Ukrainian Hacker Who Targeted Brian Krebs Extradited To US (go.com) 81
JustAnotherOldGuy writes: A Ukrainian man who allegedly tried to frame cyber-security expert Brian Krebs has been extradited to the United States and is due in Newark federal court today, prosecutors said. Sergei Vovnenko, known as "Fly," "Flycracker" or "Flyck," is thought to have been behind a 2013 plot to send heroin to cyber-security blogger Brian Krebs, a plot Krebs himself said he foiled because he was monitoring the site where it was hatched. "Angry that I'd foiled his plan to have me arrested for drug possession," Krebs wrote on his blog, "Fly had a local florist send a gaudy floral arrangement in the shape of a giant cross to my home, complete with a menacing message."
Can't have been too good a hacker (Score:5, Insightful)
Or he felt too secure sitting in a country half a planet away.
Like my boss once said, having a police record is no recommendation in this biz. Yes, it means that you did something. But it also means that you were either too sloppy, to crappy or too arrogant to cover your tracks well.
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... having a police record is no recommendation in this biz. Yes, it means that you did something...
In my opinion, if a rowdy hurt people with a knife it does potentially make him a good surgeon. Being a good surgeon requires discipline, empathy, education, etc.
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Most people believe that someone DDoSing your website offline means that you were hacked by better skilled hackers.
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If you are, in fact, secure in a country half a planet away, flaunting your impunity isn't as elegant as working silently; but has its virtues as an intimidation tactic: "You can't touch me, I can touch you; and even if you foil me this round I only have to get lucky once."
If you are in a country half a planet away that is just fine with stuffing y
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I'd just guess that Ukraine has decided that going with the West and its broader expectations for legal and economic transparency not to mention Washington's diplomatic and military support.
They can either continue to run an organized crime structured economy and get extremely limited Western investment or try to go the route of Poland or other former East Bloc countries.
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More like one bunch of crooks was replaced by another bunch of crooks riding on the wave of nationalism. To make an analogy, imagine the most corrupt of Nixon's cabinet fighting over who gets to be the next president with no holds barred. This is more or less what happens in the Ukraine for the past 10 years.
And the route of Poland is basically to mooch off Germany. They receive the lion's share of EU subsidies, so much that even Greece is envious.
Czech Republic is a far better example of success and the Cz
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Or he felt too secure sitting in a country half a planet away.
ukraine is as puppet state as it gets right now.
Like my boss once said, having a police record is no recommendation in this biz. Yes, it means that you did something. But it also means that you were either too sloppy, to crappy or too arrogant to cover your tracks well.
why is covering your tracks a desirable skill for your job?
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To find out whether the intrusion detection and logging mechanisms are doing their job well. If I can get in and out without the IDs and logs showing it, we have a problem. The primary problem is of course that I got in, but at least as big a problem is if this goes undetected!
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To find out whether the intrusion detection and logging mechanisms are doing their job well. If I can get in and out without the IDs and logs showing it, we have a problem. The primary problem is of course that I got in, but at least as big a problem is if this goes undetected!
fair enough.
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Re:US forcing their laws on Europe AGAIN (Score:4, Funny)
Ugh, why does the US get to force other countries to extradite people who violate US laws? They pressured Sweden into charging Julian Assange with sexual assault because of the leaked cables and then pushed the UK to keep him trapped in the Ecuadorian embassy under guard. Now they're forcing countries to extradite their own citizens for breaking US laws. There's no reason why other countries should be forced to follow US laws.
I've often thought it must be more fun when you don't feel compelled to base your opinions on actual facts.
Re:US forcing their laws on Europe AGAIN (Score:4, Informative)
"There's no reason why other countries should be forced to follow US laws."
Well, except for those pesky extradition treaties, trade deals, and billions of dollars of course...
Re:US forcing their laws on Europe AGAIN (Score:5, Informative)
you generally can't extradite someone if they what the did was legal in their country
Re:US forcing their laws on Europe AGAIN (Score:5, Informative)
It's called an extradition treaty, and it works both ways. Also, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that attempting to frame someone for possession of heroin and botnet-related crimes are illegal both in the US and in Ukraine.
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No, in the case of the USA, it doesn't work both ways.
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Surely, "thought" is a long way short of being sufficient to extradite someone ?
You are aware that this is a newspaper article, and not the actual extradition request?
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We KNOW that GWB committed war crimes in Iraq, but that doesn't seem to be enough for HIS extradition !
What war crimes would those be? Who has charged him and asked for his extradition?
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There were US war crimes in Iraq. The question would be if Bush was responsible for some of them.
Re:US forcing their laws on Europe AGAIN (Score:5, Informative)
It's called an extradition treaty, and it works both ways. Also, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that attempting to frame someone for possession of heroin and botnet-related crimes are illegal both in the US and in Ukraine.
The U.S and Ukraine do not have a extradition treaty. He was apprehended in Italy, a country with which the U.S has a extradition treaty. In any case with Kiev needing Washington's support in its fight with Russian backed rebels I doubt they would have much of a problem handing a politically-unconnected criminal over, even without a extradition treaty.
Re:US forcing their laws on Europe AGAIN (Score:4, Insightful)
When was the last time US allowed extradition of a US citizen to a foreign country?
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Happens more often than you would think. I don't know when the "last" time was, but in 2013 it occurred.
http://www.680news.com/2013/06... [680news.com]
Re:US forcing their laws on Europe AGAIN (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll give you one example [whatdotheyknow.com] I could find:
Since 2003, 33 UK citizens (including some with dual citizenship) have been extradited to the US, while 7 US citizens have been extradited to the US.
Not exactly equal numbers, but yeah, it actually does go both ways. It's not really too surprising that more criminals would be extradited to the US than from. This can be explained by the fact that the US is probably the world's biggest target, both economically and politically. For instance, there are many foreigners (and in fact, foreign countries) who counterfeit US banknotes. There's less motivation for US citizens to target foreign nationals or corporations than vice versa.
Or, I suppose you could chalk it up to some nefarious reason why the US government would want to harbor suspected US criminals, though I can't for the life of me figure out why they would want to do so.
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Oops, I meant to type "while 7 US citizens have been extradited to the UK".
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Population is also a factor. Crimes warranting extradition probably occur at a rate of 1 per x million citizens. The US has 5 times as many people as the UK, and surprise, almost exactly 5 times as many extraditions.
Re:US forcing their laws on Europe AGAIN (Score:4, Informative)
Except that is backwards. The UK has 5 times as many people extradited from 1/5 the population.
Re: US forcing their laws on Europe AGAIN (Score:3)
Welp, that's embarrassing. And I work with numbers for a living...
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When was the last time US allowed extradition of a US citizen to a foreign country?
Here is one from a couple weeks ago: US citizen extradited to South Korea over high-profile 1997 murder [channelnewsasia.com]
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2) The US laws are more restrictive than the rest of the world
This is backwards. You can only be extradited if the act is a crime in both the US and the other country, and if the punishment in the requesting country is not extremely out of line compared to the requested country's, so if the US laws were more restrictive it wouldn't increase the number of extraditions. On the other hand, many countries would like to extradite people from the US for crimes that are not a crime in the US, like for insultin
Re:US forcing their laws on Europe AGAIN (Score:4, Informative)
Ugh, why does the US get to force other countries to extradite people who violate US laws? They pressured Sweden into charging Julian Assange with sexual assault because of the leaked cables and then pushed the UK to keep him trapped in the Ecuadorian embassy under guard. Now they're forcing countries to extradite their own citizens for breaking US laws. There's no reason why other countries should be forced to follow US laws.
The US certainly has a...distinctly mixed...history when it comes to shoving around countries that it thinks it can get away with; but this guy is being extradited for breaking US law within US jurisdiction, just using the internet to telecommute to the crime site.
Since many crimes can only be properly committed in person, it's probably more common for extradition treaties to get called in when somebody flees from Country A to Country B; but if you can commit a crime in Country A from the comfort of Country B(whether because you are doing computer intrusions and have internet access, or are hiring a hit man the old fashioned way), the principle is exactly the same.
It'd be pretty dodgy if the US wanted a Ukrainian guy grabbed for crimes not committed within American jurisdiction; but in this case the allegation is that he committed a fair few in the US, among other places.
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Except he was attempting to frame someone inside of the United States. To be honest, I'd wish this guy would get thrown in an Ukrainian prison than an American one. I'm sure the prisons in Ukraine are a lovely place to stay.
But you know, lets make this about Assange again. Assange is a coward really, he wanted to change the world, but then when the shit hit the fan, he went and hid.
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Ugh, why does the US get to force other countries to extradite people who violate US laws?
Because when you've got the biggest dick in the room, you tend to do a lot of fucking.
Don't worry, the drunken crazy military spending that the U.S. is putting on its credit card will eventually stop when they can't afford the minimum payments on said credit card anymore. Then the party will end, their dick will shrink, and they'll wake up with a hangover realizing that they're in tens of trillions of dollars in debt with no way to ever pay it off.
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Did Sergei miss the travel advisory? (Score:5, Interesting)
Did he miss the travel advisory for Italy?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09... [nytimes.com]
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Maybe he read it but this advisory did not say anything about Italy.
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So Italy doesn't have an extradition treaty with the US? From the linked article, "The Russian Foreign Ministry posted advice of a somewhat different nature on Monday, cautioning people wanted by the United States not to visit nations that have an extradition treaty with it."
True, they only named a few of the countries (particularly ones where this has happened), but they did not mention the UK, New Zealand or Australia either. Nor Germany, nor...
Eek? (Score:3, Interesting)
Sooner or later Mr. Krebs is going to cost the bad guys enough money that they will decide he is actually worth dealing with.
Ride the wave Brian, but watch your back.
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A number of these "security researchers" are either government sanctioned actors
Which have better things to do than mess with 'security researchers'. Those guys are figuring out how to screw over big fish politically. Brian Krebs is the anti-definition of big fish.
criminals in their own right.
Which get buy with a lot of things because there is no physical connection to them. Actually doing something to someone physically results in a trail thats much easier to trace than the Internet.
The reasons these guys don't do things is because 99.9999% of them are cowards hiding behind computer courage.
For the true organi
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Yeah, or the teenagers that enjoy fucking with him so much will get the picture and stop doing so. Krebs is a journalist, not a cop - he wants to write stories. Nonetheless he has developed quite the track record of winning in the various conflicts forum-dwellers engage in. He's not a guy anyone should mess with lightly.
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Yeah Krebs may be a highly skilled cybersecurity expert, but he might want to think about learning physical security as well.
I suggest starting with basic firearms training, and eventually graduate to multiplayer Call of Duty.
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is that a threat?
Of course not don't be ridiculous.
Isn't taking someone to Newark punishment enough (Score:2, Funny)
I think he's learned his lesson.
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It's sad that you think that trying to send someone a pile of heroin with the intent of framing said person is "mundane".
Can we do this to you? What's your address bro? I got some good smack to uhh..deliver to you.