As the United States Department of Justice arraigned Daniel Kaye, this week, the same person who was approached and hired by Avy Zaidenberg of LISCR, an American citizen to implement the DDOS attack on Liberia, specifically Lonestar MTN, this move comes for his alleged connections to The Real Deal, a dark web market that sold hacking tools and stolen login credentials for U.S. government’s computers.
According to multiple information featured on international news wires noted that victim management of Daniel Kaye have begun contemplating plans to launch legal proceedings against Cellcom and Orange Liberia Inc., in relation to the cyber-attack carried out against the company in 2016.
However, our sources further disclosed that one of the culprits, Avy Shah is reportedly on the run amid the trial expected to commence the first week in December, 2022 in London, the United Kingdom
Kaye admitted being hired by a Cellcom operative to launch a cyber-attack on Lonestar in 2016, according to the BBC, Kaye along with Mr. Avishai Marziano, a former Cellcom Telecommunications Limited Chief Executive and Mr. Ran Polani were scheduled to face trial in an English Commercial court in 2019.
In a statement issued at the time, a copy of which was sent to this paper via email, Lonestar Cell MTN confirmed the proceedings against Kaye, saying that it has provided a business impact statement in criminal proceedings against the Briton.
The attack caused considerable damage to Lonestar’s business and disruption to our customers in Liberia. In those circumstances, Lonestar Cell MTN and MTN Group considered it was appropriate and indeed important to provide a business impact statement to explain the impact of the cyber-attack on Lonestar,” a source at the company in an exclusive interview said.
Kaye remains at the heart of a major international investigation into hundreds of acts of cyber sabotage around the world. The National Crime Agency says Kaye is perhaps the most significant cyber-criminal yet caught in the UK.
Kaye was jailed for 32 months at Blackfriars Crown Court in London. Judge Alexander Milne QC said at the time that Kaye had committed a “cynical” financial crime. He added: “Paradoxically, what is urged on your behalf is that you are an intelligent young man who knows what your powers can do.” But that makes it all the more worrying that you used your abilities to carry out this attack.”
Kaye was hired in 2015 to attack Lonestar, Liberia’s leading mobile phone and Internet Company, by an individual working for Cellcom, its competitor.
There is no suggestion that Cellcom knew what the employee was doing – but the individual offered Kaye up to $10,000 (£7,800) a month to use his skills to do as much as possible to destroy Lonestar’s service and reputation.
Robin Sellers, prosecuting, told Blackfriars Crown Court at the time that in November 2016 Kaye had built a “botnet” – a particularly powerful form of cyber-attack that is designed to overwhelm a target’s systems, making it impossible to carry out normal business. This type of attack is known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS). It is different to a ransom demand that locks up systems, such as the “Wannacry” attack on the NHS.
What did Kaye’s botnet do?
The weapon, known as “Mirai #14” worked by secretly hijacking a vast number of Chinese-made Dahua webcams, which are used for security in homes and businesses around the world.
He identified that the cheap cameras and other similar equipment had a security flaw – and he exploited that to take over the devices without owners knowing. That meant he could turn them into what amounted to a “zombie” cyber army to attack his target.
In November 2016, working secretly out of Cyprus and controlling the botnet via his mobile phone, Kaye ordered it to overwhelm Lonestar’s systems. On his command, hundreds of thousands of the webcams began firing data requests at Lonestar Cell MTN.The system began to struggle to manage the demands and parts of the infrastructure crashed.
He then tried to pull in additional firepower by sending further attacks from Germany, where he had sought to hijack part of Deutsche Telekom’s national infrastructure. Researchers found that at the peak of the attack, the Mirai #14 code had compromised about one million devices worldwide.
In Liberia, mobile phone users began to see their devices go offline. The company called in cyber security consultants who attempted to repel the attack, but by that point it was too late because the botnet ran out of control. The National Crime Agency spearheaded the investigation.
What charges did Daniel Kaye admit?
Making the Mirai #14 botnet for use in a Computer Misuse Act 1990 offence Launching cyber-attacks against Lonestar in Liberia – another crime under the Computer Misuse Act Possessing criminal property – relating to $10,000 found on him when he was arrested.
At the time, Liberia’s internet was dependent on both a small number of providers and a relatively limited Atlantic cable. European nations, by comparison, have a vastly more secure internet because traffic can reach users through many different connection routes.
Kaye had sent so much traffic at Lonestar, the entire national system jammed. According to investigators, the country’s internet repeatedly failed between 3 November and 4 November 2016 – disrupting not just Lonestar but organisations and ordinary users up and down the state.
This is believed to be the first time that a single cyber attacker had disrupted an entire nation’s internet – albeit without intending to do so. Hack attacks cut internet access in Liberia In written submissions to the court, Babatunde Osho, Lonestar’s former chief executive, said Kaye’s criminality had been devastating.
“The DDOS perpetrated by Daniel Kaye seriously compromised Lonestar’s ability to provide a reliable internet connection to its customers,” said Mr Osho.” In turn, Mr Kaye’s actions prevented Lonestar’s customers from communicating with each other, obtaining access to essential services, and carrying out their day-to-day business activities.
“A substantial number of Lonestar’s customers switched to competitors. “In the years preceding the DDOS attacks, Lonestar’s annual revenue exceeded $80m (£62.4m). Since the attacks, revenue has decreased by tens of millions and its current liabilities have increased by tens of millions.”
How did investigators catch Kaye?
Kaye was already suspected of being behind the attack – and he was arrested when he returned to the UK on holiday in February 2017.
He was carrying $10,000 which the National Crime Agency says was part of the payments he received for the Lonestar attack.
What is Liberia Justice Ministry Role?
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Minister of Justice, and Attorney General of Liberia today, November 24, 2022, Cllr. Frank Musa Dean confirmed all of the legal actions taken against this notorious international hacker by both the United States and the United Kingdom, and further said his Ministry is in the known of all of these, and further promised to join the legal team from both countries when call upon.
The U.K. national Daniel Kaye was accused of operating the platform and facilitating the sale of stolen information – including bank account and credit card details, as well as other personal information; illegal drugs; weapons; botnets; computer hacking tools; and credentials for social media accounts.
He previously served more than two-and-a-half years in a British prison for perpetrating a devastating distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Liberia, among other crimes.
Daniel Kaye admitted attacking LoneStar GSM company which inadvertently crashing Liberia’s internet in 2016. The 30-year-old remains at the heart of a major international investigation into hundreds of acts of cyber sabotage around the world.
As result of this attack on its services, LoneStar Cell MTN, has dragged its rival, Orange, to a London Court for damages that resulted from massive cyber-attacks experienced on its network between 2015 and 2017. Joined in the lawsuit is Cellcom, LoneStar Cell MTN’s main competitor that was acquired by Orange in 2015.
In the lawsuit, LoneStar contended that the Cyber-attacks negatively impacted its business over the two years period that the cyber onslaught lasted.
Owing to the attacks, LoneStar subscribers were unable to communicate during the period as they could not access the network. Most Liberians also suffered its devastating impact as they were cut off from bank transactions, while corporate offices operations were brought to a standstill. Learning in educational institutions were negatively impacted, even as farmers could not check crop prices.
In Monrovia, the largest hospital went offline several times as the attacks continued unabated, while infectious disease specialists lost contact with international health agencies.
Telecommunications operatives and IT experts contended that never before had the world witnessed Cyber-attacks of such magnitude.
However, efforts by the GNN to reach out to the Minister of Justice, Cllr. Frank Musa Dean to comment on the role of the Liberian Government regarding this issue will continues.
Comments are closed.