Deported Russian (Spy?) Worked At Microsoft

subtropolis writes "KOMO News in Seattle is reporting that a recently-deported 23-yr-old Russian man 'appears to have ties to the recently-exposed Russian counterintelligence' (according to unnamed Feds). The article states that he admitted to unspecified immigration violations and was promptly shown the door on Tuesday. It also says that 'Microsoft confirms Karetnikov worked as an entry-level software tester for less than a year.' So, I'm thinking that MS had better take a really good at their logs for that time. He may have got in at 'entry-level' but his abilities may have been a fair bit beyond that. ... Interestingly, his admission to mere 'violations' and swift departure would be right in line with how this swap has gone down. The four Russians who were flown to Britain and the US had to first sign a confession before President Medvedev granted them pardons." The same news is at CBS News, too.

Comments

why do the russians need to spy on microsoft?

[circletimessquare]

microsoft has freely given its source code to the kgb (rolls eyes):

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/07/09/0042238/Microsoft-Opens-Source-Code-To-KGBs-Successor-Agency

Re:why do the russians need to spy on microsoft?

[morgan_greywolf]

Ah... now here's someone who has been paying attention

Obviously, the Russians were after something other than the Windows source code. Microsoft does a lot more than Windows; maybe this had to do with Office, Microsoft's online service offerings, Exchange Server, SQL Server etc. You know, stuff that wouldn't be in the WIndows 7 source code (bear in mind that Windows 7 is a client OS)

Re:why do the russians need to spy on microsoft?

[bsDaemon]

It's pretty easy to look at the public details of these ops from today's vantage point and go "that's stupid," but remember when these ops were first started the world was different. Dramatically different in the case of the spies which had been here 10 or 20 years, although not so much in this case. It's only been a year. But a year ago, the FSB didn't have a contract with Microsoft for the source code, and so access to that was worth a little more.

When some of the 10 spies that were deported recently were originally placed here, we didn't live with the constant flood of information that we do today. It wasn't as easy as going to washingtonpost.com or reading someone's blog to find out what was going on in the debate on certain issues. You had to wait, for news broadcasts or to get hold of a copy of a paper. Having someone get to know an individual who was an insider and to innocently ask some questions every now and then could actually pay dividends. And once an agency has already invested time and money training operatives, creating their legends and getting them into place, they're not going to just pull them out. They might be useful for something else later. This is type of work is like a marathon, not a sprint.

Re:why do the russians need to spy on microsoft?

[Locutus]

They don't, but he must have figured out that if he was working for a counter intelligence ring then working at Microsoft where everything runs counter to intelligence is the perfect hiding place.

Remember, the ads for BING are all about there being too many links. You know, links, the things offered to you based on the search criteria you entered. Somehow, fewer links are better. And let's not forget the pretty background which makes you feel happy to see so few responses to your query.

LoB

Re:why do the russians need to spy on microsoft?

[moosesocks]

Speaking of paying attention, has he actually been formally accused of anything beyond immigration violations?

The story seems awfully speculative. Good on the feds for doing their diligence, but as far as I can tell, there's no hard evidence linking him to anything.

Worked for M$?

[koan]

Wouldn't that be something if you could rootkit a master ISO for M$'s Windows retail disk.

It would explain so much...

Re:Worked for M$?

[Qzukk]

Bug #12512523512
Issue: Windows does not have Russian rootkit installed
Status: Critical

Steps to Reproduce:
1) Install Windows
2) KGB unable to access Windows remotely with secret password
3)
---
Reply: Thank you for your feedback, we believe the latest build fixes your problem!

Status: FIXED

What we all suspected is true!

[Eberlin]

I guess it's official -- Microsoft IS spyware!

Re:What we all suspected is true!

[Monkeedude1212]

Odd, I found this in my task manager...

Image Name | Username | CPU | Memory | Description
rpt2kgb.exe| System . . .| 3 . . . | 13,900k | For the Motherland

I guess I just never noticed it before now.

He was also deported quite quickly

[DNS-and-BIND]

The man in the story was deported quickly, too quickly for intelligence services to wring him dry. When spies like him get caught, you need to do a thorough damage assessment, to find out exactly what they knew and how they got the information in the first place. If he penetrated Microsoft, we needed to know everything about it, what he got, how he got it, and who gave it to him. Why so fast? "the prospect of a public trial revealing embarrassing facts about Russian influence operations, like the targeting of a key Democratic Party financier close to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton." The [FBI's] criminal complaint stated that in February 2009 a New Jersey-based Russian, who posed as Cynthia Murphy and was later identified as SVR officer Lydia Guryev, met several times with a "prominent New York-based financier" who was active in politics and a "active fundraiser" for a "major political party, name omitted." He also was described as a "personal friend of [a current Cabinet official, name omitted]." Source. You can fill in the [name omitted] yourself - go ahead and guess.