Cyber Justice Chronicles
Security Fix is launching a new feature today called Cyber Justice Chronicles, which will periodically provide short snippets of news about individuals who have been arrested or convicted of computer crime offenses.
Law enforcement takes its share of lumps for not doing enough to go after cyber crooks, and while the victories on that front may be few and far between, it seems worthwhile to highlight some of the successes:
* On Wednesday, Justice Department officials said they had worked with officials from NASA and Nigerian law enforcement to win the conviction of Akeem Adejumo, a 22-year-old Nigerian man who pled guilty to hacking into a NASA employee's computer.
Turns out, Adejumo and an unnamed NASA employee met via an online dating Web site. Adejumo admitted sending the woman an e-mail attachment that contained a keystroke logger, which allowed him to steal her personal information including bank account and Social Security numbers, address and various passwords. Adejumo will serve 18 months in a Nigerian prison. I've never seen the inside of a Nigerian prison (and hope I never do), but my guess is Adejumo may soon be wishing he'd been extradited to the United States.
* Edward "Eddie" Davidson, a 35-year-old Colorado man, was sentenced this week to 21 months in federal prison for blasting out hundreds of thousands of junk e-mails touting everything from penny stocks to cheap watches and jewelry.
Prosecutors say Davidson and his company Power Promoters falsified e-mail headers to disguise the source of the spam, in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act. Davidson also was found guilty of tax evasion, and ordered to pay $714,139 to the Internal Revenue Service. Authorities say Davidson made at least $3.5 million sending junk e-mail for 19 different companies.
Davidson has been working the spam business for quite some time. More than a decade ago, AOL sued Davidson and his then companies Web Communications and Sex Web Inc., for sending porn spam to AOL users.
By Brian Krebs |
May 1, 2008; 5:15 PM ET
Cyber Justice
, Fraud
, U.S. Government
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Posted by: Guy | May 1, 2008 9:40 PM
Almost as good as NBC's Law and Order.
Posted by: Anthony | May 2, 2008 1:29 PM
News along these lines is fantastic to read.
Prison terms for those who cost society and business so much in time, money and intellectual potential better spent elsewhere are a welcome measure.
Posted by: C.B. | May 2, 2008 2:35 PM
Reminds me of the stocks of the early New England Pilgrims and Hester Prynn. Shame on 'em all! They should be branded with a big red "S" (for Spam) on their forehead.
A great addition to Security Fix, Brian! Keep 'em coming.
Posted by: Pete from Arlington | May 3, 2008 11:10 AM
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Just wanted to say that this feature is a great idea - look forward to seeing more of it. After slogging away against these types of scams every day, it's heartening to know that everyone's collective efforts are having some impact every once in a while!