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Cops Set Up Extortion Sting On Symantec's Source Code Thieves
Sparrowvsrevolution writes "Hackers linked with Anonymous leaked another 1.26 gigabytes of Symantec's data Monday night, what they say is the source code company's PCAnywhere program. More interestingly, also posted a long private email conversation that seems to show a Symantec exec offering the hackers $50,000 to not leak the company's data and to publicly state they had lied about obtaining it. Symantec has responded by revealing that in fact, the $50,000 offer had been a ruse, and the 'Symantec exec' was actually a law enforcement agent trying to trace the hackers. It adds that all the information the hackers have released, including a 2006 version of Norton Internet Security, is outdated and poses no threat to the company or its customers. Symantec says the Anonymous hackers began attempting to extort money from the company in mid-January, and it responded by contacting law enforcement, though it won't comment on the results of the fake payoff sting while the investigation is still ongoing."
Of course, anybody who's dealt with Anonymous knows they will try to get you to promise to sell out your customers or otherwise act in a way that's in your interests and detrimental to the interests of everyone you claim to 'protect'. They've done this multiple times. If I were an Anonymous target I would never agree to such a scheme because all that would happen would be that the conversation be published to make me look bad.
Of course, having it be a 'police sting operation' is a great way to make it look like you weren't really going to sell out your customers. And who knows, maybe it's even true. And maybe all that source code really is for 'old versions'.
But, the really incriminating evidence would be if there were emails showing that Symantec has been sponsoring or encouraging virus writers in some way. And I'm certain if Anonymous had that kind of evidence that it would be out in the open by now. So that means they don't. And maybe Symantec isn't as much of a sleaze bag company as I expected them to be.
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Let's see... grinds system to a halt, hard if not impossible to remove short of a reinstall, gives you no information what it actually does, contacts its maker and downloads code after sending god knows what...
Yep. The pattern matches.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Why is Symantec acting like they fooled Anonymous? In the email it says "Say hi to FBI agents" and Symantec is like "We are not in contact with the FBI."
Symantec fail.
Title should be: Anonymous outsmarts Police, Symantec sting
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
I was more interested in the fact that Symantec is trying to make it look like Anonymous is into extortion, which from all reports has never been their goal.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
It is a legitimate tactic to find them. Whether or not it's entrapment depends on whether or not they would be charged with extortion on top of the other crimes afterwards and, if they were, whether or not there was any evidence that they actually intended extortion before being offered money (likely they would have to prove that they didn't intend it rather than the prosecution proving they did).