(August 15) – “In March 24, a strange e-mail message popped up on the computers at the Bloomberg corporate offices in New York,” reports John Sullivan in today’s New York Times.
“In the message, addressed to the founder and chief executive, Michael Bloomberg, a person who said his name was Alex asserted he had detailed knowledge of the computer systems of the company, a financial information supplier.”
“Alex said he was ‘not a criminal,’ but said he had obtained passwords of senior Bloomberg employees, and he proposed Bloomberg pay him for pointing out the security breach. Alex closed the message by stating ‘(y)our security and reputation are in your hands.’ “
“Three days later, a fax machine rang at the Bloomberg offices. Streaming out of the machine came computer screen printouts with confidential corporate files, including Mr. Bloomberg’s employee photograph, his computer password and his personal credit card numbers.”
“Thus began a cat-and-mouse game pitting the mysterious Alex against Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and Bloomberg employees acting under F.B.I. direction. After exchanging a series of computer messages, Mr. Bloomberg agreed to deposit $200,000 in a European bank on Alex’s promise that he would disclose how he had cracked Bloomberg’s security and would help the company’s programmers shore up their defenses. F.B.I. agents and the Bloomberg employees then persuaded the correspondent to travel to London for a meeting. Mr. Bloomberg agreed to attend himself.”
“After a meeting in the Hilton Hotel in London last Thursday, the agents sprang their trap. London police officers arrested two men who attended. Yesterday, federal prosecutors in New York unsealed criminal complaints against Oleg Zezov, 27, and Igor Yarimaka, 37, charging them with unauthorized computer intrusion and extortion. If extradited to the United States for trial and convicted on all counts, each man faces as much as 20 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.”
“Both men are from Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic northwest of China, authorities said.”
“Prosecutors said Mr. Zezov gained access to the Bloomberg system through a securities company he worked for in Kazakhstan.”
“For a financial information company like Bloomberg, computer security is critical.”
” ‘We are as confident as anyone can be that the security of our system was, is, and continues to be adequate to protect our customers,’ Chris Taylor, a company spokesperson said. ‘We are 100 percent confident that they did not gain access to any of our customers’ data.’ Ms. Taylor did not want to comment further, although the company issued a brief statement about the arrests.”