back to article Fumbling Feds lose control of seized MegaUpload domains – to saucy vid slingers

Some of MegaUpload's file-sharing websites, once seized by the Feds, are now serving up porn and allegedly malware – after Uncle Sam's finest failed to renew one of its own domains. Netizens surfing to two of the five ex-MegaUpload sites are greeted with a page containing multiple links to malware downloads, a fake BBC article …

  1. Ian 62

    Why think is a cock up?

    Having such a high profile site (even if it is now defunct) as megaupload becoming associated with the likes of warez and pron is a good marketing strategy to get it into the minds of the massess that sites like it must just be full of nasties.

    /tinfoil

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Still better than being associated with the US gov. Welcome to the new millennium, where the good guys are worse than the bad guys.

      1. Michael Habel

        Re: Where the good guys are worse than the bad guys.

        Remind me again who were the "Good Guy's" again?!

        1. Fungus Bob

          Re: Where the good guys are worse than the bad guys.

          "Remind me again who were the "Good Guy's" again?!"

          They wear the white hats...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Black Helicopters

      Wrong.

      This is good because now Kim can use this total-fuckup to demonstrate the the rest of the operation (all the way back to before the seizure) was fucked up as well.

    3. Frank Zuiderduin

      Hanlon's razor

      "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

      Yes, I think they are just that dumb.

    4. Gordo Rex

      Wait, you mean that at some time MegaUpload was not associated with pron?

      Where was I when that was happening?

  2. Tim Roberts 1

    never used megaupload ...

    ... and I'm not a fan of "piracy" sites but the US really fucked up in their pursuit of Kim Dotcom. You think you own the world? Wrong. You think you have jurisdiction in every nation on Earth? Wrong. You think you own the internet? Theoretically you do but it is becoming increasingly obvious that this won't always be the case - in fact probably really isn't the case now.

  3. frank ly

    Questions

    Isn't it certain that GoDaddy would have sent e-mails to the FBI to advise them that the domain was about to expire? Even my little personal domain has automatic renewal and they email me every two years to reassure me about it. Maybe the FBI just didn't want it anymore?

    If the new 'owner' of cirfu.net now has control of the old Megaupload domains, isn't that because the owner(s) of those domains are still pointing to cirfu.net?

    It seems like an unlikely combination of half-baked cockup and conspiracy.

    1. ScottAS2

      Re: Questions

      Do not underestimate the inertia in large, bureaucratic organisations, of which the FBI is almost certainly an example. It's entirely possible that someone got the e-mail telling them the domain was about to expire, but didn't have the authority to issue a purchase order for the renewal, or even authority to pass it on to someone who does. So, the task get passed up, down, left, right, through any number of people, committees, meetings, most of whom don't care about it, or know the importance (for instance, they may not have realised that it also was involved with the Megaupload domains). It only takes one to forget or not bother and before you know it, the domain's expired.

      1. Mark 85

        Re: Questions

        It's even more likely that person that set up the account used their email addy instead of something like an "accounting" email addy. They have either been transferred to another project or quit. Which sent the emails to the giant bi tbucket.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: Questions

          "It's even more likely that person that set up the account used their email addy instead of something like an "accounting" email addy. They have either been transferred to another project or quit. Which sent the emails to the giant bi tbucket."

          Yep, that happens all the time. I spent ages at a customer site trying to find out why some of their connectivity to HQ worked while some didn't. Eventually we worked out that their ISP was doling out long lease DHCP, not proper fixed IP addresses, they had made changes, the email address on the account was someone who had left and no one was monitoring that account anymore and HQ was using the incoming IP address for authentication on some parts of the network. Stupidity and/or lackadaisical processes at two corners of the triangle.

  4. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "CIRFU stands for the Feds' Cyber Initiative and Resource Fusion Unit"

    I think the "Fusion Unit" part might have to be changed.

    1. Tromos

      I think the "Fusion Unit" part might have to be changed.

      They can keep the first couple of letters and length intact. Just replace 'sion' with 'ckup'.

  5. John G Imrie

    Lost goods

    So an innocent man, Dot Com has not yet been tried let alone found guilty, has his goods taken by the Government and put into storage and the Government then fails to renew the fee for storage and the goods are then sold on.

    Shouldn't the Government have a duty of care for this?

    1. Fatman
      WTF?

      Re: Lost goods

      Not exactly, Dot.Com lost his MegaUpload assets in a civil forfeiture case, not a criminal one.

      Civil forfeiture laws in the ole USofA have been abused by the cops and prosecutors to the point where guilt or innocence doesn't matter. Those fuckers are going to take your toys away, and there is shit you can do about it. In some communities, the police do civil forfeiture on TRAFFIC offenses just to pad their budgets.

      Worthless BASTARDS!!!

      example: http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/investigations/2015/01/14/brandes-pitching-changes-to-civil-forfeiture-noah-pransky/21705495/

  6. Daniel B.
    FAIL

    EPIC FAIL

    You'd expect the FBI to not let their domains lapse at all. Seems they didn't.

    I'm also amused that it seems they seemed to have just put a CNAME on those domains.

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