Revised and Updated “[Fatal System Error] kept me riveted to the couch all weekend.” —The New Yorker “An enthralling ride into the inner workings of the cyber-criminal world Menn displays his incredibly deep understanding of the underlying issues around computer security and why we are vulnerable.” —Slashdot “[A] compelling read, despite the fact that it’s nonfiction (or maybe because it’s nonfiction) It’s also a very frightening book.” —Los Angeles Times “Menn spins racy tales of true-life cybercrime The villains glory in handles such as ‘Bra1n’ and the heroes are portrayed respectively as Matthew Broderick from WarGames and Daniel Craig’s Bond, but the narrative glitter is sprinkled on top of serious and thorough reporting.” —The Guardian “Eye-popping [and] mind-blowing.” —Network World “[A] well-reported book on some of the biggest (known) cybercrimes in the past decade.” —Forbes Selected as Off icial Reading for the United States Strategic Command FATAL SYSTEM ERROR Business/COMPUTERS For more information, please visit http://fserror.com Cover photo © TRUE COLOUR FILMS/getty images ISBN 978-1-58648-907-6 Ava i la b l e as an e - b o o k 51595 Visit www.publicaffairsbooks.com Sign up for our newsletter 781586 489076 JOSEPH MENN $15.95/$20.00 CAN C ov e r d e s i g n b y C H RIS T O P H ER SERGIO tech , highg n i t a eek cin nessW “A fas i s u B nit.” — whodu J OSE ENN M H P L FATA M STE Y S R O R R E HUNT THE FOR NEW THE ORDS L E CRIM WHO ARE OW N D G N GI BRIN RNET E T N I THE praise for FATAL SYSTEM ERROR “In profiling two eclectic cybercrime fighters, Menn has crafted a fascinating high-tech whodunit that educates even as it entertains.” —BusinessWeek “[R]iveting, as much for the terrifying detail it includes—both about gambling sites and the extent of botnet infection and the feckless lack of high-level international cooperation that allowed their architects to enrich themselves.” —The Guardian “A valuable wake-up call for IT pros that should serve to catalyze redoubled efforts to improve cybersecurity.” —Processor “[An] entertaining look at the roots of the burgeoning cybercrime economy and its links to government, featuring a rogue’s gallery of international wrong ’uns [Fatal System Error] is one of the best descriptions of the formation of the underground economy I’ve read It deserves to be read by those in the IT security industry, policy formation and with any interest in a hype-free exposé of the true face of cybercrime.” —The Register “Not since Cliff Stoll’s The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage has there been a book that delves as deeply into the workings of criminal hackers This book will be widely read by law enforcement, policy makers, and IT security professionals Like Stoll’s book I predict it will inspire a generation of technologists to join the battle against cybercriminals.” —Richard Stiennon, founder of IT-Harvest and former VP of Threat Research at Webroot Software “The issues raised are hugely important, and failure to deal with criminals behind so much online crime will be an embarrassment to governments worldwide.” —BBC Focus Magazine “Fatal System Error accurately reveals the secretive global cyber cartels and their hidden multi-billion-dollar business, proving cybercrime does pay and pays well.” —Richard A Clarke, special advisor to President George W Bush for cybersecurity and author of Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It “Joseph Menn leads us on a true-life pursuit through an underworld where criminal identities, malicious code, and attack operations constantly mutate His brisk narrative will keep readers turning the page, and his dissection of a global business where the lines between cybercrime and national security blur will force companies, law enforcement, and the general public to reconsider how to safely navigate and protect our tangled World Wide Web.” —Greg Garcia, former assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications with the U.S Department of Homeland Security, and president of Garcia Strategies, LLC “Joseph Menn immerses us in the personalities and politics behind today’s cybersecurity threats and countermeasures This balanced, compelling account shows why the future of the Internet depends more on people of good will than on some technological magic bullet.” —Jonathan Zittrain, professor of law at Harvard Law School, cofounder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and author of The Future of the Internet—And How to Stop It FATAL SYSTEM ERROR FATAL SYSTEM ERROR THE HUNT FOR THE NEW CRIME LORDS WHO ARE BRINGING DOWN THE INTERNET JOSEPH MENN PublicAffairs New York Copyright © 2010 by Joseph Menn Hardcover first published in the United States in 2010 by PublicAffairs™, a member of the Perseus Books Group Paperback first published in the United States in 2010 by PublicAffairs All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews For information, address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, Suite 1321, New York, NY 10107 PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S by corporations, institutions, and other organizations For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call (800) 810-4145, ext 5000, or e-mail special.markets@perseusbooks.com Designed by Pauline Brown Typeset in Caslon by the Perseus Books Group The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover as follows: Menn, Joseph Fatal system error : the hunt for the new crime lords who are bringing down the Internet / by Joseph Menn p cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-1-58648-748-5 (alk paper) Computer crimes Computer hackers Internet fraud I Title HV6773.M46 2009 364.16'8—dc22 2009037731 Paperback ISBN: 978-1-58648-907-6 10 For E.F.O CONTENTS INTRODUCTION xi PART 1 1: WARGAMES 2: HARDCORE VS EXE 27 3: IN TOO DEEP 37 4: THE TURN 61 5: CRACKDOWN 83 6: FROM SPAM TO IDENTITY THEFT 99 PART 119 7: WHATEVER IT TAKES 121 8: THE DAY OF ACTION 139 9: THE UNDERGROUND ECONOMY 161 10: TRIAL 181 11: BEYOND CRIME 195 12: FIXING WHAT’S FIXABLE 229 EPILOGUE 249 AUTHOR’S NOTE 253 NOTES 257 INDEX 273 276 Index Crocker, Andy (continued) Lyon, Barrett and, 198 Maksakov, Ivan and, 121, 202 NHTCU and, 121–125 retirement of, 249 Russia extortion case and, 126–137, 139–160, 161–162, 181–193 SOCA and, 195–197 Yakovlev, Igor and, 133–137 CSIS See Center for Strategic and International Studies Cybercrime benefits of, 210–218 cost of, 234 fighting, 229–248 international cooperation and, 230, 232–233 online extortion and, 3–14, 27–28 research and, 241 rise of, 225 server hosting and, 236–240 Cybersecurity handling, 229–248 software design and, 242–243 United States and, 224–228 Cyber-Security Enhancement Act of 2008, 243 Cyxymu, 215 Dali, Salvador, 86 Daly, Joe, 46, 69, 78, 80, 87 Daour, Tariq al-, 218 DarkMarket, 176–177, 177 Data Processors International, 167–168 Davidson, Joe, 48 Davis, Marvin, 48 “DDoS Terrorism Report,” 34 DEA See Drug Enforcement Agency Deats, Mickey, 32, 132 Defense Department, U.S., 17, 20, 212, 218, 251 Dell, 225 DEMO technology conference, 250 Denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) bandwidth and, 9, 11, 75 BetCRIS and, 3–14 Blue Security, Inc and, 76–79 Britain and, 32–35 Canbet case, 33, 123–126, 148, 218 Canbet Ltd and, 32 defense against, 5–7 Digital Solutions and, domain name services and, 25 Don Best Sports and, 20–22, 28, 29 for hire, 112–113, 142 IRC and, 8, 21, 29, 30, 64–65, 99–100, 121, 142 law enforcement and, Maksakov case and, 121 NHTCU and, 121–125 PartyGaming Plc and, 60 philosophy of ethics and, 19 Prolexic and, 63–65 Proliflik and, 64 Russia and, 26, 27–31, 34–35 Russia extortion case and, 126–137, 181–193, 210–217 SNMP and, 21, 29 spamming and, 76–80 state-sponsored cybercrime and, 213 Superbowl Sunday (2004) and, 27–28 underground economy and, 162 viruses and, 8, 66, 100, 105 zombies and, 28 Deutsche Telekom, 248 Dhanani, Omar, 170 Dickey, Trevor, 123, 124, 125, 165, 197 Index 277 Digg.com, 229 Digital Defense International See Prolexic Technologies, Inc Digital Gaming Solutions, 24, 42–43, 47, 51, 60, 72, 81, 83 Digital Solutions, 6, 7, 9, 12, 23, 39, 72, 83 Dikshit, Anurag, 93–94 Disney, 17, 39 Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) See Denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) Dixon, Jerry, 226 Domain name services, 25 Dominican Republic, 38, 48, 50, 86, 231 Don Best Sports, 5, 7, 20–22, 28, 29 Dot-com boom, 5, 32, 100 Dracul, 168 Drug cartels, 98 Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), 50 Dyslexia, 14–15 EBay, 5, 57, 92–93, 113, 162, 207 Echouafni, Saad “Jay,” 112–113 E-commerce, 32, 112, 116, 131, 162, 209 Economic crisis (2008), 116 Ecuador, 98 Education, 209 E-Gold, 5, 62–63, 125, 162, 176, 177 Eisenberg, Ian, 55, 57 Eissmann, Frank, 112 El Mariachi See Thomas, David R Election 2004, 91–92 Elitehackers.com, 110 Eltel, 159 Empire Poker, 57 England See Britain Equinix, 71, 80–81, 229 Erroll, Lord, 60 EST Domains, 239 Estonia, 166, 179, 213–214, 216–217, 239 Ethics, 171 Ethics, philosophy of, 19, 61 European Convention on Cyber Crime, 233 European Union (EU), 202 Evloev, Magomed, 215 eXe See Maksakov, Ivan Facebook, 201, 215 Falun Gong, 219 Faust, 145, 150 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 30, 31–33, 65, 90 CarderPlanet and, 166 Digital Gaming Solutions raid and, 42–43 distributed denial-of-service attacks and, 28 FSB and, 232 identity theft and, 165 Lyon, Barrett and, 17, 67, 71, 74, 250–251 MVD and, 128 NHTCU and, 65 online gambling, federal crackdown on and, 87, 95–98 Russia case and, 130–131 Sacco, Ron and, 48, 49–50 underground economy and, 165 Vendorsname and, 200 Federal government, 65, 114, 241, 243 Federal Security Service (FSB), 129–131, 136, 190, 196, 197, 211, 216, 232 Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 52, 55, 100, 116, 117, 239 FedEx, 104 Feinstein, Dianne, 234 Fenwick, Trevor, 198 278 Index Ferguson, Paul, 204 Ferrell, Will, 44 Fifth Amendment, 96 Financial Times, 217, 223, 240 Finland, 104 Firefox Web browser, 244 First Fidelity, 87 Five Families, 51 Fleiss, Heidi, 50 Flyman, 203, 207 Flynn, Mickey, III See Richardson, Mickey Flynn, Mickey, Jr., 37–38 Forbes, 60 Forbes 400, 231 Ford, Mike, 124, 128 Fortune 500, 81 Frank, Barney, 94, 241 Frist, Bill, 91 “Fruity.” See Green, Brian FSB See Federal Security Service F-Secure, 104, 106, 204 FTC See Federal Trade Commission Full Tilt Poker, 93 The Future of the Internet—And How to Stop It (Zittrain), 247 Gambino crime family, 48, 50, 52, 53, 60, 84–85 Gambling See Online gambling Garber, Maynard, 96 Garber, Mitch, 93, 94 Gembe, Axel, 112, 113 Georgia, 210, 212, 214 Gerashenko, Andrey, 166 GhostNet, 221, 222 Giordano, 86 Givens, Hilton, 89 Global Crossing Ltd., 238 Global Environment for Network Innovations, 248 GoDaddy, 67 Goloshkov, Konstantin, 217 Golubov, Dmitry, 163–170, 178, 202 Gonzalez, Albert, 63, 171, 177, 178, 202, 206, 211 Google, 58, 64, 85, 221–224 Gotti, John, 50, 85 Gotti, Peter, 85 Government See Federal government Government Accountability Office, 225 Gozi, 206 Grasman, Alexander Olegovich, 141, 149, 150, 153–160, 161, 162, 181, 191, 195, 198–200, 203, 230, 237, 250 Green, A J., 89, 90 Green, Brian BetCRIS and, 12, 22–24, 38–40 online gambling, federal crackdown on and, 98 Prolexic and, 44, 46–47, 61, 73, 74, 81–82 Greisman, Lois, 117 Grey Cat, 89 TheGrifters.net, 175 Grigg, 206 Grigoriev, Igor, 184, 187, 188–190 Guatemala, 98 Habari, Yishai, 53, 57–58, 60 Hacker magazine, 209 Hacking law enforcement and, 22, 28 spying and, 211–212 HangUp Team, 202, 206 Hanks, Dan, 50 Hardcore See Lyon, Barrett Harrah’s, 91 Harvard Business School, 107 Harvest Advertising, 52 Hathaway, Melissa, 226–227, 233, 243 Index 279 Havard, Douglas, 164–165, 169, 173, 197 Heartland Payment Systems, 179, 206 Help Israel Win, 216 Henry, Shawn, 177, 202, 232 Heritage Sports, 27 Hewlett-Packard, 209, 225 HighSociety.com, 52 High-yield investment programs (HYIPs), 63–64 Hilbert, E J., 166, 168–169 Hilton, Paris, 171 The Hive, 11, 12 Hogan, Greg, 92 Home-equity lines of credit, 231 Homeland Security Department, U.S., 113, 224–226, 242–244, 247 Hoover, J Edgar, 169 Houston, Tex., 129, 131, 141, 155 Hu Jintao, 224 Huacheng, Wang, 218 Hurricane Electric Internet Services, 238 Hydra, 154, 157 HYIPs See High-yield investment programs Hynds, Len, 123 Hypponen, Mikko, 106, 107, 204, 219 IBM, 225 Ibragimov, Ruslan, 108 ICANN See Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICQ instant-messaging system, 29, 110, 136, 150, 166 IDefense, 221 Identity theft banks and, 114–115, 243 CarderPlanet and, 162–165 credit card industry and, 114–115 government, U.S and, 114–115 growth of, 200–201 retailers and, 114, 243 Russian mob and, 100 Shadowcrew and, 162–163 underground economy and, 162–166 U.S mafia and, 51 war against, 118 IEG, 55 IGlobalMedia, 56–57 Ilves, Toomas, 213 “In the Trenches of Cyberwarfare” (Lyon), 70 India, 220 Indonesia, 219 International Carders Alliance, 163 International cooperation, 33 International Sportsbook Council, 88 Internet Organized crime and, 52–53 pornography and, 53, 55, 63 structure of, 19–20 U.S mafia and, 51 Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), 233, 239–240, 245 Internet crime federal government and, 65 government, U.S and, 118 growth of, 117–118 law enforcement and, 22 Secret Service, U.S and, 22, 65 United States and, 31 U.S response to, 224–228 Internet Entertainment Group, 55 Internet Explorer, 159, 207, 223 Internet ID cards, 247 Internet Party of Ukraine, 169–170 Internet Relay Chat (IRC), 8, 16, 21, 28, 29, 30, 64–65, 99–100, 121, 142 280 Index Internet video, 75, 250 Investigative Committee (MVD), 133, 196 IPVG, 81–82, 95 IQ-Ladorum, 42, 43, 81 Iran, 244 Iraq, 130, 210, 212 IRC See Internet Relay Chat ISP See Internet service providers Israel, 76, 216 Jack Binion’s World Poker Open, 39 Jackson, Don, 204, 206, 214 Jackson, Douglas, 63 Jacobsen, Nicolas, 171–172 Japan, 64, 65, 219 Jaschen, Sven, 105–107 Javelin Strategy and Research, 116–117 Jazzsports.com, 27 Joffe, Rodney, 79 Josem, Michael, 89 J.P Morgan, 231 Junik hosting firm, 240 Justice Department, U.S., 58, 84, 92, 93, 167, 172, 174, 179, 210–211 Kahnawake Gaming Commission, 90 Kalustian, Kale, 48 Kaminski, Pavel, 175 Kant, Immanuel, 19 Kaplan, Gary, 86 Kasparov, Garry, 215 Kaspersky Labs, 106 Kavkaz-Tsentr, 216 Kazakhstan, 22, 27, 29, 141, 149, 154, 159, 199–200, 200, 230, 246, 249 Kelly, Raymond, 86 Keyloggers, 114, 207 King Arthur, 146, 150, 162, 164, 165, 170, 173, 195–197, 200, 203, 211 Klopov, Igor, 230–231 Kommersant, 214 Krebs, Brian, 239 Kremen, Gary, 53, 105 Kroll Associates, 210 Kuryanovich, Nikolai, 217 Kuznetsov, Igor Vladimirovich, 208 Kuznetsov, Vladimir, 207 Laak, Phil “The Unabomber,” 89 Ladbrokes, 126 Lanni, Terry, 91 Las Vegas, Nev., 91 Laslop, Keith, 68, 73, 78, 86 Latvia, 123, 124–126, 128, 136, 139, 144, 189 Law enforcement DDoS and, hacking and, 22, 28 Internet crime and, 22 online extortion and, 28 underground economy and, 162–163 United States and, Lawrence, Stephen, 92, 93 Lebumfacil, Glenn, 4–7, 10–12, 24, 25, 46, 73 Lee, Tommy, 55 Lefebvre, John, 92, 93 Leibowitz, Jon, 239 Lewis, Bob, 33, 127 Linford, Steve, 101 LinkedIn, 95 Linux operating system, 16, 64, 105, 244 LoCascio, Salvatore, 52 London Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard), 123 Lord, William, 218 Los Angeles Times, 62, 212 Lucchese crime family, 86 Lucent telecommunication switches, 39 Lyashenko, A N., 175 Index 281 Lyon, Andy, 15 Lyon, Barrett background of, 14–18 BetCRIS and, 3–14, 22–23, 37–44 BitGravity and, 75, 96, 191, 250 Canbet Ltd and, 32 Costa Rica trip of, 3–4, 11–14, 22–23 Crocker, Andy and, 198 denial-of-service attacks and, 27–35, 118 Don Best Sports and, 5, 7, 20–22, 28, 29 FBI and, 30–31, 67, 71, 74, 250–251 high-school career of, 16–17 identity theft and, 44 Internet video and, 75, 250 learning disability of, 14–15 Network Presence and, 11, 18–20 Network Solutions and, 16–17, 39 online gambling, federal crackdown on and, 96–98, 883–884 Opte project and, 19–20, 25 Parasol, Ruth and, 59 philosophy of ethics and, 19, 61 PIT and, 7, Prolexic and, 43–47, 61–82, 192 Russia extortion case and, 126–137, 143, 191 undercover work of, 29–32, 62 Lyon, Bruce, 14, 15, 17 Lyon, Pat, 14, 16 Mafia Internet and, 52–53 online gambling and, 91 in Russia, 126–137, 139–160, 181–193, 209–210 in United States, 26, 48, 52, 84–85 Mages, Ken, 88–89 Maksakov, Ivan, 30–31, 34–35, 62, 67, 71, 74, 99, 121, 136, 139–145, 149, 150, 153–161, 161–162, 179–188, 202 Maksik See Yastremskiy, Maksym Malware, 201, 223, 238, 240, 245 Marshall’s, 178 Martino, Richard, 52–53 Master Splynter See Kaminski, Pavel MasterCard, 114 Maxim magazine, 85 Mazafaka.ru, 29, 230 McAfee, 166 McColo Corporation, 238–239, 254 McConnell, Bruce, 212, 247 McConnell, Mike, 225 MCI, 108 McQuaid, James, 214, 237–238 Melissa virus, 102 Mendelsohn, Jon, 57 Mexico, 44, 98 MGM Mirage, 91 Microsoft, 29, 65, 85, 102, 104, 107, 209, 225, 226, 227, 236, 238 Microsoft Word, 110 Milsan See Milutin, Alexandr Milutin, Alexandr, 141–142, 145, 149–150, 153–154, 157, 181, 195, 200 Miroshnikov, Boris, 133, 199 Misiko, 104 Mobile Promotions, 85 Molnar, Karen, 95 Monchamp, Brandon, 171 Money laundering, 45, 51, 73, 81, 91, 139 Moneymaker, Chris, 51 Monster.com, 231 Moody, Jim, 49 Moree, Stephen, 220 Morning, Alexei, 150–152, 179–180 282 Index MPack, 207 Mukasey, Michael, 179 Mularski, Keith, 175–176, 177 Mulhern, Jack, 220 Museum of Modern Art, New York, 20 MVD See Russian Ministry of the Interior MyDoom virus, 105, 106, 111 Nashi, 216, 217 National Academy of Sciences, 242 National Antiterrorist Committee, 216 National Association of Broadcasters, 58 National Crime Squad (Britain), 32 National Economic Council, 227 National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), 32–35, 65, 121–125, 165 National Science Foundation, 248 National Security Agency (NSA), 214, 224, 242, 244, 251 National Security Council, 227 NATO See North Atlantic Treaty Organization Navy, U.S., 20 Neteller Plc., 92–93, 94 Netscape, 16 NetSky, 106 Network Crack Program Hacker group, 221 Network neutrality, 70 Network Presence, 11, 18–20, 22 Network Solutions, 16–17, 39, 118 New York Times, 89, 117 New Yorker, 62 NHTCU See National Hi-Tech Crime Unit Nike.com, 159 Nio Nio, 89 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 202, 213 North Korea, 235 Norton, Joe, 90 NSA See National Security Agency Obama, Barack, 93, 224, 226–227, 233, 234, 247 Oboron, 109–110, 111 OfficeMax, 177 Offshore Gaming Association, 88 Oko, 21–22 Online gambling addiction and, 92 advertising and, 85 BetCRIS, 3–14, 22–23, 37–44 BetonSports, 24, 42, 68, 84–86, 88 Britain and, Congress, U.S and, 80 in Costa Rica, 6, 11–12 Digital Gaming Solutions, 24 Don Best Sports, 20–22 federal crackdown on, 84–98 organized crime and, 91 poker and, 39–40, 52–53, 56–60, 88–90, 240–241 United States and, 7, 26, 28 U.S mafia and, 84–85 On-The-Fringe, 165 Open proxies, 101, 103 OpenNet Initiative, 215 Opte project, 19–20, 25 Orange Revolution, 169, 178 Outpost.com, 175 Pahomov, Anton, 181–189, 190, 199, 249–250 Paller, Alan, 237, 247 Panama, 40, 95 Parasol, Ruth, 54–60, 90, 93–94 Index 283 Paredes, David, 89 PartyGaming, 56, 58–60, 92–94 PartyPoker, 52, 57–59, 88, 91, 92 Past posting, 40 Patriotism, 219 Pavel, 110 PayPal, 92–93, 125, 154, 207 Peer pressure, 240 Peering Forum, 70, 238 Pelican Sports, 85 Pentagon, 212, 220 Pentagon Federal Credit Union, 176 Peretti, Kimberly Kiefer, 174, 179, 210–211 Perry, Matthew, 30, 31, 71, 130 Peru, 98 Pesci, Joe, 48 Petrov, Aleksandr, 150, 150–153, 162, 181–182, 186–187 Pharma Master, 76–77 Philadelphia Inquirer, 69 Philippines, 81 Philosophy of ethics, 19, 61 Phishing, 113–114, 162, 196, 208, 237 Phoenix International Teleport (PIT), 7, Pirog, 145, 146, 150 See also Slobodyanik, Anton Valeryovich PIT See Phoenix International Teleport Plato See Lyon, Barrett Playgirl.com, 52 Playwithal.com, 83, 86 Poker, 39–40, 52–53, 56–60, 88–90, 240–241 PokerProbot, 89 PokerStars.com, 51, 93 Pornography, 53, 55, 57, 63, 145, 146, 203, 238 Postal Service, U.S., 166, 169, 196 Potripper See Green, A J Pricewert, 239 Prolexic Rennick, Darren and, 68 Sacco, Ron and, 68–70 Prolexic Technologies, Inc., 60, 143, 154, 158, 176 Blue Security, Inc and, 76–79 denial-of-service attacks and, 63–65 e-Gold and, 62–63 in Florida, 46–47 founding of, 23, 25 Green, Brian and, 38, 61, 73, 74, 81–82 Lyon, Barrett and, 43–47, 61–82, 73–80, 192 non-gambling clients of, 62–63 online gambling, federal crackdown on and, 83, 86–87, 94–98 Proliflik and, 64–67 Rennick, Darren and, 43, 61–62, 72, 73, 74, 78–79, 81 Richardson, Mickey and, 38, 43, 44–47, 61, 67–69, 73, 74, 81–82 Russian mob and, 45 Sacco, Ron and, 71–72, 74 sale of, 81–82 SCO Group and, 105 UltraDNS Corp and, 78–80 Proliflik, 64–67 “Proof of concept,” 102, 214 Protx Ltd., 154 Proud, Mat, 33, 34 PureGig, 9, 25, 28 Putin, Vladimir, 132, 150, 210, 213 Pyramid schemes, 64 284 Index QuickTime, 207 Qwest, 18 Radio-frequency identification (RFID), 18 Ramzinskiy, Pavel, 111 RapidSatellite.com, 112 RBN See Russian Business Network Real Host, 240 Red Hacker Alliance, 219 Red Hunter, 145, 146, 150 Registry of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO), 101 Rennick, Darren, 23–24, 41, 42–43, 51, 60, 86 FBI and, 71 online gambling, federal crackdown on and, 87, 96–98 Prolexic and, 43, 46–47, 61–62, 63–64, 68, 72, 73, 74, 78–79, 81 Reshef, Eran, 78 RFID See Radio-frequency identification Richardson, Mickey, 55 background of, 37–38 BetCRIS and, 4–8, 10–11, 12–14, 22–24, 37–38, 40–44 online gambling, federal crackdown on and, 83, 95, 97 Prolexic and, 43, 44–47, 61, 67–69, 73, 74, 81–82 Robbins, Andy, 33 Robots (bots), 29, 30, 65, 88–89, 99, 140, 141–142, 143, 159, 198, 236–237 Rock Phish, 208 Rodery, Terry, 46, 64–65 Rohozinski, Rafal, 215, 221 ROKSO See Registry of Known Spam Operations Romania, 202 Romanov, Mikhail Valentinovich, 155–157 Rose, Kevin, 229 Rose, Nelson, 90 Ross, Andrew, 127 Royal Bank of Scotland, 66, 72, 175 Runet, 158 Russia, 210 corruption in, 147, 155, 199 cyber-mafia in, 126–137, 139–160, 161–162, 181–193, 195–218 denial-of-service attacks and, 27–31, 34–35, 126–137, 210–217 international cooperation and, 232–233 mafia in, 26, 45, 100 RBN, 147–148, 155, 158, 195, 197, 237–238, 254 Russian Business Network (RBN), 147–148, 155, 156, 195, 197, 203–208, 211–214, 237–238, 254 Russian Ministry of the Interior (MVD), 128, 133–136, 139, 142 Ruthie Ruthless See Parasol, Ruth Sacco, Ron, 44, 47, 55 background of, 48–51 BetCRIS and, 43–44, 48, 51, 96, 98 FBI and, 48, 49–50 online gambling, federal crackdown on and, 83, 95–98 Prolexic and, 68–70, 71–72, 74 Salenkov, Misha, 149 Sandia National Laboratories, 218 SANS Institute, 237, 238, 242 Santorelli, Steve, 123, 232, 247 Sasser virus, 107 Saydjari, Sami, 224 Index 285 Schmidt, Howard, 212, 248 Schuler, Michael, 169 SCO Group, 105 Scope, 157 See also Romanov, Mikhail Valentinovich Scotland Yard (London Metropolitan Police), 123 Script See Golubov, Dmitry SDB Global, 40, 84 Seagal, Steven, 85 Secret Service, U.S., 22, 63, 65–66, 158, 166, 171, 176–177, 198, 202, 230, 239–240 Secunia, 207 SecureWorks, 104, 109, 204, 206, 214 Segvec See Gonzalez, Albert Senate, U.S., 233 Send-Safe, 108–109, 113, 211 September 11, 225 Serio, Joe, 204, 210 Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), 192–193, 195, 198–200, 249–250 76service, 206 777Mobile, 60 Sex.com, 53, 105 Shackleford, Michael, 56 Shadowcrew, 143, 162–163, 171–173, 177, 206, 230 TheShell.com, 7, 16, 17 Shishkin, Nikolae, 207–208 Silicon Valley, 76 Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), 21, 29 Simpson, O J., 50 Sinatra, Frank, 48 60 Minutes, 50, 89, 90 Slobodyanik, Anton Valeryovich, 146 Smirnov, Sergey, 214 Smith, Hugo, 127 SNMP See Simple Network Management Protocol SoBig virus, 103–105, 107–109, 202, 211 SOCA See Serious Organised Crime Agency Social networks, 201 Soldatov, Andrei, 216 The Sopranos (television show), 69 Soupnazi, 178 South Korea, 104, 245 Spamhaus, 101, 113, 175 Spamming blacklists and, 101–102 Blue Security, Inc and, 76 denial-of-service attacks and, 76–80 identity theft and, 114–118 open proxies and, 101, 103 origin of, 100–101 phishing and, 113–114 viruses and, 8, 101–113 Speedera Networks, 113 Spilotro, Tony, 48 Sporting News, 59 SportingIndex, 126–127 SprutNet, 110–111 Sprutnet@mail.ru, 110 St Petersburg, Russia, 136, 139, 145–147, 155, 158–159, 181–182, 186, 203–204, 208, 232, 237–254 Stanford University, 248 Stapleton, Bobby, 48 Starbucks, 104 Starluck Casino, 56 State Department, U.S., 225 State Farm Insurance, 66 Stepanenko, Roman, 166–168 Stepanov, Denis, 136, 139, 145–147, 153, 162, 181–182, 185–187 Stepanov, Vyacheslav, 145–146 286 Index Sterling, Rachelle, 3–4, 11, 12–14, 19, 22, 25, 28, 43, 47, 61, 66, 70, 72, 74, 75 Stern, Howard, 85 Stewart, Joe, 109–110, 111, 245 Stone, Roger, 81 Storm, 201 StormPay, 62, 154 Stran, 125–126, 128, 136, 139, 145, 147, 148, 181, 188, 189, 195, 200 Strause, Jonathan, 81 Straw, Jack, 132 Students for a Free Tibet, 220 Superbowl Sunday (2004), 27–28 Sweden, 107, 216 Symantec, 66, 222, 225, 227 Taiwan, 219, 221 Tambov gang, 204 Tan Dailin, 221 Team Cymru, 66, 123, 204, 212, 226, 229, 232, 237 TeliaSonera, 240 Terrorism, 210, 251 Tethong, Lhadon, 220 Texas Hold ’Em, 51, 57, 59, 89 Thomas, David R., 173, 175 Thomas, Rob, 66 Tibet, 219, 221 Time Warner Inc., 158 Titan Rain, 218 TiVo, 113 T.J Maxx, 63, 178, 179 TJX, 178 T-Mobile, 171–172 Tom, Scott, 89 Top Layer, 5, 6, Torpig, 207 Travel Channel, 58 Trend Micro, 66, 204 Trojan horses, 109, 110, 206, 212, 220, 237, 238, 243 Tsastsin, Vladimir, 239 Tucows, 77 Turner, Dayton, 10, 12, 23, 25, 29–31, 34, 64, 73 Twitter, 201, 215 Two-factor authentication, 248 TypePad.com, 77 Tyukanov, Anatoly “Vox,” 171, 172 U.K Royal Mail, 66 Ukraine, 118, 166, 239 Ultimate Bet, 90 Ultimate Poker, 89 UltraDNS Corp., 25, 78–80 UN See United Nations Underground economy, 118 CarderPlanet and, 162–165, 166–170, 174–176 denial-of-service attacks and, 162 identity theft and, 162–166 law enforcement and, 162–163 Shadowcrew and, 171–173 viruses and, 162 United Kingdom See Britain United Nations (UN), 132, 235 United States BetCRIS and, China and, 218–219 cybersecurity and, 224–228 DDoS and, gambling law in, 7, 25–26, 28 Internet crime and, 31, 224–228 law enforcement and, mafia in, 26, 48, 51, 84–85 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, 91, 92 U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, 219, 222 Valis, Fred, 50 Van Dyke, James, 117 Vega, Roman, 166 Vendorsname, 200 Venezuela, 98 VeriSign, 202 Index 287 Video, 75, 250 Vietnam, 130 Virtual private network (VPN), 143 Viruses Bagle, 105, 106, 109–110, 111, 162, 201–202 Blue Security, Inc and, 79 denial-of-service attacks and, 8, 66, 100, 105 free-speech laws and, 114 Melissa, 102 MyDoom, 105, 106, 111 Sasser, 107 SoBig, 103–105, 107–109, 202, 211 spamming and, 8, 101–113 underground economy and, 162 Visa, 114, 116 VO-Group, 24 VPN See Virtual private network Walker, Lee, 112 Wall Street Journal, 85, 117 WarGames (film), 4, 26 Warshavsky, Seth, 55–56 Washington Post, 78, 239 Weagain@ok.kz, 27 Weaknees.com, 112 WebMedia Interactive Inc., 52 Webmoney, 62, 125, 128, 139, 144, 162 Wedbush Morgan, 81 Wells, Mario, 55 Wells Fargo, 116, 146, 208 Western Union, 125, 143, 162, 166, 175 “Who Wrote SoBig?,” 108–109, 204, 211 “The Weasel.” See Rennick, Darren William Hill, 126, 146 Willis, Bruce, 41 Windows, 106, 207 Windows 2000, 21 Wire Act (1961), 84 Wired.com, 169 Witteles, Todd, 89 “Wizard of Odds.” See Shackleford, Michael World Poker Robot Championship, 88 World Poker Tour, 58 World Series of Poker, 51 World War III, World Wide Web See Internet Worms, 102, 103, 112 Blue Security, Inc and, 79 Code Blue, 216 Conficker, 236 Wu, Perry, 75, 250 Wyly, Charles, Jr., 231 YaBet, 44 Yahoo!, 5, 58, 85, 222 Yakovlev, Igor, 133–137, 139–145, 147, 148, 150–152, 155–156, 181–182, 196–197, 199, 232, 249 Yastremskiy, Maksym, 178 Yeltsin, Boris, 210 YouTube, 250 YouWager.com, 87 Zarubina, Maria, 139, 148, 148–149, 195 Zenz, Kimberly, 202, 203, 204, 205, 216 Zet, 141–142, 145, 149, 150–151 Zeus, 175 Zittrain, Jonathan, 247 Zombie computers, 30, 31 See also Robots (bots) Zombie networks See Botnets Zombies, 6, 11, 22, 28–31, 65, 100, 103, 104, 108, 111, 144, 159, 161, 207, 236 See also Robots (bots) ZoneEdit, Inc., 158 DOUG PIBURN Joseph Menn covers cybersecurity and other technology issues for the Financial Times, after a decade on the same beat for the Los Angeles Times He is the author of 2003’s All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster and a two-time finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award, the top prize in business reporting Menn has spoken to the largest security industry conferences as well as meetings convened by the U.S Secret Service and bank regulators PublicAffairs is a publishing house founded in 1997 It is a tribute to the standards, values, and flair of three persons who have served as mentors to countless reporters, writers, editors, and book people of all kinds, including me I F Stone, proprietor of I F Stone’s Weekly, combined a commitment to the First Amendment with entrepreneurial zeal and reporting skill and became one of the great independent journalists in American history At the age of eighty, Izzy published The Trial of Socrates, which was a national bestseller He wrote the book after he taught himself ancient Greek Benjamin C Bradlee was for nearly thirty years the charismatic editorial leader of The Washington Post It was Ben who gave the Post the range and courage to pursue such historic issues as Watergate He supported his reporters with a tenacity that made them fearless and it is no accident that so many became authors of influential, best-selling books Robert L Bernstein, the chief executive of Random House for more than a quarter century, guided one of the nation’s premier publishing houses Bob was personally responsible for many books of political dissent and argument that challenged tyranny around the globe He is also the founder and longtime chair of Human Rights Watch, one of the most respected human rights organizations in the world • • • For fifty years, the banner of Public Affairs Press was carried by its owner Morris B Schnapper, who published Gandhi, Nasser, Toynbee, Truman, and about 1,500 other authors In 1983, Schnapper was described by The Washington Post as “a redoubtable gadfly.” His legacy will endure in the books to come Peter Osnos, Founder and Editor-at-Large ... Center for Internet & Society, and author of The Future of the Internet And How to Stop It FATAL SYSTEM ERROR FATAL SYSTEM ERROR THE HUNT FOR THE NEW CRIME LORDS WHO ARE BRINGING DOWN THE INTERNET. .. Caslon by the Perseus Books Group The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover as follows: Menn, Joseph Fatal system error : the hunt for the new crime lords who are bringing down the Internet. .. up their hands at cybercrime? Why, yes, they had the FBI, the Secret Service, and the national authorities in the U.K and Russia The saga grew until it gave a panoramic view of organized crime s