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Would-Be Akamai Spy Busted By Feds
itwbennett writes "Elliot Doxer, an Akamai Technologies staffer, was charged on Wednesday with wire fraud. The case began in June 2006 when Doxer sent an e-mail to the consulate of a foreign country (referred to as 'country X') in which he 'expressed his desire to help that country with whatever information he could obtain in his position,' according to an article on ITworld. 'The foreign consulate that Doxer contacted turned his e-mail over to law enforcement authorities, and a little over a year later, he was contacted by an FBI agent posing as a representative of 'country X.' Over the next 18 months, Doxer left confidential business information such as customer lists and contracts at a designated spot called a dead drop, acts captured via video surveillance.'"
The funny thing is, almost everyone has probably used Akami without realising it. They provide up to 30% of web traffic. I assume most of that comes in the form of updates and software downloads that loads of big players seem to use them for.
As someone who has a family member who lost their child to international kidnapping I have to say I feel for the guy. There's really nothing worse than having your child ripped from you and being physically separated with little hope of ever seeing them again.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
China is hardly the only country guilty of this. I've heard more stories from co-workers about issues in France than anywhere else, to the point that it is against company policy to take a company issue laptop there. And I don't mean random guy approaches you in the bar and asks what you do for a living, I mean coming back from dinner to find 3 suits and 2 uniformed cops in your hotel room that all refuse to tell you what they were doing there.
This guy's second mistake (after thinking he was capable of any espionage at all) was to approach a foreign consulate. This isn't the 1940s anymore people. Consulates are not the hotbeds of espionage that they used to be. If he wanted to be an agent for a foreign intelligence organization, he should have tried to contact them directly in a manner not easily intercepted by SIGINT such as an old fashioned letter (or even better, contact them through a sympathetic radical political organization). Don't think that a nation's State Department or Ministry of Foreign Affairs is going to have time or interest in your petty cloak and dagger.
(The previous is no more than commentary and opinion and should not be construed as encouragement or advice to commit treason/fraud/etc.)
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
Doesn't something seem wrong with the response of the foreigner who informed on him. Wouldn't the proper response be to say something like, "we value transparent relations with the US and wouldn't want to jeopardize them" instead of turning over the man's emails to the US.
Think of this in reverse. Let's say the man worked for Baidu, the Chinese Internet search engine and his loyalty was to the US. The man emails a member of the US government saying, if they wanted help he'd be willing to help them out. Now, wouldn't it then seem really wrong to then turn over that man's emails to the Chinese government so they could use them to trap him in some set up?
Shouldn't the US or anyone else in that situation just say "thanks, but no thanks" instead of starting these cloak and dagger games?
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
Really. co-workers meaning several people having the same issue multiple times ? I beg for details.
When travelling back from Israel, custom agents took my laptop from me for an hour, just to check if the battery could be some kind of explosive. Of course, I could not stay around while they checked. I have missed my flight, and had to fly in a crappy El-Al plane.
RIP Slashdot. I used to love you. dead account - but slashdot wont let me delete it.
Yes, in light of his apparently 'lack of mental balance' they figured they'd have a loose cannon on their hands. As a poster replying to my initial post pointed out, it seems very likely that the country in question is Israel. I figured that the people most likely to benefit from this type of information would be China (and I was apparently wrong.)
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Give it a couple of years, and the companies will have defined theft of IP to give to a foreign entity as treason.
They've already managed to make the government the enforcement arm for what should be civil proceedings. Treason isn't too far away.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Actually, Espionage is what we nail our people who spy on us with, not just foreigners. Treason can only be applied for activities occurring during time of war. But even then the charge of Espionage or spying would also be applied as it's an easier conviction to get.
However; as you correctly noted this was just industrial espionage, and not very effective espionage at that.
The crime of espionage requires an attempt to transmit National Defense information to a foreign party with intent, or reason to believe that the information will be used to the injury of the US, or to the advantage of a foreign nation. (paraphrased from 18 US 794)
This "intent" or "reason to believe" does not exist in this case so Espionage is out, so they chose a charge that they could be sure would stick and still have a hefty penalty (20 years).
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
Hmmz, to me the US is the worst. Not only do they want shit like fingerprints and my bankinginfo before I travel there... When you get there with a laptop they want to search it, every single time. It's idiotic and they have absolutely no right to do so, but they just say: well officially this isn't american soil so what ya gonna do about it? I am pretty sure that the US is the biggest economical spy in the world, followed by Israel, Russia, China and probably the Brits. I see France under the Brits.
Interesting coincidence. Country X is the term used to refer to Israel in official documents in the Singapore Armed Forces. Officially we have no military ties with Israel due to being surrounded by Muslim countries. Back in the 70s, our government told us that the Israeli military advisers teaching us stuff were Mexicans.