The Lure: The True Story of How the Department of Justice Brought Down Two of The Worlds Most Dangerous Cyber Criminals

Beginning in the fall of 1999, a number of Internet-related businesses and financial institutions in the United States suffered computer intrusions or “hacks” that originated from Russia. The hackers gained control of the victims’ computers, copied and stole private data that included credit card information, and threatened to publish or use the stolen credit cards or inflict damage on the compromised computers unless the victims paid money or gave the hackers a job. Some of the companies gave in and paid off the hackers. Some decided not to. The hackers responded by shutting down parts of their networks and using stolen credit card numbers to order thousands of dollars’ worth of computer equipment. THE LURE is the true, riveting story of how these Russian hackers, who bragged that the laws in their country offered them no threat, and who mocked the inability of the FBI to catch them, were caught by an FBI lure designed to appeal to their egos and their greed. The story of the sting operation and subsequent trial is told for the first time here by the Department of Justice’s attorney for the prosecution. This fascinating story reads like a crime thriller, but also offers a wealth of information that can be used by IT professionals, business managers, lawyers, and academics who wish to learn how to protect systems from abuse, and who want to respond appropriately to network incidents. It also provides insight into the hacker’s world and explains how their own words and actions were used against them in a court of law; the evidence provided is in the raw, uncensored words of the hackers themselves. This is a multi-layered true crime story, a real-life law and order story that explains how hackers and computer thieves operate, how the FBI takes them down, and how the Department of Justice prosecutes them in the courtroom.Amazon Exclusive: Q&A with Author Steve SchroederAmazon.com:Steve Schroeder, author of The Lure Why did you write The Lure?Steve Schroeder:I wrote The Lure primarily because it is a great story. Had the events not actually happened, they would make the basis for a good novel. I worked hard to keep the language accessible so that non-techies could enjoy it.In addition, when the case was prosecuted, it generated a lot of publicity–most of it positive–and my colleagues and I who worked on it began to get invitations to speak about the investigation and trial. We appeared at universities and security conferences throughout the nation, and two of us, Phil Attfield and I, were even invited to Taipei to make presentations. Each time that we did so, the attendees would pester us for materials to use in their own training programs. There is, it seems, a dearth of real-world computer crime materials available for training. The reason for the short supply of real logs and other forensic evidence is simple. Computer intrusion cases are complex, and most of them are settled by means of a guilty plea prior to trial, as was the case in the [Kevin] Mitnick prosecution. Under Federal privacy laws governing criminal investigative files, those files are protected from public disclosure unless they are admitted into evidence at a trial or other court proceeding. Consequently, the logs and other forensic evidence in the vast majority of cases are not available for use in training and classroom settings. This book is an effort, among other things, to make much information available.Amazon.com:Your career as a prosecutor began before cybercrime became well known. What was it like to make the move into dealing with this new kind of crime?Steve Schroeder:I believe that learning is a lifelong process that helps to keep one engaged. About two-thirds of the way through my career, I had an opportunity to redefine myself when the agencies with which I was working on two major fraud cases began using databases to organize the evidence. I had to learn how to manipulate the databases from the command prompt in order to keep up. So,