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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.'"
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!
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
Not as fun as playing spy.
To a nail, every person with a hammer looks like a problem.
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.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
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.
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.
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.
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.
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
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.
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.
I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
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.
"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.
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.
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.)
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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.
"If a LEO approaches me and offers to murder my estranged ex-wife for $20,000 that's entrapment."
No, that's a bargain!
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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.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
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.
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
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.
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.
every anarchist is a baffled dictator. Benito_Mussolini
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.
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.
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Treason is *VERY* far away. Constitutional amendment far. http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/t103.htm
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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/
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.
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