Hacking the hackers is a crime, according to an FSB officer who has charged the FBI with using illegal methods to snare two young Russians who were arrested in the United States.
Igor Tkach, an officer in the Chelyabinsk branch of the Federal Security Service, has opened a criminal case against FBI special agent Michael Schuler, Interfax reported Thursday, citing the FSB press service in Moscow.
Schuler is accused of illegally accessing Russian web servers to gather evidence against two computer hackers from Chelyabinsk, who were lured to Seattle in November 2000.
"If Russian hackers can be convicted on evidence obtained by the Americans through hacking, it means the U.S. secret services may use further illegal means of obtaining information in Russia and in other countries," an FSB spokesman told Interfax on Thursday.
Other Russian officials also seemed to take the situation seriously.
"Our position is unambiguous: Crime must be rooted out, but it must not mean that any means can be used for doing so," First Deputy Communications Minister Andrei Korotkov said Thursday on RTR television.
It was not clear Thursday how seriously the Russian charges would be taken by U.S. law enforcement or whether the FSB has any means to influence the activities of the FBI or put an FBI agent on trial.
The FSB asked the U.S. Justice Department earlier this year to open a criminal investigation into Schuler's actions, Interfax reported.
Justice Department spokeswoman Jill Stillman said Thursday she was not aware of any such request from Russia. "I cannot comment and we wouldn't comment because the FBI is a part of the Department of Justice," Stillman said by telephone from Washington. "But I also have no information regarding it."
The FSB's Moscow press office referred calls seeking comment to the FSB office in Chelyabinsk, a city in the Urals, where it was already late in the day and no one answered the phone.
The Prosecutor General's Office reportedly upheld the charges, but a spokeswoman said Thursday she could provide no immediate comment.
Ray Lauer, an FBI spokesman in Seattle, said he knew nothing about the FSB's accusation against his colleague Schuler. This was the first time that he personally had heard about a Russian agency suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he said by telephone.
The story that sprouted such an unexpected twist began in November 2000, when two hackers from Chelyabinsk, Vasily Gorshkov, 26, and Alexei Ivanov, 21, arrived in Seattle.
They came upon the invitation of a U.S. Internet company aptly named Invita, which turned out to be a bogus firm set up by the FBI to ensnare the two Russians.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, the hackers had gained unauthorized access to computers to steal credit card information and other personal financial information, and then tried to extort money with threats to expose sensitive data to the public or damage the victims' computers. The hackers also defrauded California-based online payment company PayPal through a scheme in which stolen credit cards were used to generate cash and to pay for computer parts purchased from vendors in the United States.
Invita "managers" -- FBI special agents Schuler and Marty Prewett -- offered the hackers well-paid jobs and asked them to demonstrate their hacking skills in Invita's office in downtown Seattle.
While Gorshkov was using an Invita computer, the FBI secretly used a "sniffer" program that logs every keystroke a person types.
The hackers were arrested on the spot. Gorshkov was convicted by a jury in October 2001 and awaits sentencing in Seattle. He faces a maximum sentence of 100 years in prison, as well as a maximum fine of $250,000 on each of 20 counts of various computer crimes.
Ivanov was indicted in California in June 2001 and awaits trial in Connecticut. He faces up to 90 years behind bars.
Back in November 2000, using passwords recorded by the "sniffer," the FBI entered the computers in Russia where Gorshkov and Ivanov kept their data and downloaded an immense amount of information, including more than 56,000 stolen credit card numbers, the court records said.
A search warrant from a U.S. judge was obtained only after the data from the hackers' computers was copied, the records said.
In May 2001, Gorshkov's lawyer, Kennet Kanev, challenged the FBI's right to use that material, contending the FBI should have obtained the search warrant before downloading the information, The Associated Press reported.
The investigators said they were forced to follow this procedure because they needed to secure the incriminating information before the two suspects' Russian accomplices destroyed the data, AP said.
The decision to break into the computers came only after Moscow ignored requests for assistance from U.S. authorities, according to Stephen Schroeder, an assistant U.S. attorney. "There were several attempts," he was quoted by MSNBC as saying in April 2001. "The Russian government simply didn't respond."
The spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General's Office said it was their job to review such requests, but she said she could not immediately say whether her office had received the American requests.
The defense lawyer's challenge was denied by federal Judge John Coughenour, who said in his ruling that U.S. laws governing search and seizure did not apply to international searches, and that Russian law did not apply to the actions of federal agents based in the United States.
However, the judge acknowledged that the issue raises "unique and novel legal questions," U.S. newspapers reported.
Under Russian law, Schuler could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
Igor Tkach, an officer in the Chelyabinsk branch of the Federal Security Service, has opened a criminal case against FBI special agent Michael Schuler, Interfax reported Thursday, citing the FSB press service in Moscow.
Schuler is accused of illegally accessing Russian web servers to gather evidence against two computer hackers from Chelyabinsk, who were lured to Seattle in November 2000.
"If Russian hackers can be convicted on evidence obtained by the Americans through hacking, it means the U.S. secret services may use further illegal means of obtaining information in Russia and in other countries," an FSB spokesman told Interfax on Thursday.
Other Russian officials also seemed to take the situation seriously.
"Our position is unambiguous: Crime must be rooted out, but it must not mean that any means can be used for doing so," First Deputy Communications Minister Andrei Korotkov said Thursday on RTR television.
It was not clear Thursday how seriously the Russian charges would be taken by U.S. law enforcement or whether the FSB has any means to influence the activities of the FBI or put an FBI agent on trial.
The FSB asked the U.S. Justice Department earlier this year to open a criminal investigation into Schuler's actions, Interfax reported.
Justice Department spokeswoman Jill Stillman said Thursday she was not aware of any such request from Russia. "I cannot comment and we wouldn't comment because the FBI is a part of the Department of Justice," Stillman said by telephone from Washington. "But I also have no information regarding it."
The FSB's Moscow press office referred calls seeking comment to the FSB office in Chelyabinsk, a city in the Urals, where it was already late in the day and no one answered the phone.
The Prosecutor General's Office reportedly upheld the charges, but a spokeswoman said Thursday she could provide no immediate comment.
Ray Lauer, an FBI spokesman in Seattle, said he knew nothing about the FSB's accusation against his colleague Schuler. This was the first time that he personally had heard about a Russian agency suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he said by telephone.
The story that sprouted such an unexpected twist began in November 2000, when two hackers from Chelyabinsk, Vasily Gorshkov, 26, and Alexei Ivanov, 21, arrived in Seattle.
They came upon the invitation of a U.S. Internet company aptly named Invita, which turned out to be a bogus firm set up by the FBI to ensnare the two Russians.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, the hackers had gained unauthorized access to computers to steal credit card information and other personal financial information, and then tried to extort money with threats to expose sensitive data to the public or damage the victims' computers. The hackers also defrauded California-based online payment company PayPal through a scheme in which stolen credit cards were used to generate cash and to pay for computer parts purchased from vendors in the United States.
Invita "managers" -- FBI special agents Schuler and Marty Prewett -- offered the hackers well-paid jobs and asked them to demonstrate their hacking skills in Invita's office in downtown Seattle.
While Gorshkov was using an Invita computer, the FBI secretly used a "sniffer" program that logs every keystroke a person types.
The hackers were arrested on the spot. Gorshkov was convicted by a jury in October 2001 and awaits sentencing in Seattle. He faces a maximum sentence of 100 years in prison, as well as a maximum fine of $250,000 on each of 20 counts of various computer crimes.
Ivanov was indicted in California in June 2001 and awaits trial in Connecticut. He faces up to 90 years behind bars.
Back in November 2000, using passwords recorded by the "sniffer," the FBI entered the computers in Russia where Gorshkov and Ivanov kept their data and downloaded an immense amount of information, including more than 56,000 stolen credit card numbers, the court records said.
A search warrant from a U.S. judge was obtained only after the data from the hackers' computers was copied, the records said.
In May 2001, Gorshkov's lawyer, Kennet Kanev, challenged the FBI's right to use that material, contending the FBI should have obtained the search warrant before downloading the information, The Associated Press reported.
The investigators said they were forced to follow this procedure because they needed to secure the incriminating information before the two suspects' Russian accomplices destroyed the data, AP said.
The decision to break into the computers came only after Moscow ignored requests for assistance from U.S. authorities, according to Stephen Schroeder, an assistant U.S. attorney. "There were several attempts," he was quoted by MSNBC as saying in April 2001. "The Russian government simply didn't respond."
The spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General's Office said it was their job to review such requests, but she said she could not immediately say whether her office had received the American requests.
The defense lawyer's challenge was denied by federal Judge John Coughenour, who said in his ruling that U.S. laws governing search and seizure did not apply to international searches, and that Russian law did not apply to the actions of federal agents based in the United States.
However, the judge acknowledged that the issue raises "unique and novel legal questions," U.S. newspapers reported.
Under Russian law, Schuler could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.