
“Giganews is an FBI Operation” - bhaumik
http://cryptome.org/2014/09/giganews-fbi.htm
======
mrbill
Having worked at Texas.Net before it became DataFoundry, and being one of the
people who built up the original Sun E450s that were used as the Usenet
servers when the separate Giganews product was developed, I find this
hilarious.

I know a good number of the GN/DF employees mentioned in the article, and
think this sounds more like a disgruntled ex-employee trying to badmouth his
former employer.

As for the "gigauth" file - how else are you going to run a subscription
Usenet service without logging authenticated users?

Disclaimer: I worked for Texas.Net from 1996 to late 1998 and was one of the
people involved in moving their HQ from their San Antonio location to 823
Congress in Austin.

Edit: BTW, here's pics of my tubby self at work in the GREEN TSHIRT THEY MADE
ME WEAR! (hey, free clothing is free clothing, I loved not having to worry
about what I was going to wear to work every day..)

[http://www.mrbill.net/texasnet/](http://www.mrbill.net/texasnet/)

I have nothing but respect for Ron Y. and his family - he and his wife invited
me to spend Thanksgiving dinner in '96 with them since I'd just moved to
Austin and had nowhere else to go. I will never forget that kindness.

~~~
bhouston
You must be one of them as well then. /wink

Overall, this doesn't seem credible. FBI detectives will not be doing run of
the mill OS installs and what not. Also there isn't a need for fake identities
just to be a system administrator in a usenet company. This sounds like
delusions from a paranoid schizophrenic.

~~~
darkstar999
> You must be one of them as well then

mrbill is a freemason working for Halliburton. My tin foil hat is tingling.

~~~
mrbill
[http://www.mrbill.net/ink/firsttat/masonictattoo.jpg](http://www.mrbill.net/ink/firsttat/masonictattoo.jpg)

~~~
anonbanker
Now that's a gang sign if I've ever seen one.

~~~
mrbill
Decided I'd try for the full Conspiracy Theory merit badge.

------
giganews
This is a hoax. These allegations are 100% false.

Unfortunately, since his termination, the poster has periodically posted
versions of this information online. Sometimes, he tries to misrepresent
himself as our CEO and sometimes he posts as himself. Here are some examples
of his previous writings over the last 18 months:

Nuclear Reactors? Our third CEO is Baal? Illuminati? "The Giganews logo is a
red colored shield - subtle homage to the legendary Rothschild family"

[http://pastebin.com/gM9mN7gS](http://pastebin.com/gM9mN7gS)
[http://ronyokubaitis.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/i-am-ron-
yokub...](http://ronyokubaitis.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/i-am-ron-yokubaitis-
co-ceo-of-giganews-i-run-a-huge-central-intellgience-front-in-austin-texas/)

In addition, we believe he runs a Twitter account (@AngelicPsalms) that
accuses random companies, including Giganews, of being controlled by demons
and governments:

[https://twitter.com/AngelicPsalms/status/510175616352923648](https://twitter.com/AngelicPsalms/status/510175616352923648)

@Golden_Frog @VyprVPN & @Giganews servers are run by FBI Special Agent Scott
Kibbey. Do you really want FBI to handle your internet privacy?

[https://twitter.com/AngelicPsalms/status/510599892373614592](https://twitter.com/AngelicPsalms/status/510599892373614592)

Angel Yeiazel counters the demon who steals from King's houses, destroys
cities & honors, &reveals past&future. Eg:#Credit reports, @Equifax

Hey even, Harley Davidson isn't safe either:

[https://twitter.com/AngelicPsalms/status/499732005350031360](https://twitter.com/AngelicPsalms/status/499732005350031360)

Angel Yezalel counters the demon on a pale horse w/trumpeters seen 1st as
fierce/after as an innocent girl;Eg:Jeffrey Dahmer,@harleydavidson

We know Cryptome welcomes documents that expose secret governance, but that's
not the case here. These allegations are sadly from someone who needs help.

We posted more links and info on Twitter:

[https://twitter.com/Giganews/status/511587414683291648](https://twitter.com/Giganews/status/511587414683291648)

Thanks, Giganews

~~~
darkstar999
You attack his character, but don't refute his claims. This seems fishy, or
you aren't very good at convincing us otherwise.

~~~
dblacc
The first line says "these allegations are 100% false" though

~~~
darkstar999
Oh, case closed. Move on everybody!

~~~
mtrpcic
He's just pointing out that he __did __refute the claims, where you (in the
comment directly above), claim that he refutes the persons character but __did
not __refute the claims.

~~~
VlijmenFileer
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/refute](http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/refute) To refute apparently can mean both /prove/ and
just /say/ something is untrue. The way I know the word is in the sense of
"proving", not just saying. I dare to say that is the way most people would
use that word. Giganews only /says/ the allegations are untrue, it doesn't
/prove/ that. To me it means poster is correct in stating their is no refuting
of the claims, and I guess it's the same for most readers.

------
bendoernberg
Giganews has responded by claiming the ex-employee is delusional. They posted
links to a pastebin allegedly written by him, which includes the following:

"Besides spamming, the only other conduct that is unacceptable is uploading or
contacting our employees with information about Vehuiah the holy angel, her
invocation Psalm 3:3, Archangels, or the angels of Jehovah's 72 syllable name
called the Shemhamforash. These are all unstoppable solutions to the 72 demon
intelligences central to mankind, and will drive the dark of all evil away
with an annoyingly bright Holy Light."

[https://twitter.com/Giganews/status/511587414683291648](https://twitter.com/Giganews/status/511587414683291648)

[http://pastebin.com/gM9mN7gS](http://pastebin.com/gM9mN7gS)

~~~
ithought
But it reads like a satirical manifesto. He certainly appears to be trying to
be funny and wrote it as the Co-CEO. Ending with:

>Now that you know what we're about, start a free 14-day trial at Giganews.com
and join the King of Thieves in the unholy war against God. We can only win
with your help, and we need your soul to fuel Hells flames. Our servers are
alwayson, always available, and run by a company you can trust. Giganews:
Newsgroups Nonstop.

~~~
MeadowTheory
Yeah. I am not a medical professional, but I have spent a lot of time around
schizophrenics and other folks with paranoid delusions, and this does not have
the same highly disorganized and repetitive character that their speech and
writing tend towards.

EDIT: To be clear, I still don't really believe the story, but if he is
suffering from paranoid delusions, he is VERY high-functioning.

------
chrissnell
I was employee #3 at Texas.net (Datafoundry's predecessor) back in 1995. While
Jonah Yokubaitis (Ron's son and texas.net co-founder) was a bit of a hot head
and we had a few quarrels back when we were both young and dumb, the
Yokubaitis family are good people. Ron Yokubaitis, in particular, is a good
person. I knew him as a staunch Libertarian. In fact, he was the first
Libertarian I ever met and what he told me about the party later influenced my
own political views. While I have no evidence or knowledge to support or
disprove this man's claim, I don't believe for a second that this is true.
DataFoundry/Texas.net was quite the cowboy operation--literally and
figuratively--and they employed some colorful and hot-tempered characters over
the years, including my younger self. This Nick Caputo character sounds like
sour grapes to me.

~~~
mrbill
Hey, Chris. :) People are going to say the ex-Texas.Net Mafia is showing up
now...

~~~
chrissnell
Howdy, Bill. :) Good to see you around here. I'm interested to see if anybody
else shows up. It's hard to believe that this was almost 20 years ago. I
wonder what happened to everybody. Ed, Mo, Mikedoug, etc.

~~~
mrbill
As far as I know, Ed is now/still the CIO at DataFoundry. I'm in contact with
Brett H. on FB and we're laughing about this. Mikedoug moved on a few years
ago but I'm not sure what he's doing now. Mark is a barista somewhere in
Texas, according to FB.

I've lost touch with pretty much everyone else...

~~~
19dscout
When I left late last year, Mikedoug was still at DF.

------
spindritf
_In addition, Kibbey offered me a new name and identity, with a new drivers
license and everything, if I were to go back to work at Giganews._

What? Why? The whole story seems disjointed.

~~~
themodelplumber
Well, and this:

> It was then that I realized that the fed I was talking to had been my
> coworker at Giganews since I started in 2009!

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I would instantly recognize any coworker
I'd known for three years.

~~~
freehunter
The word coworker can mean a lot of things. I worked at a company of 14,000
and while technically they would all be my coworkers, I probably would
struggle to recognize more than 100 of them that I sat in the same room as
every day. I've met more than a few "coworkers" from that company who drove a
semi in Florida for the company while I worked five states away in an office.

Even at my current company with ~100 employees, damn if I could recognize the
accountants just by seeing their face out of context.

------
jwr
As a thought experiment, let's assume at least parts of this story are true.

I would actually be very happy if the FBI was plugged into a USENET feed,
sifting through the crud and fighting crime. This isn't like the NSA privacy
incursions — USENET is public. Whatever you post is out there for everyone to
see.

~~~
ultramancool
Yes, I agree - the only potential concern here is just that they can grab this
connection data without probable cause and could easily decide to go after...
most of the customers for piracy which could not otherwise be caught.

~~~
Fjolsvith
Hah! They'd have to hire a thousand more judges and prosecutors to handle that
caseload!

------
freehunter
My biggest surprise is that Usenet is apparently still that big of a thing. I
guess I've been out of the loop, the last time I heard about Usenet was 10
years ago, with people talking about pirating from Usenet because torrents
were being blocked. I don't think I've used Usenet since I had dial-up.

~~~
georgemcbay
Usenet was basically the last bastion of relatively open to the public (but
hidden by being obscure) piracy, but over the last couple of years even Usenet
has been largely neutered by automatic DMCA requests, at least as it pertains
to US-based providers.

~~~
VLM
"has been largely neutered by automatic DMCA requests"

For top 40 pop music and hollywood movies released within maybe 6 months of
todays date.

For the rest of the cultural universe, no not really.

~~~
georgemcbay
Also, HBO TV series, which is all.. er "my friend"... cares about, since HBO
refuses to offer "my friend" any way to pay for their content that doesn't
involve getting a full-blown oligopoly-supporting cable TV subscription (while
also not putting much of their content on alt services like Amazon Prime
streaming for months to a year after initial air date).

~~~
Fjolsvith
Just posted a link about Verizon breaking the cable monopoly:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8322762](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8322762)

------
19dscout
I worked with nickc before he was terminated (I am no longer an employee of
PHMGMT, DF, or GN. I left but Imn sure the company doesnt have a very high
opinion of myself), and I can attest that he is one weird dude. When I first
started working there it was suggested to get Nick to start talking about all
of his conspiracy theories in order to pass the time at night... I did not get
the chance (nor did I have the desire). I am absolutely not surprised by this.

------
beedogs
Weird. 137 points, posted 2 hours ago... and already it's moved off the front
page on HN.

Again, what's up, admins?

This and the Kim Dotcom / Snowden / NZ spying story both appear to have been
hastily removed from the front page.

In fact, the NZ story
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8317617](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8317617))
appears to have been hidden entirely.

~~~
dubfan
It's getting flagged, probably because it's of dubious veracity and the author
doxxed GN employees.

------
1ris
Does it really matter what he says? Giganews might keeps logfile "gigauth". I
might not.

But still people have not understand at what scale the internet is broken. It
does not matter weather they log. The NSA logs anyway.

Even if it's not a CIA op, the NSA will know everything as well, just as if it
was a CIA op. Payments, traffic, everything.

------
NathanKP
This claims that VyprVPN is logging things for the government and other
actors. I use VyprVPN on a regular basis, so I'm curious about what exactly
they are logging, how long they keep the logs, etc.

I don't use the VPN for anything illegal, mostly just to get around Verizon's
stupid bandwidth limiting on Netflix, Amazon S3, and other services, and for
an extra layer of protection when connecting from a sketchy public wifi, etc.
But I still would like some answers about these claims especially since their
privacy policy says:

 _Each time a user connects to VyprVPN, we retain the following data for 30
days: the user 's source IP address, the VyprVPN IP address used by the user,
connection start and stop time and total number of bytes used._

and they say:

 _Does not log a user 's traffic or the content of any communications_

------
giganews
[http://www.giganews.com/blog/2014/09/it-is-a-gigahoax-
gigane...](http://www.giganews.com/blog/2014/09/it-is-a-gigahoax-giganews-is-
not-an-fbi-operation.html)

It's a Gigahoax - Giganews is NOT an FBI Operation

Giganews has always supported the Open Internet and fought for the personal
freedoms that the Open Internet enables. Unfortunately, one of those freedoms
is the ability for anyone to say almost anything they want, whether or not it
is true or factual, and for others to believe it. Yesterday, Giganews was
accused of being an FBI operation by an ex-employee through the well-known
Cryptome.org. This accusation is completely false, and the accuser offers no
evidence to support the claim.

Cryptome's failure to contact us to validate the allegations or respond to our
concerns has lessened their credibility. It does not seem that Cryptome is in
search for the truth, which leaves us to question what are their true motives.
Sorry, Cryptome - Giganews is NOT an FBI operation. You've been duped.

Giganews is in the impossible position of proving a negative. If we say our
list of employees does not include any FBI employees, then they must be "using
false identities." If we say the named FBI operatives don't look like any of
our employee photos, "the pictures must have been altered." Even the denial
itself is used as further evidence of the truth of the accusation. In a court
of law, such an accusation would never stand up to scrutiny, but on the Open
Internet, opinions can be formed by only a few words on a popular website.
Fighting the lies only emboldens those who tell them – Feeding the Troll.

What we can do is stand on our long history of supporting the Open Internet
and the privacy of our customers:

\- We are one of the few providers left still offering access to a full Usenet
news feed \- We led the way in introducing encrypted SSL connections for
Usenet access \- We worked with Golden Frog to provide the easy-to-use VyprVPN
Personal VPN service with our Usenet accounts \- Giganews customers were the
first to get access to Golden Frog's Dump Truck secure storage service \-
Giganews and Golden Frog brought together those that fight for online privacy
at our SXSW Take Back Your Internet Panel. \- Giganews spoke, just today,
before the Texas State Legislature in support of proposed Texas privacy
legislation.

Actions speak louder than words, and these are the actions of a company that
supports customer privacy and a free and open Internet. Giganews has not and
will not be controlled by any government organization, and we will continue to
provide the best Usenet service to our customers.

------
beachstartup
i stopped believing when he claimed the police detective also had a full time
job as an undercover sysadmin. lol.

------
siegecraft
The speed of giganews' response + allegations of mental illness for their
attacker is pretty impressive.

------
smacktoward
Poor Usenet. It was so beautiful, once.

~~~
fixermark
"The Net interprets censorship as damage."

... but it apparently interprets passive, silent auditing as a feature. ;)

------
math0ne
Eh with the automated copyright takedowns usenet is useless now anyways,
everyone has moved on.

~~~
evandena
Still works pretty well for me

------
coola1
The Special Agent e-mail exist and headers looks strong ! This looks legit !

------
thomasahle
Well, he says the cp groups were restored. That should be verifiable, no?

~~~
tsaoutourpants
Heh, I'll let you go and check for us.

------
chrisallick
Unless something is verifiably true/false it should not be voted to the top.
The conversation is the only valuable thing to the Hackernews community.

