🦋 Ben West - 🐒🌻

@monkeyflower@infosec.exchange
660 Followers
1.4K Following
1.2K Posts

A "seasoned" campaigner and community organizer. An anxious Canadian 🇨🇦 adjusting to living with a #disability (inner ear issues/ sometimes vertigo).

These days i can be found working remotely, exploring decentralized decision making, coordinating a grants program and spending time with my dogs.

I'm writing a book called The Monkey Flower Experiment, it's about a group of people trapped together at an off grid university on the side of a mountain after a terrible storm. It could be described as a #SolarPunk Lord of the Flies.

I am currently living in the territory of the Huron-Wendat Nation and of the Anishinaabek people. I was born in Coast Salish territories.

This is my primary account.

Interests: #ClimateSolutions, #FOSS, #governance, #strategy, #urbanism, #privacy, #cryptography,, #infoSec, #OSINT, #decentralization, #biomimicry, #StreetArt, #transRights, #IndigenousRights, #humanRights, #juggling and #memes.

#FreePalestine 🍉

He/They

#LoveIsLove 🏳️‍🌈

All My Linkshttps://www.benwest.blog/links/
LinkedIn 🙃https://www.linkedin.com/in/benwestintoronto
🦋 Ben West - 🐒🌻1d ago
Joseph Cox1d ago
New: a16z-backed AI platform Civitai has banned AI models depicting likeness of real people. This is a major development considering making AIs of other people is what a ton of Civitai's users do. Comes after pressure from payment processor and 404 Media’s reporting https://www.404media.co/civitai-ban-of-real-people-content-deals-major-blow-to-the-nonconsensual-ai-porn-ecosystem/
Civitai Ban of Real People Content Deals Major Blow to the Nonconsensual AI Porn Ecosystem

Citing pressure from payment processors and new legislation, a critical resource for producing nonconsensual content bans AI models depicting the likeness of real people.

404 Media
🦋 Ben West - 🐒🌻1d ago
404 Media1d ago

ICE Taps into Nationwide AI-Enabled Camera Network, Data Shows

🔗 https://www.404media.co/ice-taps-into-nationwide-ai-enabled-camera-network-data-shows/

ICE Taps into Nationwide AI-Enabled Camera Network, Data Shows

Flock's automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras are in more than 5,000 communities around the U.S. Local police are doing lookups in the nationwide system for ICE.

404 Media
🦋 Ben West - 🐒🌻6d ago

AI eh?

#AI #funny #notFunny

🦋 Ben West - 🐒🌻6d ago
BrianKrebs6d ago

On May 15, the DOJ indicted a dozen people in a racketeering (RICO) investigation into a cybercrime conspiracy that used social engineering to steal more than $263 million from victims.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/additional-12-defendants-charged-rico-conspiracy-over-263-million-cryptocurrency-thefts

Today, I confirmed that "Victim #2" in the govt's case is "Tony," a victim I wrote about in January who was scammed out of nearly $5 million. Tony was scammed after being targeted in a social engineering attack over the phone that spoofed Google by calling him from the default number for Google Assistant and sending account security warnings via a Google.com email address.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/01/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-prolific-voice-phishing-crew/

I'm super psyched because this time last year Tony was seriously contemplating suicide after being robbed of his life's savings and his kids' college money. Now, it seems likely he might see some of those funds remunerated thanks to the government's seizure of crypto assets controlled by the defendants.

As for the defendants, I wrote about several of them last year in a scoop about how a $230M cyberheist prompted a botched kidnapping and carjacking of the accused thief's parents, who were out house-hunting in their brand new Lamborghini.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/10/lamborghini-carjackers-lured-by-243m-cyberheist/

Additional 12 Defendants Charged in RICO Conspiracy for over $263 Million Cryptocurrency Thefts, Money Laundering, Home Break-Ins

A four-count superseding indictment, unsealed today in U.S. District Court, charges 12 additional people – Americans and foreign nationals – for allegedly participating in a cyber-enabled racketeering conspiracy throughout the United States and abroad that netted them more than $263 million. Several were arrested this week in California, while two remain abroad and are believed

🦋 Ben West - 🐒🌻May 18
phatcontrollerMay 18
How 'banking the unbanked' drew millions of Africans into the thrall of vulture capitalism. Unregulated FinTech loans is a new form of digital exploitation: "a ticking time bomb" of chronic indebtedness. https://techcabal.com/2025/05/16/bnpl-startups-debt-crisis-kenya/
“I didn’t know”: The Buy Now Pay Later boom that’s backfiring in rural Kenya

BNPL startups offer deferred payments for users who would otherwise be excluded from credit, an undeniable appeal where lending is scarce.

TechCabal
🦋 Ben West - 🐒🌻May 18
404 MediaMay 15

Why Did Grok Start Talking About ‘White Genocide’?

🔗 https://www.404media.co/why-did-grok-start-talking-about-white-genocide/

Why Did Grok Start Talking About ‘White Genocide’?

Large language models are reflections of the people who program them.

404 Media
🦋 Ben West - 🐒🌻May 7
BellingcatMay 7
EXCLUSIVE: Bellingcat, in partnership with Tjekdet, Politiken and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), can reveal the identity of a key administrator behind MrDeepfakes, one of the world’s largest providers of non-consensual deepfake pornography. MrDeepFakes(.com) was visited millions of times every month and hosted almost 70,000 explicit videos which have collectively been viewed more than 2.2 billion times. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/05/07/canadian-pharmacist-linked-to-worlds-most-notorious-deepfake-porn-site/?utm_source=mastodon
Unmasking MrDeepFakes: Canadian Pharmacist Linked to World’s Most Notorious Deepfake Porn Site - bellingcat

Double life: open source investigation reveals Canadian hospital pharmacist's links to MrDeepFakes, the most notorious deepfake porn website in the world.

bellingcat
🦋 Ben West - 🐒🌻May 7
Wonder of ScienceMay 7
These boxes are not moving. A mind-bending optical illusion by Japanese artist Jagarikin.
🦋 Ben West - 🐒🌻May 7
Baldur BjarnasonMay 7

“Naomi Klein Interview: Trump, Musk, Pandemic Rage, and Climate Denial”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/naomi-klein-trump-musk-thiel-oligarchs-climate-science-1235330780/

> I don’t know if you’ve been following this, but Peter Thiel is now running Bible study groups in Silicon Valley. He said in a few interviews recently that he believes that the Antichrist is Greta Thunberg. It’s extraordinary.

This entire interview is great and is a must-read, but this quote in particular is all kinds of yikes

Naomi Klein: ‘What They Want Is Absolutely Everything’

The ‘Shock Doctrine’ author explains the dark logic of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s path of destruction and why billionaire oligarchs are so angry.

Rolling Stone
🦋 Ben West - 🐒🌻May 4
Show threadNicole ParsonsMay 4

@GottaLaff @theogrin

We also need to remind ourselves of the attitudes of the six dynasties funding Project 2025.

Bradley, Koch, Coors, Scaife, Seid, Uihlein

The billionaires behind the Heritage Foundation believes the constitution is "filled with grave errors"

They believe the USA should be like the UK, a monarchy where both religious and state power is held by one person.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-project-explores-project-2025s-origins-and-goals-to-reshape-american-culture

https://truthout.org/articles/how-trumps-100-days-built-off-the-far-right-blueprint-of-project-2025/

‘The Project’ explores Project 2025’s origins and goals to reshape American culture

Many of the policies enacted by the Trump administration with lightning speed in these first 100 days were initially laid out two years ago in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. David Graham’s new book “The Project” details its origins and sweeping goals to reshape American culture. White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López sat down with Graham to discuss more.

PBS News