Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down the Internet by Menn Joseph
Author:Menn, Joseph [Menn, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
ANDY HAD PICKED THE RIGHT
RAID to go on. Denis Stepanov,
arrested by another team in St.
Petersburg,
was
surly
and
misleading from the first interview.
The twenty-three-year-old, who
worked as a computer system
administrator,
denied
doing
anything illegal. But after some time
in prison, when confronted with his
cell phone and Internet service
provider records, he began offering
some
useful
information.
For
starters,
he
admitted
knowing
Maksakov, Milsan, and Zet, and he
said he knew that Stran had
organized
DDoS
attacks
for
extortion.
Stepanov
conceded
he
had
connections with at least three more
people in the DDoS business,
nicknamed Faust, Pirog, and Red
Hunter. Andy tracked down Faust
from a phone number he had used to
call Stepanov. He was identified as
Vyacheslav Stepanov, no relation, a
resident of Rostov-on-Don and the
registered owner of a server called
irc.jerry.pp.ru. He shared that
machine
with
Pirog,
another
Stepanov contact. The server was
physically hosted in Kissimmee,
Florida, and controlled a botnet that
Andy watched attack Blue Square,
William Hill, and others. Andy
suspected the “jerry” ring of being
behind the threat to email child
pornography to customers of Blue
Square and other targets. Faust
evaded arrest but was believed to
still be in Russia. Pirog, identified
as Anton Valeryovich Slobodyanik,
likewise went into hiding in St.
Petersburg. Andy never got Red
Hunter’s real name.
Denis Stepanov also copped to
dealing with one of the titans of the
underground economy, a man known
as King Arthur. The most respected
figure on the carding fraud forums,
and probably the most feared
financial criminal of the era, King
Arthur was best known for his
mysterious ability to encode fake
bankcards that would be accepted at
ATMs.
He had run CarderPlanet, the
most notorious of the cyber-bazaars,
and he settled disputes among
participants there. He also advised
up-and-comers on DDoS attacks
and other crimes. But Andy’s squad
and other investigators had never
gotten close to him. They didn’t
know his real identity or even his
country. King Arthur was to them a
real-life Keyser Soze from The
Usual Suspects, a mythic persona
they might have blamed for more
things
than
one
man
could
orchestrate.
Stepanov had gotten some Wells
Fargo bank account numbers and
online passwords, but he didn’t
know how best to extract the money
from
those
accounts.
On
CarderPlanet, he asked King Arthur
to help, and he offered an
encryption program as payment.
King Arthur instead wanted new
exploits that could be used to hack
into computers, and Stepanov either
couldn’t or wouldn’t supply any.
Later, King Arthur wanted to deploy
a program for stealing bank account
information on Stepanov’s botnet,
but Stepanov refused. He gave
Andy two reasons. First, he was
afraid that King Arthur might take
control of the botnet. And second,
he feared that if the two ever had a
falling-out, King Arthur might have
him killed.
Other names Stepanov gave
would tantalize Andy. He said
Stran’s allies included a St.
Petersburg hacker and former
police officer named “02,” after the
phone
number
for
a
police
emergency.
More
troubling,
Stepanov said 02 might have
worked for Dept. K, the national
cybercrime squad, in St. Petersburg.
A former cybercrime police officer
in the national force would be a
powerful man to have on board,
someone who could pick up the
phone and find out where an
investigation was heading, along
with what it might cost to make sure
it never arrived. It was also the
most likely conduit if something
even worse existed. The local
police chief or Dept. K division
head or FSB man would be
reluctant to be seen with crime
lords. If the law enforcement
leaders were involved in planning
criminal activity, they would want
to
do
business
through
an
intermediary, and an ex-cop would
be a prime candidate.
While corruption was a major
problem everywhere in Russia, St.
Petersburg was notorious. Igor had
already warned Andy that he didn’t
trust the police there. The big
western city was home to
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