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FBI's nabbing of Russian Hacking Challenged
This related to a group of Russian hackers attacking cyberspace at least since 2000.
Seattle Lawyer to Challenge FBI in Russian Sting
Elinor Mills Abreu
Aug. 23, 2002 15:48 EDT
SAN FRANCISCO - In a criminal case in which the borderless Internet has collided head-on with global law, a Seattle lawyer is set to charge that U.S. officials illegally hacked into computers of two Russians to get evidence to prosecute the pair on computer crimes.
Seattle defense attorney John Lundin told Reuters that he will use the same argument Russia's state security service FSB has used -- that the FBI acted criminally in its attempt to nab his client Vasiliy Gorshkov -- in an appeal he expects to file after Gorshkov is sentenced on Sept. 13 in federal court in Seattle.
``It seems the (Russian) case is intended more to make a point, which is that an expansion of law enforcement techniques would have inevitable ramifications on international relations,'' said Barry Hurewitz, a lawyer at the law firm of Hale and Dorr, a Washington, D.C.-based expert in Internet law.
The FSB lodged its criminal complaint against the FBI over evidence gathered in days after the Nov. 2000 arrests of Gorshkov and of Alexey Ivanov, whom Gorshkov was convicted of helping steal consumer credit card numbers. Ivanov is still waiting to be tried on numerous charges in several states.
The case was the first FBI undercover plan to successfully entice people accused of high-tech crimes to come to the U.S. It was the first to use, in the FBI's words, ``extra-territorial seizure of digital evidence,'' which led to another precedent: it is thought to be the first time a U.S. agency has been formally accused of hacking into a foreign computer network.
The Russians complain that the FBI didn't have authorization to break into a computer system in Russia and download files. The FBI counters, and a U.S. judge agreed, that Russian law does not apply to the agents' actions.
CYBER STING
The FBI lured the men, both of Chelyabinsk, Russia, to Seattle under the pretext of interviewing them for jobs at a company called ``Invita,'' which was actually an FBI front.
FBI agents asked them to demonstrate their ability to scan a computer network for security flaws and gave them permission to do so on a network designed for that purpose, Lundin said.
Ivanov was arrested on criminal charges and Gorshkov was arrested as a material witness, Lundin said. The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the ongoing case.
Ivanov has been indicted in Connecticut, New Jersey and California on charges of stealing credit card numbers and other sensitive information from at least 40 companies including banks, Internet service providers, and online payment company PayPal Inc. (Nasdaq:PYPL) and its customers.
Officials also have accused Ivanov of trying to extort money and manipulating eBay Inc.'s (Nasdaq:EBAY) online auctions.
Gorshkov was later accused of conspiring with Ivanov in illegal computer intrusions and permitting Ivanov to use his computers in Russia for some of the activities, Lundin said.
Gorshkov maintained he was not involved and did not know of Ivanov's activities, but he was convicted on 20 counts of computer crimes, fraud and conspiracy in Oct. 2001.
KEYSTROKES LOGGED
To make its case, the FBI accessed the men's computers in Russia by installing keystroke logger programs on the computers the men used in Seattle to record keystrokes and passwords.
The evidence included a database with 56,000 credit cards on the men's computers in Russia, the FBI has alleged.
Lundin said he will argue in his appeal that the FBI's downloading of the data from Russia constituted an illegal search because agents had not obtained a search warrant before then, an argument the lower court judge rejected. Agents got a search warrant after they had downloaded the data.
``One of the issues decided by the court, I think wrongly, was that since the intrusion was in Russia there was no need for a search warrant,'' said Lundin. But, ``the data was transferred to a computer in the U.S., so the search happens in the U.S., I would argue.''
RIA news agency of Russia quoted FSB officials in the Chelyabinsk bureau as saying the FBI's procedures coupled with the U.S. court's decision could set a dangerous precedent.
``If the American side deems legal evidence obtained in this way, that would mean in the future U.S. government agencies could use similar means to collect information in Russia and other countries,'' RIA reported in a Russian-language statement last week. ``Then nobody could guarantee that the American side would not penetrate private and government computers.''
This month, the three FBI agents received Director's Awards for Excellence for their work in the sting operation. Gorshkov sits in a federal detention center in Seattle facing up to 30 years in prison. Ivanov is being held in Connecticut.
Seattle Lawyer to Challenge FBI in Russian Sting
Elinor Mills Abreu
Aug. 23, 2002 15:48 EDT
SAN FRANCISCO - In a criminal case in which the borderless Internet has collided head-on with global law, a Seattle lawyer is set to charge that U.S. officials illegally hacked into computers of two Russians to get evidence to prosecute the pair on computer crimes.
Seattle defense attorney John Lundin told Reuters that he will use the same argument Russia's state security service FSB has used -- that the FBI acted criminally in its attempt to nab his client Vasiliy Gorshkov -- in an appeal he expects to file after Gorshkov is sentenced on Sept. 13 in federal court in Seattle.
``It seems the (Russian) case is intended more to make a point, which is that an expansion of law enforcement techniques would have inevitable ramifications on international relations,'' said Barry Hurewitz, a lawyer at the law firm of Hale and Dorr, a Washington, D.C.-based expert in Internet law.
The FSB lodged its criminal complaint against the FBI over evidence gathered in days after the Nov. 2000 arrests of Gorshkov and of Alexey Ivanov, whom Gorshkov was convicted of helping steal consumer credit card numbers. Ivanov is still waiting to be tried on numerous charges in several states.
The case was the first FBI undercover plan to successfully entice people accused of high-tech crimes to come to the U.S. It was the first to use, in the FBI's words, ``extra-territorial seizure of digital evidence,'' which led to another precedent: it is thought to be the first time a U.S. agency has been formally accused of hacking into a foreign computer network.
The Russians complain that the FBI didn't have authorization to break into a computer system in Russia and download files. The FBI counters, and a U.S. judge agreed, that Russian law does not apply to the agents' actions.
CYBER STING
The FBI lured the men, both of Chelyabinsk, Russia, to Seattle under the pretext of interviewing them for jobs at a company called ``Invita,'' which was actually an FBI front.
FBI agents asked them to demonstrate their ability to scan a computer network for security flaws and gave them permission to do so on a network designed for that purpose, Lundin said.
Ivanov was arrested on criminal charges and Gorshkov was arrested as a material witness, Lundin said. The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the ongoing case.
Ivanov has been indicted in Connecticut, New Jersey and California on charges of stealing credit card numbers and other sensitive information from at least 40 companies including banks, Internet service providers, and online payment company PayPal Inc. (Nasdaq:PYPL) and its customers.
Officials also have accused Ivanov of trying to extort money and manipulating eBay Inc.'s (Nasdaq:EBAY) online auctions.
Gorshkov was later accused of conspiring with Ivanov in illegal computer intrusions and permitting Ivanov to use his computers in Russia for some of the activities, Lundin said.
Gorshkov maintained he was not involved and did not know of Ivanov's activities, but he was convicted on 20 counts of computer crimes, fraud and conspiracy in Oct. 2001.
KEYSTROKES LOGGED
To make its case, the FBI accessed the men's computers in Russia by installing keystroke logger programs on the computers the men used in Seattle to record keystrokes and passwords.
The evidence included a database with 56,000 credit cards on the men's computers in Russia, the FBI has alleged.
Lundin said he will argue in his appeal that the FBI's downloading of the data from Russia constituted an illegal search because agents had not obtained a search warrant before then, an argument the lower court judge rejected. Agents got a search warrant after they had downloaded the data.
``One of the issues decided by the court, I think wrongly, was that since the intrusion was in Russia there was no need for a search warrant,'' said Lundin. But, ``the data was transferred to a computer in the U.S., so the search happens in the U.S., I would argue.''
RIA news agency of Russia quoted FSB officials in the Chelyabinsk bureau as saying the FBI's procedures coupled with the U.S. court's decision could set a dangerous precedent.
``If the American side deems legal evidence obtained in this way, that would mean in the future U.S. government agencies could use similar means to collect information in Russia and other countries,'' RIA reported in a Russian-language statement last week. ``Then nobody could guarantee that the American side would not penetrate private and government computers.''
This month, the three FBI agents received Director's Awards for Excellence for their work in the sting operation. Gorshkov sits in a federal detention center in Seattle facing up to 30 years in prison. Ivanov is being held in Connecticut.
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