Editor's Note: This article comes fromHoneycomb Finance News (ID: fengchao-caijing), Author: Hoho, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.
Editor's Note: This article comes from
Honeycomb Finance News (ID: fengchao-caijing)
Honeycomb Finance News (ID: fengchao-caijing)
, Author: Hoho, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.
On March 24, the news that "Dr. Zhao", one of the operators of South Korea's "House N" was disclosed by the media, became a hot event on Weibo with hundreds of millions of people concerned, surpassing the news that Wuhan will be unblocked.
The most influential chat room is called "Doctor's Room", and the youngest victim is only 11 years old. The police finally took control of Zhao, the creator of the chat room, and found 130 million won of funds involved in the case at his home, equivalent to 740,000 yuan, and the remaining stolen money was stored in the form of bitcoin. Bitcoin is the only payment method for "Dr. Zhao" to collect membership fees.
At present, cryptocurrency trading platforms in South Korea, including Bithumb and Huobi Korea, have indicated that they will assist the police and provide information related to the case.
When both communication and payment exist in encrypted form and are used by lawbreakers, how to prevent encryption technology from being used illegally has become one of the focuses of discussion again.
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Built on the "House N" industry chain on Telegram
On Telegram, the "Doctor Room" operated by "Dr. Zhao" is already an upgraded version of the sexual exploitation video chat room.
When Hankyoreh reporters undercovered these suspicious Telegram rooms in June this year, the first thing that caught their attention was the “high-walled room,” run by a man named “Watch man.” In Room 1, 2,000 members gathered here to watch the trailer of pornographic videos. After paying with vouchers, they can enter Room 2 to watch the full video. Members who continue to pay for more exciting videos can continue to enter rooms 3, 4.... There are at least 8 such rooms, which is why the media named it "Room N".
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Screenshot of the pornographic video circulated in Room H
The phenomenon of room N can be traced back to June 2018. A high school student named "god god" established this chat room. In February of the following year, "godgod" disappeared, and the management authority of all rooms was removed by "Watch man". "Take over.
The arrest of one person did not affect the spread of room N on Telegram, and the "doctor's room" is only one of the N series. Zhao, who runs the chat room, was born in 1995 and studied information and communication in college.
"Dr. Zhao" is not only the operator of the "Doctor's Room", but also the photographer of the video. According to South Korean media reports, he used false recruitment information to attract women, obtained personal information, tricked them into taking explicit photos, and used this as a threat to coerce them into taking more embarrassing videos, and even took the victimized women offline to confess. people violated. The videos taken become the “Doctor’s” profit tool, and members pay bitcoins to enter the chat room to watch.
With the help of an encrypted communication tool like Telegram, room N is disbanded, transferred, and rebuilt at any time, and those video files are continuously saved and disseminated, and the payment tool for paying members has also evolved from commodity coupons to bitcoin.
This criminal industrial chain was exposed two years later because the perpetrators used encryption technology to cover up people's eyes and ears.
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Korea Exchange Assists Police in Tracking Suspects
After the police took control of Mr. Zhao, they found 130 million won, or about 740,000 yuan, in his home. The rest of the stolen money was stored in bitcoin. The specific amount has not been disclosed.
According to Yonhap News Agency, South Korea’s Ministry of Justice stated that for criminal suspects who participated in the production and distribution of illegal sexual assault images in “Room N”, the crime of criminal group organization in the Criminal Law will be applied, and they will thoroughly investigate and recover the use of cryptocurrencies, etc. Criminal proceeds from settlement means, and strictly deal with money laundering related to illegal proceeds.
The South Korean people not only demand severe punishment for the operator of Room N, but also call for finding those hidden paying viewers. These hidden behaviors of watching perverted videos and even paying victims of sexual assault have caused public unease.
On the official Blue House petition website, more than 1.18 million people requested to verify and disclose the member list of Room N. According to media surveys, nearly 260,000 members are hiding in Room N.
1.18 million people requested to disclose the member information of Room N
According to Cryptonews, on March 24, the South Korean police had already shown search warrants to several local cryptocurrency exchanges while investigating the case of Room N, in order to find those who paid to watch illegal sex videos. The exchanges that were notified by the police include Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit, and Coinone.
At present, Bithumb said in an interview with the media that it is in possession of the list of relevant members and is actively assisting the police in the investigation.
The use of encrypted communication tools and cryptocurrencies to commit crimes has also attracted the attention of South Korean judicial authorities. According to a press release issued by the South Korean Ministry of Justice on the 24th, digital sex crime is a serious crime that destroys the personality and life of the victim. "However, we have not taken any aggressive action to eradicate them before," "We feel very sorry about that."
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The Dilemma of Anonymous Social Software
It is not new for Bitcoin to be used by criminals. This peer-to-peer electronic cash system, born in 2009, has always been one of the main payment tools for dark web transactions due to its anonymity.
In 2011, the dark web gave birth to the first famous black market, Silk Road (Silk Road). In 2013, the US FBI arrested Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and confiscated a total of 144,000 bitcoins, worth $28 million at the time.
The blockchain security organization PeckShield disclosed in a research report that in 2019, the total number of bitcoins that flowed directly from the dark web into major exchanges was 29,471.64, with a total value of 216 million US dollars based on the transaction price.
After the incident in Room N was exposed, Telegram, a communication and chat tool that is popular all over the world for protecting privacy and encrypting chat records, has once again been brought to the forefront.
In 2013, Telegram was launched by Russian geek Durov Brothers, using the MTProto network transmission protocol to ensure the privacy of users and the security of chat information. The functions of interactive encryption and self-destructing messages made the app popular all over the world in 7 years. In 2018, In March, it reached 200 million people, equivalent to the total population of Brazil.
Encrypted chat has also attracted unscrupulous users. Telegram and its series of products have also been blocked by some countries and taken offline by Apple stores due to terrorism and pornography.
From 2017 to 2018, when Iranians held demonstrations due to dissatisfaction with the government's economic policies, a court in Tehran believed that Telegram played a role in the protests and issued an order prohibiting Iranians from using Telegram.
In 2017, Telegram was accused of being used by terrorist extremists. Telegram has refused to hand over the keys that would unlock user information when Russian authorities demanded that messaging service providers provide a way to decrypt users' messages, citing anti-terrorism laws. Eventually, Telegram was blocked throughout Russia.
In January 2018, Telegram and its client Telegram X were punished by Apple. At that time, Apple marketing director Phil Schiller said that the team found illegal content including child pornography in the app. After verification, Apple removed the app and notified the developer, and contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
