<p>As reported by <em>The Associated Press</em>, a state prosecutor&rsquo;s office in Pennsylvania paid out more than $1,000 in bitcoin currency to free up its hacked computer network. District Attorney Stephen Zappala&#8217;s office was just one of the hundreds of thousands of systems targeted by the organization known as the &ldquo;Avalanche network.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>This news surfaced shortly after authorities in the US and Europe were able to successfully disable the Avalanche Network.  ;</p>
<p>Pittsburgh Attorney Soo Song estimates that Avalanche, which has been operating since at least 2010, has hacked into an estimated 500,000 computers worldwide. &ldquo;The takedown of Avalanche was unprecedented in its scope, scale, reach, and level of cooperation among 40 countries,&rdquo; said Song. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Avalanche was a platform to distribute malware to people who wanted to buy it and use it to infect the computers of people and businesses,&rdquo; reports <em>The Washington Times. ;</em>The platform offered two types of malware: one that would lock up a network until the victim agreed to pay a ransom and another that was used to steal online banking information. ;</p>
<p>Zappala&rsquo;s office was hit by the second type of malware in 2015 when one of his employees clicked on a link that appeared in a phishing email (phishing is a common tactic used by hackers to trick people into installing malware).</p>
<p>The employee &ldquo;opened the link because it appeared to go back to a legitimate government agency,&rdquo; said Zappala. The link infected the entire system, which has since been modified to fend off future attacks. ;</p>
<p>Zappala decided to fork over nearly $1,400 to free up the network. His detectives were able to trace the phishing email to Australia, but couldn&rsquo;t locate the specific source. Zappala is content to let the feds take it from here because &ldquo;the penalties the federal government can impose are much more substantial than we can impose.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>Since the attack on Zappala&rsquo;s network, 189 infected computers have been located and five suspects have been arrested. ;</p>
<p><strong>The evolution of money ;</strong></p>
<p>Bitcoin is an electronic currency or &ldquo;cryptocurrency&rdquo; invented by programmers in 2008. Often hailed as the &ldquo;first decentralized digital currency,&rdquo; bitcoin is a convenient way to conduct online transactions. ;</p>
<p>Bitcoin has an anonymous quality to it, which made Avalanche Network&rsquo;s ransomware program work. It&#8217;s also why criminals on the &#8220;darknet market&#8221; use it to buy and sell illegal drugs.  ;</p>
<p>Zcash, an electronic currency launched in October, promises levels of encryption that make it virtually untraceable. To create a secret and secure system that couldn&rsquo;t be hacked, the makers of Zcash opened a &ldquo;backdoor&rdquo; into their own system and, in a sense, swallowed the key.  ;</p>
<p>The backdoor &#8220;ceremony&rdquo; took place simultaneously in five stations across the world, one of which was inside a vehicle rapidly crossing through British Columbia. ;</p>
<p>The bizarre ceremony took four days, after which all RAM chips storing fragments of the backdoor key were smashed and burned. ;</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> For more informantion, research the &#8220;dark net&#8221; where you can buy illegal drugs, illicit porn and even hire a hitman in complete anonymity. It&#8217;s dark, its creepy and its the ultimate in black market dealings. This is part of our future.</p>