Smooth Criminal
June 28th, 2004
The criminals who get caught are usually the stupid ones. See, for example, the tale of Myron Tereshchuk:
[…]
Tereshchuk ran a small, competing patent document service that ran into trouble when he was allegedly caught removing files from US Patent and Trademark Office, and was temporarily banned from the facility. Tereshchuk believed he was the victim of corruption at the patent office, and blamed MicroPatent, according to court records. He began penetrating the company’s computers, going through its trash, and pseudonymously sending harassing e-mails to its customers and president.
At one point, the company president tried to use a “Web bug” to trace his cyber tormenter, but Tereshchuk detected the ruse. Meanwhile, FBI agents traced some of the emails and intrusions to two homes and a dentist’s office in Arlington, Virginia. The residents, and the dentist, made poor suspects, and the agents learned that all three were running unsecured 802.11b networks.
Though he went to some lengths to make himself untraceable technically, past altercations between Tereshchuk and the company made him the prime suspect from the start, according to court records. The clearest sign came when he issued the $17m extortion demand, and instructed the company to “make the check payable to Myron Tereshchuk.”
[…]
You couldn’t make it up…
[Via Slashdot]