces up to five years in prison and up to three years of supervised release.

 

Source:
 

http://wccftech.com/cyberstalking-suspect-arrested-vpn-logs/

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Pure VPN   thanks there some kind of cyber security  program to protect people from being stalked  on the internet there not interested in protecting cyber stalkers they will feed you too the dogs and there from Hong Kong .

 

More info here: How PureVPN Boosted Its YoY Traffic By 289% Via User-Generated Content

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joeescobedo/2017/09/18/how-purevpn-boosted-its-yoy-traffic-by-289-via-user-generated-content/

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites


1 hour ago, Rainmaker said:

I think anyone who says they don't keep logs is lying.

 

R

They did not lie they don't log what you do on the internet, they state in black and white in  there privacy policy what they do log and in this case it was enough info too get him caught  . 49 states  have laws  against stalking a minor  like he done .

 

Quote

Our servers automatically record the time at which you connect to any of our servers. From here on forward, we do not keep any records of anything that could associate any specific activity to a specific user. The time when a successful connection is made with our servers is counted as a ‘connection’ and the total bandwidth used during this connection is called ‘bandwidth’. Connection and bandwidth are kept in record to maintain the quality of our service. This helps us understand the flow of traffic to specific servers so we could optimize them better.

https://www.purevpn.com/privacy-policy.php

The girl told on him,  they already knew he done it . But they  needed enough evidence to charge him for it.  so they found a goldmine in data at his former workplace  the times he contented to Pure VPN was just a small piece of the puzzle he left  lots of data  at a place he didn't even work at anymore is what got them the evidence  they needed .

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Don't I just love it when an idiot and the internet get together.  Lots of lessons to be learned here.  VPNs aren't secure, unless you are providing your own VPN servers, and it doesn't matter what you do to that drive in your computer, if it is intact, those 0s and 1s will out you in a heartbeat.  (And in some cases when it isn't intact.  Like the case years ago with the 5 1/4 floppy disk that was cut in pieces and thrown in the trash.  An investigator recovered most of the pieces, taped them together, put them in a new sleeve, and recovered enough data to convict a crim.)  I saw a case a few years ago where an idiot thought he could do some illegal things on Skype and there would be no record left on the victims computer, but he was wrong also.  Some of the best stupid criminal stories will never become public because they involve the internet and the capabilities of reconstructing data.  That's a shame, some of them are really sobering.  And some are really interesting, like the tracking of a cellphone, not by the tower connections, but by  the WiFi connections it made as it moved through the city.  The crim was placed within 3 feet of the crime at the time it happened thru WiFi connections.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


18 hours ago, straycat19 said:

Don't I just love it when an idiot and the internet get together.  Lots of lessons to be learned here.  VPNs aren't secure, unless you are providing your own VPN servers, and it doesn't matter what you do to that drive in your computer, if it is intact, those 0s and 1s will out you in a heartbeat.  (And in some cases when it isn't intact.  Like the case years ago with the 5 1/4 floppy disk that was cut in pieces and thrown in the trash.  An investigator recovered most of the pieces, taped them together, put them in a new sleeve, and recovered enough data to convict a crim.)  I saw a case a few years ago where an idiot thought he could do some illegal things on Skype and there would be no record left on the victims computer, but he was wrong also.  Some of the best stupid criminal stories will never become public because they involve the internet and the capabilities of reconstructing data.  That's a shame, some of them are really sobering.  And some are really interesting, like the tracking of a cellphone, not by the tower connections, but by  the WiFi connections it made as it moved through the city.  The crim was placed within 3 feet of the crime at the time it happened thru WiFi connections.

If you provided your own servers and they are in you're name they would lead right back too you in a case like this how do you think they knew to ask Pure for info? This also shows the FBI are not that good with all  there  spying stuff they have on the internet they had to depend on forensic evidence once again . They just got lucky was all that the guy was this sloppy at work and  wasn't using a Linux DVD or something that didn't leave traces behind is all. If this idiot would of been working at work instead messing around on the computer doing things he shouldn't they would of never found what they would of needed. This don't show VPNs are not secure .Fact is i already knew the FBI used these time stamps too catch people using VPNs for a very long time. I already had researched it. It shows Humans are ignorant . Always  human error gets them caught and they don't even know what there up against or how the law works when it comes too software like this.

 

PS: In this day in age Facebook and Social Networks  has caused the world too become stalkers all most everyone on the internet  is up in other peoples business. This guy crossed the line with it and  done it too a minor  . But people be on Facebook doxing people everyday and they don't even know there doing it  they think it's normal. Big Tech has caused this monster .  Employers are even watching Facebook and stalking there employees watching to see if they dox themselves and are using it as a human resources tool to fire people .    Also once you get arrested then you're personal info becomes  a matter of public record and gets posted all over the Internet, TV  and newspapers and the USA don't even have a right too be forgotten law like the EU does so it never goes away even if found not guilty. Even the White House  doxed  people before.

 

In High Trolling Style, White House Releases Personal Info Of Its Privacy Critics.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2017/07/16/in-high-trolling-style-the-white-house-released-the-personal-info-of-its-privacy-critics/

The White House Is Doxxing America

https://www.damemagazine.com/2017/09/18/white-house-doxxing-america

Then people think I'm crazy and ware a tinfoil hat because I don't put my personal info on the internet for people too get,  but they don't know what happen too me on here years ago  too cause me too become like this and I have my reasons . :D

 

Quote

Any VPN can provide encryption but only a few VPN providers will protect your privacy at all costs. In order to truly keep their users anonymous, a VPN must keep no logs. Not even server logs for troubleshooting. While tons of VPN services claim to be ‘non-logging’ in reality, most don’t deliver on this claim.

 Some vpns have been tested in court against the FBI  and didn't have any timestamps too give them but the fact is PureVPN  states they do timestamps in there privacy policy and this why you should read the privacy policy of every vpn before buying one even if they limit you're data  there logging  you to see how much data you use.

 

It not just a PureVPN  problem ether it seems all VPN from Hong Kong keep timestamps .

 

 
Quote

 

  robert_lazar

"BlackVPN operates under the jurisdiction of Hong Kong since it has no Mandatory Data Retention laws and a strong Bill of Rights which protects its citizens’ freedom of speech. "  - From blackvpn's torrentfreak response.

 

 See, he brags about Hong Kong and no data retention , but he also says this

 " Yes. When a user connects we log the time stamp of their connection plus the internal IP address assigned (which can be mapped to a shared external IP address). This information is kept for 7 days on our Privacy locations and 30 days on our TV locations (USA, UK, Canada & Singapore). We NEVER log a users real IP address" -from blackvpn's torrentfreak answers.

 

 so why is he logging anything at all when he brags abut HK having no data retention laws?  can any blackvpn fanboys answer this one?

  also he makes a point about claiming to never log a user's real ip address. do you really believe that?  even if he doesn't, he is still logging way more than enough information to identify single users.

 

its a shame anyone would pay for blackvpn

 

 

And some subs on reddit.com lie about  some VPN's  that have no logs at all and it even been proven in court they don't have any and they allow vpns  that do timestamps too promote there vpns that log and ban people talking about the ones that don't the world is really a screwed up place. 

 

Don't trust word of mouth or privacy sites,  that do list for hits  read there privacy policy for yourself and do research on them and if they have no privacy policy at all,  that's  a sure sign there not only logging but selling you're data as many free vpns do.

 

I think this happening  was a blessing and exposes many people on sites who spread fake info, in favor for there own software and the fanboys who use them now have too eat crow,  because they are too dumb too read what they bought and just want too spread lies about other products,  thank you FBI  for clearing this up for the public too see.

 

Even what got Kim Dotcom busted was the same old thing There is no Mandatory Data Retention laws  in the USA  or are there any in Hong Kong . But Lease Web  was doing them anyway  and they turned the data over too the feds from Hong Kong  and the USA  and many vpns are using Lease Web servers witch have worked with law enforcement  all over the world  time and time again.  i don't  never use no Lease Web servers on any vpn anymore they lost my trust.  99% of the internet is just a keylogger .

 

The problem with no  Mandatory Data Retention laws  in the USA is the same in Hong Kong  there is no law to prohibit Teach Firms from doing it ether and 95% of them are logging ether too sell you're info or they claim it's for quality assurance .  If they not been tested in court i would not trust them.

 

These Big  Teach Firms have made a business out of doxing people you're  info is gold and they make billions a year from it. And if you use there products and agree  too there Toss and they say they log in writing , if they work with the NSA  or the FBI there is nothing you can do about it , because there protected and don't have to reveal  anything because  the laws say it's a matter of national security and many times the feds prohibits them to say anything   with a gag order. :s

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...