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.'"

Comments

An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[WrongSizeGlass]

An Akamai employee is using an analog dead drop? Surely he could have set up some sort of digital delivery served up by his employer, no?

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[entrex]

Not as fun as playing spy.

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[gstoddart]

An Akamai employee is using an analog dead drop? Surely he could have set up some sort of digital delivery served up by his employer, no?

It made him feel more like a secret agent, so they humored him. His handlers did have to tell him not to wear the mask and cape, though. It was creeping out the locals.

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[ptbarnett]

It made him feel more like a secret agent, so they humored him.

It doesn't look like espionage was his goal. From the article:

He also seemed preoccupied with ill will toward his ex-wife, writing at one point that "not enough bad things can happen to her if you know what I mean." And he offered to drop his request for monetary compensation in return for information or pictures of his son.

It sounds like it was more about retribution. His ex-wife apparently disappeared in "Country X" with their son.

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[afidel]

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.

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[The Clockwork Troll]

An information leak facilitator named Doxer?

What's next, a sorority president named Cumdumpster?

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[Ironhandx]

I can quite honestly say I would have probably tried something similar, but probably not treason. I know if it was me I would do anything in my capability to get my child back. I wouldn't be quite as stupid about it of course. If its caught so easily its not going to succeed in getting your kid back to begin with.

Its different if its a court battle over custody or something, but once someone crosses the line into actually kidnapping your child, you've gotta do what you've gotta do. Treason definitely isn't the best way to go but maybe the guy was just that desperate.

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[dwillden]

This is/was an attempt at industrial espionage, NOT TREASON. Big difference, this one the worst he will face is the potential of a few years in prison. And in fact he's only being charged with Wire Fraud.

Treason can (very unlikely) face the death penalty.

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[gstoddart]

This is/was an attempt at industrial espionage, NOT TREASON.

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.

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[Ironhandx]

Sorry, my brain decided that Treason actually means Espionage when I was writing that apparently.

Either way it generally gets the feds crawling up your arse though. Which isn't good.

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[Binestar]

Treason is *VERY* far away. Constitutional amendment far. http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/t103.htm

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[gstoddart]

Treason is *VERY* far away. Constitutional amendment far.

Let's hope so -- but, as I said, the government is already their enforcement arm, and their entrenching into treaty that every other government will do as well.

The "scope creep" of what is commercial and what is government is a little disturbing.

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[Anonymous Cowpat]

I know if it was me I would do anything in my capability to get my child back.

you've gotta do what you've gotta do.

That's pretty well what the other party thinks as well.

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[ciggieposeur]

Treason is *VERY* far away. Constitutional amendment far.

About the same far away as suspending habeas corpus, which has already been done by Abraham Lincoln, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama?

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[CdBee]

"Treason can (very unlikely) face the death penalty."

Surely only in the third world and autocratic places like China?
Oh wait, sorry.. forgot....

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[Teufelsmuhle]

Habeas corpus was suspended under G.W. Bush. Obama reinstated it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus_in_the_United_States#cite_note-28/

Re:An Analog 'Dead Drop'?

[ciggieposeur]

Habeas corpus was suspended under G.W. Bush. Obama reinstated it.

A fundamental constitutional right can neither be suspended nor reinstated by an executive order. And the Obama administration is still performing indefinite detention, albeit under different terms than habeas corpus.

for those who wonder what the hell akamai might be

[godrik]

It describe itself as "Akamai: The Leader in Web Application Acceleration and Performance Management, Streaming Media Services and Content Delivery" (source : http://www.akamai.com/ )

Dumbass

[Anonymous Coward]

That is all.

In other news:

[Even on Slashdot FOE]

Many countries do not trust spies. Astounding.

Re:In other news:

[autocracy]

Well, if you happen to be blundering your way in so roughly that the embassy folk are sitting there thinking, "There's no way in hell his own country didn't see him walk in here with a 4' x 6' red flag over his head," then I suppose you're out of luck. It'd be a poor bet to believe that plain-text email sent to a consulate isn't monitored in some way.

Re:In other news:

[Anonymous Coward]

Although unexpected encrypted traffic to a foreign power might also arouse suspicion. A better option may be to establish a code system whereby text is pasted in plain site on public forums according to a predefined pattern to convey messages.

Additionally, fleet fox has left the henhouse.

What kind of moron

[ShadowRangerRIT]

automatically assumes that a foreign country is interested in pedestrian industrial espionage, particularly when there is no technology involved, just business contact and contract info? Oh boy, freepills.com pays Akamai $200/month to host their images, that was totally worth the expense and risk of a diplomatic incident!

Re:What kind of moron

[Assmasher]

I'm sorry but you're extraordinarily naive about big business if you don't think that some countries, like China - oops - I mean Country X, don't use state resources (people/money/intelligence) to assist their economy illegally. The likely reason that 'Country X' turned this moron in is because they have this information in some other fashion and thought that political capital to be gained from burning this guy was worth it.

Re:What kind of moron

[ShadowRangerRIT]

Industrial espionage is great if it provides a benefit commensurate to the cost and risk. Like I said, if there was some secret technology to be gained, or some other private information of significant economic value to be gained, I'd understand it. But I'm not seeing Akamai customer lists (trivial to divine simply by seeing which sites load against Akamai servers) as that valuable. I suppose the contract values might be mildly helpful in negotiating rates with Akamai if Country X was trying to help its own businesses' competitiveness, but the benefit to be gained is tiny.

Re:What kind of moron

[Assmasher]

I agree about what he offered, the problem is, dancing with the devil is dangerous. As soon as he'd turned over 'relatively innocent items', they'd immediately be able to pressure him into giving them things they'd really be interested in. Pressure him into doing things he wasn't initially prepared to do, et cetera.

Re:What kind of moron

[Bill Wong]

Country X in this case is Israel. Doxer identified himself as jewish when he tried to set this up in the first place. (source)

Re:What kind of moron

[MozeeToby]

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.

Re:What kind of moron

[Anonymous Coward]

> I'm sorry but you're extraordinarily naive about big business if you don't think that some countries (...) don't use state resources (people/money/intelligence) to assist their economy illegally.

Guess which other country does that? Hint: they built Echelon for it. :)

Re:What kind of moron

[shadowofwind]

Maybe they also felt that they couldn't trust him not to betray their relationship and get egg on everyone's faces.

Also, depending on what country 'X' is, they might have been genuinely affronted by the brazenness in suggesting that they murder his wife. Even people in deeply immoral lines of work often like to think of themselves as being bound by ethics, and will be offended if you treat them as if they have no ethics.

Re:What kind of moron

[swb]

Exactly. Drag you in, extort you to go deeper and deeper, and then hang you out to dry.

Before involving one's self in espionage, it might make sense to read up on the exploits of James Jesus Angleton and the tradecraft.

Re:What kind of moron

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Heh. The part about the consulate handing the guy over had me convinced he tried to sell something to the Britain, and they only allow US/UK technology exchanges to go one way.

Re:What kind of moron

[davFr]

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.

Re:What kind of moron

[Assmasher]

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.)

Re:What kind of moron

[mlts]

I have seen this before first hand:

1: Would be spy working for company "A" calls up someone at company "B" who competes with "A" saying they have some cool secrets.
2: Company "B" notifies company "A" about the would be spy.
3: Would be spy gives the juicy stuff to what he/she thinks is someone who will pay him/her big bucks.
4: ?????
5: No big bucks happen; would be spy ends up with shiny new metal bracelets on wrists and a new domicile.

The problem is this: Even though two companies might be bitter rivals, they may be just as well served outing unsolicited offers for trade secrets as in keeping them, especially for being able to trumpet how honorable they are in PR releases.

Another reason why Country X burned the guy -- he could have either been bringing them disinformation, or it could be someone trying to show that Country X buys info. Either way, Country X's consulate made the best decision by outing the guy.

Re:What kind of moron

[Anonymous Coward]

I've also read France is the worst, but all countries do this.

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/820758.stm

Re:What kind of moron

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah. . . . ( tin foil hat mode )

Why would any country turn down an offer like this and " do the right thing " by giving the FBI this information ?
Have you ever heard of such a thing ? lol

The fun part " The case began in June 2006 when Doxer sent an e-mail " EMAIL being the key word here.

So with my tin foil hat vibrating silently away to keep the signals out, my question would be:

"Did the consulate do the right thing, or was the email intercepted by the Gov in transit ? "

If they were going to watch any comms at all, it would DEFINITELY be those of foreign consulates.

Just a thought.

Re:What kind of moron

[Old97]

You are right about China, but even some western countries have been caught spying on behalf of their corporations. France has been notorious in this regard for years. There have been stories over the years of French penetration of IBM France and the IP and business secrets they were acquiring. I'm sure you can find a few in the Computerworld archives. I'm sure that France and China aren't the only ones either. The U.S. on the other hand is better known for using it's corporations to spy on other nations (ITT in prewar Germany). Russia does both. Do you think the UK would do such a thing? (I do.)

Re:What kind of moron

[DrSkwid]

another link to a Jewish site with the same claim

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/10/07/2741170/jewish-internet-company-employee-arrested-for-selling-secrets

You've really go to be dumb/ignorant to think the US isn't giving the necessary information to Isreal already.

The number of US/Isreali dual nationals in high up US govt. positions is staggering.

Re:What kind of moron

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would any country turn down an offer like this and " do the right thing " by giving the FBI this information ?

Consulate Dude 1: "Hey, we got this jackass who wants to play James Bond over a family law incident."
Consulate Dude 2: "If he's incompetent enough to turn family drama into this, you think he'll be competent enough to actually spy for us, even if there was any chance he had access to anything useful?"
Consulate Dude 1: "Good point. More trouble than he's worth, turn him over to the FBI."
Consulate Dude 2: "Hey, Feds, you're gonna get a laugh outa this one. Enjoy your new chew toy!"

Re:What kind of moron

[Nadaka]

They must have read http://xkcd.com/651/

Re:What kind of moron

[MozeeToby]

The example given was the most extreme of the ones I've heard (from people I know and trust). Other examples are similar to yours, with customs running of with equipment for some length of time, security checkpoint people insisting (against policy and the law) to see the contents of classified Currier bags, a suspicious number of laptops that have gone missing, and a suspicious amount of interest in work expressed by strangers (basically my random stranger in a bar scenario above). The reason that France stands out is probably more to do with the amount of business we do there (aerospace industry working on both NATO defense related things as well as commercial work with Airbus) than it is to do with how common it is. I suspect that it is just as likely to happen in anywhere else.

Re:What kind of moron

[santax]

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.

Re:What kind of moron

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:What kind of moron

[Lumpy]

Yup, what kind of moron would do industrial espionage for $3000.00??

My price starts at $3,200,000 deposited into my SwissBank account 438-342-675487-317 Then email me at Splagith457@sogetthis.com the URL of the flikr image you embedded your requirements inside of using basic stenography. encrypt the text with a simple Xor using the HTML source code for the google front page for today.

Re:What kind of moron

[Lumpy]

Honestly have you not paid attention to what has been happening here?

Your laptop needs to be empty, sanitized, clean. put all important stuff on a memory device you can smuggle in on your person or in a different way (memory card in a camera get's past our idiot guards)... Treat coming here like entering North Korea.

Most people have known this for years that entering the United states is identical to entering a fascist dictatorship country.

Re:What kind of moron

[HornWumpus]

Airbus is a subsidiary of the EU governments.

If you have information valuable to Airbus the EU is no place to keep it unencrypted.

If I worked for Boeing I would send all sorts of misinformation into France in unencrypted volumes.

I'd have them spending billions building a new SST that will never be viable.

Re:What kind of moron

[NotSanguine]

I agree about what he offered, the problem is, dancing with the devil is dangerous. As soon as he'd turned over 'relatively innocent items', they'd immediately be able to pressure him into giving them things they'd really be interested in. Pressure him into doing things he wasn't initially prepared to do, et cetera.

Yeah, I'm sure that pressure might get him to give up other important information available to him. Like the Akamai corporate cafeteria menu (every week!) or maybe all that highly classified information that Akamai hosts...yeah.

Re:What kind of moron

[WindBourne]

Actually, Israel would kill to see those contracts. While Doxer is just finance, he would have said who is working on what projects and which projects are going to say Iran. Then Israel would try to locate somebody that is working on those projects and offer up 100K or even 1 million to be allowed to place a package in the work. Simple as that.

Re:What kind of moron

[Assmasher]

Well, considering how he can probably manage to plug a USB drive into any computers in his office or offices he visits, I'm sure it would be quite simple for them to force him to distribute malware throughout Akamai's corporate headquarters. Then you get to monitor executives with real clout, catch a few of them cheating on their wives or surfing kiddie porn and pressure them into helping you, et cetera, ad nauseum.

Re:What kind of moron

[makomk]

Interesting. Has Israel signed up to international treaties regarding child custody disputes? I suspect not...

Re:What kind of moron

[makomk]

There's a fair amount of evidence that Boeing have been obtaining confidential Airbus documents via US Customs and the US government, but I'm not aware of the reverse happening. Which isn't to say that it isn't, of course.

Re:What kind of moron

[Assmasher]

I think it is important to remember the maxim "Nations do not have friends, they have interests..." ;)

Re:What kind of moron

[operagost]

Most people have known this for years that entering the United states is identical to leaving a fascist dictatorship country.

FTFY

Re:What kind of moron

[AHuxley]

The NSA would look hard and deep for "bribes".
As the NSA is not into accounting or aircraft design data would be in bulk form.

Re:What kind of moron

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought as much as I saw the part in which country X gave him up to the US.

Looks like your typical mafia boss letting the cops catch some of their mules so that the important traffickers don't get caught.

Re:What kind of moron

[NotSanguine]

I suppose it would be something of a coup for the Mossad to have Akamai executives in their pocket. They could do lots of naughty stuff pretty transparently if they gained control of Akamai's CDN. Perhaps it wasn't such a dumb idea to expect the Israelis to go for it. I guess the big question is: how far would Doxer have been willing to go? I'm guessing a lot farther if the Mossad assassinated his ex-wife. If I had an ex-wife, I imagine it might be nice to fantasize about having her murdered by a foreign intelligence agency. Any divorced men want to chime in on this?

Re:What kind of moron

[Synonymous Homonym]

The US is monitoring all major financial transactions in the EU.
They also copy every telefax transmitted via an international relay carrier.
There is evidence that US companies knew exactly what EU companies would offer on public contract bids by the US government before the offers were officially made public.
I think that is a fine example of a country conducting industrial espionage.

wrong charges....

[Shakrai]

Why wasn't he charged with attempted espionage?

Re:wrong charges....

[Qzukk]

Maybe he just dropped off a briefcase full of blank paper.

Re:wrong charges....

[MozeeToby]

If I had to guess it's because he never attempted to sell or give up any government information, just information about his (non defense related) job. Why he thought 'Country X' would be interested in such information is beyond me, seems to me like he would have been better off offering the information to a foreign competitor directly, unless his goal was just to screw over the company he worked for as much as possible.

Re:wrong charges....

[bsDaemon]

Probably because he was acting against a private employer and "industrial espionage" isn't the same thing as KGB agents infiltrating the Pentagon. Espionage is what you charge foreigners with with since you can't nail them for treason. Wire fraud is probably closer to what he was actually doing.

Re:wrong charges....

[ptbarnett]

Why he thought 'Country X' would be interested in such information is beyond me, seems to me like he would have been better off offering the information to a foreign competitor directly, unless his goal was just to screw over the company he worked for as much as possible.

Read the article. He was apparently hoping that 'Country X' would do something bad to his ex-wife, or at least provide him information about their son. I'm guessing that she disappeared into "Country X".

Re:wrong charges....

[snowraver1]

Probably the same reason that if you proposition a hooker that turns out to be a cop it's not attempted prostitution.

Re:wrong charges....

[dwillden]

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).

Re:wrong charges....

[DragonWriter]

Why wasn't he charged with attempted espionage?

Because the information he tried to sell wasn't within the scope of the Espionage Act.

Re:wrong charges....

[bsDaemon]

Luckily, we're constantly within the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, and the War on Common Sense. Treason for everybody!

Serves them right

[elrous0]

I hated playing as that stupid wolf.

Valuable info?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anybody know why that information would be particularly valuable to a _country_? I thought Akamai was just a distributed web cache people used to distribute software updates. Akamai is required to comply with local laws (eg. China's website identification requirements) so I've no idea.

Entrapment

[mcelrath]

There aren't enough details in TFA, but this sure sounds like entrapment. i.e. no crime would have been committed if the FBI had not engaged him...

Re:Entrapment

[ShadowRangerRIT]

Entrapment would be if the FBI offered him money to divulge company secrets out of the blue. He made an offer to Country X; the intent to commit a crime was his alone, not prompted by law enforcement.

Re:Entrapment

[Gaygirlie]

There aren't enough details in TFA, but this sure sounds like entrapment. i.e. no crime would have been committed if the FBI had not engaged him...

He was the one who contacted the "country X" with the clear intention of selling confidential information. He took the first step. As such the fault lies all on him. It would be different if "country X" or the FBI had contacted him first.

Re:Entrapment

[tomkost]

No, entrapment would be if the FBI came to you (posing as a foreign power) out of the blue to ask if you would share secret info and then you did. e.g. they enticed or entrapped you into doing it. In this case, the guy initiated the action all on his own. The FBI in this case was just proving that the guy really wanted to do this, not just making an offer that he never intended to follow through with. From wikipedia: Government agents entrapped him if three conditions are fulfilled: 1. The idea for committing the crime came from the government agents and not from the person accused of the crime. 2. Government agents then persuaded or talked the person into committing the crime. Simply giving him the opportunity to commit the crime is not the same as persuading him to commit the crime. 3. The person was not ready and willing to commit the crime before the government agents spoke with him. On the issue of entrapment, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not entrapped by government agents.

Re:Entrapment

[Shakrai]

Exactly. If a LEO approaches me and offers to murder my estranged ex-wife for $20,000 that's entrapment. If I'm seeking out a hitman on my own and a LEO poses as one that's not entrapment.

Re:Entrapment

[MysteriousPreacher]

By that logic then the following would also be entrapment:

I threaten to beat-up a co-worker, so I arrive at their house the next day, and on seeing them standing outside of their house, begin whacking them with a plank of wood. The actual victim though was an undercover police officer taking the place of the intended victim, so really the crime could not have been committed had they not been there, but it'd be an incredible stretch to describe that as entrapment.

It's not entrapment for law enforcement agencies to take people up on their offers to break the law.

Re:Entrapment

[thijsh]

How the hell does Low Earth Orbit approach you? Ohhh, you mean a Lunar Exploration Orbiter! No, that would not make sense either... I'm running out of geek-explanations here, and am forced to seek my solution in the inexplicable.
So please explain to me why a person born under the astrological sign of the zodiac Leo would be more likely to entrap you?

Re:Entrapment

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you an idiot or going for sarcasm? I honestly can't tell. Next time use <moron> or <sarcasm> tags.

LEO = Law Enforcement Officer

Re:Entrapment

[vux984]

"law enforcement officer" im assuming

Re:Entrapment

[Anonymous Coward]

Can anyone masquerade as representatives of a foreign power? Seems that it should be forbidden but if not then I'd like to be the Roman Ambassador to the UN!

Re:Entrapment

[rthille]

"If a LEO approaches me and offers to murder my estranged ex-wife for $20,000 that's entrapment."

No, that's a bargain!

Re:Entrapment

[spire3661]

Entrapment laws were setup to keep the police in line, so when no governmental abuse is found, entrapment is usually waived. The only way to really get an entrapment defense to work is if the police were extraordinarily out of line. I do know that some east coast Police Departments were doing naughty things like putting a wallet on the sidewalk and then arresting anyone who picked it up, even though the law states you have up to 24 hours to turn it in. Its this kind of stuff that entrapment laws are intended to stop.

Re:Entrapment

[thijsh]

Ohhh, I accidentally the LEO. ;-)

Re:Entrapment

[L4t3r4lu5]

I go with <_>, also known as the Derp tag.

Re:Entrapment

[shentino]

It could even be construed as justification for self defense if you wound up assaulting the under cover guy.

Some hit man comes in offering bling to kill your wife...maybe you'd think it's just hush money to keep you quiet.

Re:Entrapment

[shentino]

The assault and battery was intentional, and under the doctrine of transferred intent, your intended target becomes the undercover cop.

There seems to be potential for escalation from a simple misdemeanor assault to a felonious assault on a peace officer.

Re:Entrapment

[MysteriousPreacher]

I wasn't aware of the transferred intent doctrine. Thanks for the tip.

Re:Entrapment

[blair1q]

Well, no. If they ask you to commit a crime and you commit the crime, that's not entrapment.

If they induce you to commit a crime you don't want to commit, that's entrapment.

Offering you money isn't enough of an inducement to be entrapment. Offering to let you know where your child is might be. Telling you they'll harm your child if you don't definitely is.

Re:Entrapment

[blair1q]

Again, no, just asking you to do it or offering you some benefit to do it is not entrapment.

Forcing you somehow to do it when you don't want to is entrapment.

Re:Entrapment

[Anonymous Coward]

If I'm seeking out a hitman on my own and a LEO poses as one that's not entrapment.

No, but it raises the question of what crime would've been committed if the police hadn't done this.

Consider this hypothetical example: I want to buy some cocaine. I try to find a dealer, and an undercover police officer poses as one; we get in touch, he hands me a pack of cocaine, I hand him some money in return. At this point, I have committed a crime by buying drugs.

However, it is not immediately clear I would've done so if it hadn't been for the police officer in question. One could say I would probably have found another dealer and bought from him instead, but "the defendant would probably have" is not enough for a conviction. So if we focus on the actual events, we'll find that yes, I did break the law, and no, I wouldn't have broken it, at least not to the same extent, if it hadn't been for the police.

Even if you assume that attempts are crimes, too (I'm not sure if this is the case here, but it doesn't matter), the question is meaningful: will I be convicted of the greater or the lesser crime?

It's not entrapment, but I think that given that "the defendant would probably have" is not enough to justify a conviction, I think it's necessary for a conviction to only be handed down for the things that clearly did happen without the involvement of the police.

Re:Entrapment

[keckbug]

Threatening to harm a child isn't just entrapment, that's beginning to look more like duress.

Re:Entrapment

[Anonymous Coward]

"If a LEO approaches me and offers to murder my estranged ex-wife for $20,000 that's entrapment."

No, that's a bargain!

But you'd have her hanging over your head!

Re:Entrapment

[pclminion]

It's not entrapment for law enforcement agencies to take people up on their offers to break the law.

It is not entrapment but it is a bit paradoxical. Even if the original idea to commit a crime was the criminal's idea, the crime would not necessarily have been committed had the police not taken some sort of action. I think you could argue that preventing crime is more important than punishing crime, so facilitating the commission of a crime just to punish a person for that crime is a paradox. Why not take the course of action which leads to a universe where the crime does not get committed?

It almost seems vindictive, and detrimental to society. Yes, it was the bad guy's idea to do it in the first place, but if you could have taken (or not taken) some specific action that resulted in no crime being committed I think that is a pretty obvious choice.

Re:Entrapment

[MysteriousPreacher]

It's kind of difficult to come up with a one-size fits all approach. The consulate people he spoke to could have said no, and that could have been the end of this guy's foray in to international industrial espionage. They could have informed his company, who would then have taken disciplinary action against him. I've no idea what his mental state was, but his references to his wife and son certainly seem a bit strange - and it's certainly not normal for the average office guy to make these offers to foreign governments. Had he been working for something related to national security then I'd say that the FBI would be right to see if he was serious, and then throw the book at him when he produced the goods. As it stands, I honestly don't know if the FBI did the right thing here. A simple warning early on may have been enough of a wake-up call to allow this guy to lead a semblance of a normal life (presumably beginning with looking for a new job).

There are obviously limits to "enabling" a crime. If a guy was drinking in a bar and said that he was sick of his wife and wished she was dead, it would most likely be vindictive for an undercover officer to offer to sell him a gun, and then pick him up later when he returned to his home. In most cases the drunk would be spewing hyperbole, and it's unlikely that he'd actually want to see his wife dead.

It'd be different though if the guy in question was actively seeking a gun in order to commit murder. i.e. he specifically asked the undercover officer if he had a gun for sale, or he had placed an advert in the local paper looking for a hit-man. Particularly in the latter example, I'd be happy if law enforcement answered his advert and picked him up for questioning.

Re:Entrapment

[MysteriousPreacher]

By the way, a very thought provoking post you have there.

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[dintech]

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.

He hated his wife and reads too many spy novels

[tacktick]

He also seemed preoccupied with ill will toward his ex-wife, writing at one point that "not enough bad things can happen to her if you know what I mean." And he offered to drop his request for monetary compensation in return for information or pictures of his son.

So.. look I'll give you this information and you put a good hurtin on the b*tch. Oh and get my son back from her. K, thanks.

Israel?

[zerro]

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/10/07/2741170/jewish-internet-company-employee-arrested-for-selling-secrets Jewish Internet company employee arrested for selling secrets October 7, 2010 (JTA) -- A Jewish employee of a Boston-area Internet company was arrested on suspicion of selling confidential information to a foreign company. Elliot Doxer, 42, who works in the finance department of Akamai Technologies Inc., was charged Wednesday with wire fraud for providing confidential business information to an undercover FBI agent that he believed was a foreign government agent. The information included contract details, employee information and customer lists. The country was identified in the indictment as Country X. "I am a Jewish American who lives in Boston," Doxer reportedly wrote in an e-mail to a foreign country's consulate in Boston. "I know you are always looking for information and I am offering the little I may have." Doxer, who had access to invoices and customer contact information, also said in a later message that his goal was "to help our homeland and our war against our enemies." He informed the agent that his company served the U.S. Department of Defense, Airbus and several Arab companies. Doxer reportedly asked for $3,000 in compensation for his actions. According to the complaint, Doxer provided the agent with a list of Akamai's customers, several contracts and a list of employees and their contact information. Doxer and the agent first made contact in September 2007.

Re:Israel?

[VJ42]

Israel?

Yes: Here's another Source that indicates Israel: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=190523

Re:Israel?

[Anonymous Coward]

Our foreign aid to Israel amounts to some $350 per Israeli citizen per year ($2.5B/year and 7.3mm citizens on Wikipedia). Why? Because they are a check to the power of the Muslim counties in the Middle East? Because the have the bomb? Because we feel guilt over not stepping in earlier to prevent the holocaust? Because of some secret plot involving the Illuminati, Area 51, and the UN? I've always been interested in this, but there's so much froth and divisiveness about the subject that I feel I can't get a straight answer out of anyone.

Re:Israel?

[MysteriousPreacher]

It seems plausible.

http://www.searchboston.com/boston_directory/Gov/Foreign_Consulates_in_Boston/

Australia - Consulate Boston
Austria - Consulate Boston
Canada - Consulate Boston
Germany - Consulate Boston
Hungary - Consulate Boston
Israel - Consulate Boston
Mexico - Consulate Boston
Norway - Consulate Boston
Portugal - Consulate Boston
Sweden - Consulate Boston
Venezuela - Consulate Boston

Israel would seem the more likely option, and certainly a country to engender the "homeland" feeling.

Re:Israel?

[Anonymous Coward]

Our foreign aid to Israel amounts to some $350 per Israeli citizen per year ($2.5B/year and 7.3mm citizens on Wikipedia). Why?

The key reason is that it's a bribe for peace with Egypt, which gets around the same amount. It also gives the US a leash around Israel's actions, and yes it does promote Israel as a check to the power of the Muslim countries. The real WTF question on American foreign aid to the Middle East is why the US funds the PLO to the tune of a billion a year. Bush thought it was supposed to be a check on Hamas but the PLO is almost as bad.

Re:Israel?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Jewish Internet company employee arrested for selling secrets October 7, 2010"

What won't they do for money?

Re:Israel?

[Anonymous Coward]

>> The key reason is that it's a bribe for peace with Egypt

I'm with you so far, but why do we care about this (apart from the fact that peace is good and all)?

Re:Israel?

[sznupi]

Ever heard about Suez Canal? (for starters)

Re:Israel?

[sznupi]

...and so the joint Canadian-Mexican-German-Portugese-Norwegian-Swedish-Venezulean plot can continue unnoticed.

(Portugal still remembers its empire, Canada to finish what was started in 1812, Mexico about general setback in XIX century, Germany - XX century; Norway, Sweden and Venezuela for obvious reasons)

Re:Israel?

[Anonymous Coward]

So basically it's about oil.

Good job FBI

[airdweller]

"...a little over a year later..."
What were they doing all this time? Searching for an agent who could speak with the 'country X' accent?

On another note: did anyone see Burn Before Reading? :)

Re:Good job FBI

[geekoid]

Gathering proper evidence, getting proper legal documentation, talking with his employers, and getting several drops to see what information he was willing to give up.

You now, due process and getting solid evidence.

In the real world, you don't go around accusing people and then arrest the one that tries to kill you*, you don't drive a fast sports car until some shoots at you, and you don't other evidence from a magic computer in 22 minutes.

*AKA: The Charlie Angels school of crime fighting.

Re:Good job FBI

[Archangel Michael]

What were they doing all this time? Searching for an agent who could speak with the 'country X' accent?

I doubt that, most people can't tell the difference between Country X's accent and Chilean (Hispanic) accent

Re:Good job FBI

[jjohnson]

I laughed my guts at out at Burn After Reading. Watching a smiling Brad Pitt get shot in the face was reason enough to pay the $11.25.

"I guess we learned not to do it again... though I'll be fucked if I know what we did."

Re:Good job FBI

[Anonymous Coward]

Americans are so terrible at placing accents. I was raised in the Northeastern US and when I speak the way I would normally people in Seattle sometimes ask me if I'm from Europe (wtf?).

It's so easy to do a "generic foreign accent" that most Americans would consider passable for any country. Elongate your vowels, introduce the /x/ sound for no reason, etc. That's all Sascha Baron-Cohen is doing when he's playing Borat. (OK, he's British, not American, but the point stands.)

Re:Good job FBI

[pshumate]

Well, you get my props for an NCIS reference.

Re:Good job FBI

[airdweller]

First, it was a joke.
Second, getting solid evidence would be contacting him and 'posing as a representative of 'country X.', you know, getting him to actually do something incriminating and so on.
So I really hope you don't work for any of the government agencies.

Now mod away.

Re:Good job FBI

[airdweller]

Do you speak with the non-rhotic accent by any chance?

Fago8z

[Anonymous Coward]

ttok precedence Shouts To the achieve any of the found out about the

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[maotx]

More specifically, Akamai is a content distribution company that serves as a local mirror for it's customers and their customer's clients. You'll see them everywhere from streaming video at Yahoo! to deploying Windows Updates with Microsoft. You would be surprised with how much content is delivered to your computer from their servers.

Looks like "Country X" was Israel

[ptbarnett]

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/10/07/2741170/jewish-internet-company-employee-arrested-for-selling-secrets

"I am a Jewish American who lives in Boston," Doxer reportedly wrote in an e-mail to a foreign country's consulate in Boston. "I know you are always looking for information and I am offering the little I may have."

Doxer, who had access to invoices and customer contact information, also said in a later message that his goal was "to help our homeland and our war against our enemies."

He informed the agent that his company served the U.S. Department of Defense, Airbus and several Arab companies. Doxer reportedly asked for $3,000 in compensation for his actions.

Re:Looks like "Country X" was Israel

[Anonymous Coward]

Doxer, who had access to invoices and customer contact information, also said in a later message that his goal was "to help our homeland and our war against our enemies."

I find it more interesting that the guy is clearly crazy...

He informed the agent that his company served the U.S. Department of Defense, Airbus and several Arab companies. Doxer reportedly asked for $3,000 in compensation for his actions.

...and cheap.

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[Mongoose Disciple]

I'm sure I'm getting part of this wrong, because it's been about ten years since I sat through a presentation by an Akamai dude in the waning dot-com days, but their main offering was a sort of content caching/mirroring system with servers all over the place to back it up.

So for example, you're Fox and you sign up to have your streaming TV episodes "Akamaized". The day after a new episode of American Idol is posted to the web, probably a lot of people are downloading/streaming it. Akamai's setup would automatically mirror it out to a bunch of local servers all over the place, so in theory, no matter where you the watcher are, you're streaming from a server a low number of hops/latency from you, and you're not slashdotting Fox's own servers.

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[sholsinger]

Many sites also used/use Akamai for delivery of things such as Javascripts, cascading style sheets (CCS files), and images. Much the same as many use Amazon's Elastic Cloud Storage service.

Aside from just being a dumbass...

[ElectricTurtle]

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.)

Re:Aside from just being a dumbass...

[geekoid]

You don't contact them initially at all. You just give them some information they can use. Then you contact them with more information, and what you want. HOWEVER, the odds of any country just trusting someone they haven't groomed is pretty weak these days.

Re:Aside from just being a dumbass...

[UnknowingFool]

I guess the problem for this guy had to do with "information they can use." All he could provide was customer information from Akamai. He didn't have technical or research information. Even if he did, Akamai's core technologies are in web and search, fields that a foreign power might not exactly find useful. If he was deployed by a defense contractor, that might have been a different story.

Re:Aside from just being a dumbass...

[Anonymous Coward]

Consulates are not the hotbeds of espionage that they used to be.

Wanna Bet?

Re:Aside from just being a dumbass...

[Plekto]

If you think logically about what countries might want such technology, he should have waited at least until he was on a business trip over there and done something(from a don't be a total moron perspective - ethics aside, of course). You have to assume that everything that you say or do in whatever country that you are in is being recorded or filed away somewhere "just in case" there's a future problem. You and I have no secrecy or privacy. If the Government wants information on us for anything at all, we know that they will get everything from a copy of our birth certificate to how much we tipped the waitress last Friday at lunch.

So we don't do stupid things. We keep our heads down and are (for the most part, aside from complaining at places like this and maybe speeding to work and so on) good little worker drones. And we get a nice(enough) country to live in, good food, plenty of distractions and things to do from video games and concerts and so on that most of the rest of the world doesn't get to do as easily. Life's not really so bad as a result, and so 99.99% of us have a good incentive to not do stupid things that ruin it for ourselves. We work, we have families, and so on. (visit Juarez for an example of how almost half of the rest of the world lives. A PS3 is a dream over there)

Going to a potentially adversarial foreign consulate on the other hand is a sure-fire way to get yourself watched(ie - going to the Irish consulate wouldn't probably draw any attention at all) For good reason, really. You could be asking about work or visas or anything else and the chances of you pulling a stupid stunt like this are roughly zero. But China or North Korea or other places like that, you know that they are paying some person to watch the place(or in this case have an understanding with them to turn in idiots like this to keep from creating international incidents). Or he should have known.

And, of course, there had to be the moment where he calculated the risk factor before doing the crime. At least don't be an idiot and do things that automatically get you life in prison. He could have(as an example) done any number of other illegal "white collar" crimes wouldn't get you the kind of penalty espionage does. Or he could have made a small fortune legally by turning in the company to one of the various software enforcement agencies(almost every mid-size corporation isn't paying for 100% of its software) You have to wonder what went through his brain when he chose to do something that would carry such a huge penalty for so little potential profit.

Oh well, stupid people. One less in the gene pool.

Re:Aside from just being a dumbass...

[rgviza]

And how, exactly, do you know this? Spying for Dummies? Are you a spy yourself? /chuckle

Re:Aside from just being a dumbass...

[blair1q]

Actually, I think they burned him because they already have or or more moles in Akamai doing what he offered to do, possibly at rather elevated levels of the company. So they don't need him, don't need the risk exposure of having more moles than they need, and didn't want to take the chance that he was counterintelligence.

Think of it in Reverse

[neoshroom]

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?

Re:Think of it in Reverse

[Migraineman]

There's value in making a very public example of folks like this. Consulates don't want to be bothered with Joe Everyman and his get-rich-quick scheme.

Besides, this could easily be a test of loyalty from a friendly nation. You wouldn't want to damage decades of political negotiations over a penny-ante commercial information leak.

Re:Think of it in Reverse

[BeanThere]

Shouldn't the US or anyone else in that situation just say "thanks, but no thanks" instead of starting these cloak and dagger games?

And that pays your salary how?

Re:Think of it in Reverse

[vxice]

Israel can't possibly endanger its relationship with the U.S. Look up the USS LIberty or if that is not bad enough look up the Levon affair of 1954 where Israel failed to attack British and American interests in an attempt to blame it on random terrorists creating a situation that would require the U.S. to stay in the Sinai.

Re:Think of it in Reverse

[Anonymous Coward]

"Consulates don't want to be bothered with Joe Everyman and his get-rich-quick scheme."

Probably true for the most part but there have been instances with the Soviets. Of course, relations were very poor at these times.

Andrew Daulton Lee
Ronald Pelton
John Anthony Walker
A young scientist on the Manhattan project also did this.

Re:Think of it in Reverse

[HornWumpus]

Don't forget:

Lee Harvey Oswald.

allow me

[Anonymous Coward]

Allow me to be the first to say:

Who gives a flying fsck?

It's usuall Israel

[Anonymous Coward]

Whenever there is a spy scandal and people want to avoid talking about which country it was, it's usually Israel. Nobody likes to admit that a supposed ally is spying on us, but they spy on us more than anyone since the Soviet Union fell apart.

I suspected as much

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

Prior to reading your post, I suspected that Doxer was trying to deal with Israel. He had nothing of value for them so this provided a perfect opportunity for them to "help" the US by reporting it so they can say, in effect, "See. We don't always spy on you." Some of you out there may not know this, but quite a few recent espionage cases in the USA have involved Americans spying on behalf of Israel. I have to wonder if Doxer actually worked for the US government and had access to things that Israel would be interested in knowing about if they would have been so quick to rat him out to the Feds.

Staff self-selection

[FryingLizard]

He went to *Israel* and offered them dishwater-grade intelligence?
Well it saves Akamai the hassle of doing staff intelligence tests.

Re:Staff self-selection

[justinlee37]

You said it man. Every time I hear about a would-be spy trying to sell U.S. Gov't or Corporate secrets to contacts in Israel, I just shake my head. Don't these people realize that Israel is a close ally who wouldn't risk losing our assistance by engaging in espionage against us? Israel has enemies that they are more worried about, their intelligence services are too busy dealing with that to even think about messing with the U.S. -- If you're going to try to sell U.S. secrets, at least sell them to someone who actually doesn't like us or isn't afraid to spy on us, like China or Russia respectively.

Re:Staff self-selection

[MarkvW]

Are you NUTS? Israel spies on the US like CRAZY. They'd be crazy not to.

Keep Pollard the traitor locked up!

Re:Staff self-selection

[justinlee37]

Yeah, but Israel is smart enough not to just accept information from any jackass who comes along out of the blue to offer it to them. What if the person approaching them with information was sent by the CIA as a double-agent in order to assess whether or not Israel really is spying on us? Better to play it safe with such an individual and turn them in to U.S. authorities, gather whatever intelligence they can from legitimate sources, and if they plant any agents, make sure they're people groomed by Israel's intelligence forces, not just some random jackass who comes along offering some intel who could just be a CIA plant.

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[Lord Ender]

That's just marketing blather. Akami is one of those services that would be called "cloud hosting" if it had been invented more recently. It's just a big web hosting operation what has lots of geographically-dispersed, load-balanced server farms. If you have a heavy-traffic site and you want to make sure it feels fast to your customers, you host it on Akami.

On our network, a large portion of our traffic goes to Akami IP space just from user browsing.

Paraphrasing Le Carre

[mewsenews]

This story supports the assertion that more spies are busted through snitching rather than sleuthing

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[CaptSlaq]

That's a pretty good representation of what they do, as someone who uses them currently. Basically you create an ARL (akamai resource locator) and use that as your distribution link. Akamai will snatch one copy of the the content for storage, use that ARL to locate the content on their network, and supply the mirrors from it. At least that's my understanding of how it works.

There's some hoops you have to jump through to tell Akamai that the content has changed, if you do so.

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[Anonymous Coward]

dig www.apple.com

; > DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 > www.apple.com ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 8838 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 8, ADDITIONAL: 8 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;www.apple.com. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.apple.com. 1453 IN CNAME www.isg-apple.com.akadns.net.
www.isg-apple.com.akadns.net. 30 IN CNAME www.apple.com.edgekey.net.
www.apple.com.edgekey.net. 6295 IN CNAME e3191.c.akamaiedge.net.
e3191.c.akamaiedge.net. 10 IN A 2.19.205.15 ;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
c.akamaiedge.net. 372 IN NS n5c.akamaiedge.net.
c.akamaiedge.net. 372 IN NS n6c.akamaiedge.net.
c.akamaiedge.net. 372 IN NS n0c.akamaiedge.net.
c.akamaiedge.net. 372 IN NS n3c.akamaiedge.net.
c.akamaiedge.net. 372 IN NS n4c.akamaiedge.net.
c.akamaiedge.net. 372 IN NS n7c.akamaiedge.net.
c.akamaiedge.net. 372 IN NS n2c.akamaiedge.net.
c.akamaiedge.net. 372 IN NS n1c.akamaiedge.net. ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
n3c.akamaiedge.net. 1609 IN A 195.12.231.131
n6c.akamaiedge.net. 1609 IN A 195.12.231.135
n1c.akamaiedge.net. 1442 IN A 195.12.231.136
n7c.akamaiedge.net. 1608 IN A 195.12.231.140
n0c.akamaiedge.net. 1609 IN A 195.12.231.130
n2c.akamaiedge.net. 1078 IN A 195.12.231.140
n5c.akamaiedge.net. 1078 IN A 195.12.231.133
n4c.akamaiedge.net. 1608 IN A 195.12.231.133 ;; Query time: 1 msec ;; SERVER: 131.251.0.4#53(131.251.0.4) ;; WHEN: Thu Oct 7 16:40:40 2010 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 430

Dunno, dude...

[Moraelin]

While I have sympathy for your situation, I see nothing so far except unsuported postulates that his situation is the same.

I don't actually see anywhere the piece of info that his ex-wife actually kidnapped his son or disappeared anywhere. A more common -- and Occam's Razor compliant -- assumption would be that she simply won the custody.

Also note that this wasn't even the payment he originally asked for. He first just asked for $3000, and there was no mention of his son at all. Only when they tried to haggle the price down, he dropped the price to basically "not enough bad things can happen" to his ex-wife. Sorry, it doesn't sound to me like some desperate guy and some kidnapping. If that were his motivation, he'd ask for that from the start. Whereas for this guy it was the second best, if he's not getting his $3000.

Also, note that he didn't actually ask for his son back. He just wanted his ex-wife hurt and some _photos_ of his son. Doesn't sound like there was any kidnapping involved, if anyone asks me. You'd expect him to actually want his son rescued, if there was some kidnapping thereof, not just some photos. But at any rate that was just an addendum to the real payment he was falling back to, namely that something bad happens to his ex.

I.e., it's more likely that, basically, you're cheering for someone who was just a douchebag trying to sell some info from work for money, or if that fails, use the Mossad to carry his personal vengeances. He doesn't seem to actually have more of a moral high ground there than the AOL admin who sold the client database to spammers. He just was even dumber about it.

Re:Dunno, dude...

[afidel]

Who said I was cheering? I said I felt for him having experienced a similar/same situation. It doesn't absolve him from guilt and it doesn't mean I at all support his tactics, just that as a human being who has experienced something similar I can feel the pain he must have felt. I also have empathy for other victims of crimes including battered spouses that kill their abuser, that doesn't mean I think they shouldn't face justice for their actions.

This would not have happened if ...

[Skaperen]

... 'country X' was the USA.

According to the news...

[Moraelin]

According to the news, he faces 20 years in prison.

Re:According to the news...

[morgauxo]

But when would he be up for parole? I'm guessing only a few years unless he behaves really badly in prison.

Is it profitable?

[SnarfQuest]

Maybe I can get information from the various places I work at. So, who would pay the most for samples of KFC "7 herbs and spices", or McD "Special sauce", or maybe a sampling of TB "hot sauce"?

and how is this different

[Anonymous Coward]

and how is this different from what the US government did for Boeing when they leaked info from Airbus in a contract Airbus were winning?

I take it we'll see US government officials facing similar jail time, yes?

Re:and how is this different

[blair1q]

You're going to have to provide a link to that story. I vaguely remember something like it, but Google is awash in results for "boeing airbus contract government leaked" that have nothing to do with such a story.

I'd try Bing, but I don't like how it spies on me.

Country X???

[LeepII]

If the newspapers won't name the country then it is Israel.

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[Anonymous Coward]

I got a very different result..

user1@user1-lnxlap:~$ dig www.apple.com
 
; <<>> DiG 9.6.1-P2 <<>> www.apple.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 30699
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.apple.com. IN A
 
;; ANSWER SECTION:
;Yes, you are a fag

Akamai is a sovereign nation?

[Anonymous Coward]

...probably not treason. ...Treason definitely isn't the best way to go but maybe the guy was just that desperate.

It's not treason. Just corporate espionage -- and not really all that much of that either.

Aside from the details of the contracts, Akamai's customers are readily identifiable -- A web crawler indexing links to Akamai sites could come up with a pretty good approximation of Akamai's customer list.

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[Evets]

Are there seriously slashdotters who don't know what akamai is? What is this world coming to?

How much?

[Anonymous Coward]

So it took 1 year + 18 months to setup an operation and catch this guy?

I'm sure they (FBI, NSA, whatever) wanted to have a case against him, but:

How much did it cost?

But that's the question, innit?

[Moraelin]

But that's exactly the question, innit? Is his situation actually all that similar in the first place? Because from everything I can find about it -- and yes, I even spent some time googling, not just TFA -- there is absolutely no mention of any kidnapping being involved or alleged or anything. And again, even his demands and behaviour, don't seem to even remotely resemble any kind of rescue.

Re:But that's the question, innit?

[afidel]

Even if he lost custody in a court it still doesn't make it that much easier at an emotional level. Being separated from his child with little/no chance of ever seeing them again is going to be hard to deal with whether it's legal or not.

if x = China

[jsepeta]

then this story is a sign that we should bomb the fuck out of Peking. just because.

Re:if x = China

[St.Creed]

It's likely to be Israel. Feel free to bomb it anyway.

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[InfiniteWisdom]

It's called attempted karma whoring. Fortunately doesn't seem to be working so well.

Re:What kind of moron thinks 'Country X' is CHINA?

[marketmentat]

Dude, you need to an hero. if Country X was China, the news media would have SAID China, as would the indictment. It's ISRAEL, tard -every time those chumps get caught spying on the US, their is every step taken to conceal it from the Great unwashed. The guy is one of those who claim that a burning shrub promised a chunk of desert to some escaped slaves, in exchanged for tasty bits of foreskin. Mmmm, foreskin. So there was no need for Israel to 'turn' him - they just exploited his adherence to their particular form of tribal lunatic belief in mutilating children's genitals in order to propitiate an invisible Sky Wizard. No biggie - at least his actions didn't cause the decloaking of several dozen US intelligence assets in hostile environments as Jonathan Pollard did... the national hero of Israel who betrayed his birth country and cost 112 - and counting - US operatives their lives (and for whose release the tribal lunatics keep clamouring). CHINA? Jesus... the stupid burns my eyes.

Re:What kind of moron thinks 'Country X' is CHINA?

[Assmasher]

You sound like Tom Clancy's girlfriend.

our Israeli ally steps up

[Anonymous Coward]

Now if only they can stop whining about the tough sentence handed out to real spies like Jonathan Pollard etc.

Country X = Israel

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

They turned him in, fearing a crude "gotcha" sting.

Re:Country X = Israel

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

If it were China, Russia, Iran or even Japan - they wouldn't pussyfoot around with "Country X". But?

If you needed a better confirmation of the Rick Sanchez allegations, look no further.

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[AHuxley]

The internet on phones in Australia is now hyped as 'free' twitter /facebook.
In a few years that will be the 'net' for many.

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[Shatrat]

They've got some servers co-located at the data-center where I work
I don't work for that business unit so I don't know much about it, except that I once got a misdirected phone call from them asking to have an unresponsive server power cycled.
It wouldn't be too expensive to have a few terabytes in every town over 50k people in the U.S if you just cram them into a few RU of space at inexpensive hosting companies.

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[petermgreen]

Hosting with cheap hosting companies probablly wouldn't bring what a provider like akamai needs which is high bandwidth, low (or zero) cost per traffic connections to end users. The cost for the rackspace is probablly negligable compared to the advantages (both to akamai and the company hosting the server) to getting the machines in the right place network wise.

IIRC who pays who with akamai servers varies, sometimes akamai will pay a provider to host a server and sometimes a provider will pay akamai to provide them with one (having an akamai server locally saves bandwidth costs).

Re:for those who wonder what the hell akamai might

[Anonymous Coward]

A little more complicated than that these days. They're still a giant reverse proxy in that they cache content. They also do acceleration now for non-cacheable conent using all sorts of clever tricks including TCP modifications and overriding BGP routing. Video streaming is their big thing these days and you'll see a lot of press releases about it. Saw a sales presentation from them the other day which said they had 70000+ servers and deliver around 20% of all Internet traffic. Kinda scary numbers

(full dsclosure: work for an Akamai customer)