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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