DATE=5/26/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / HACKERS
NUMBER=5-46388
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The onslaught of computer viruses like the
recent "Love Bug," and growing cases of online credit
card fraud has brought the world's attention to
computer crime and the vulnerability of the internet.
Moscow correspondent Eve Conant reports much of this
crime originates in Russia, where overeducated and
underemployed young computer specialists strive to
become world famous "hackers" capable of breaking into
secret and lucrative databases.
TEXT:
/// NAT SOUND APPLAUSE ///
A crowd of young men and teenage boys applaud the
leader of Moscow's first annual "hacker congress" --
26-year old Ilya Vasilyev. He stands before the crowd
wearing a purple T-shirt, which advertises his school
for Russian hackers with the words, "all information
should be free."
/// Vasilyev Act in Russian, fade under
///
"Before, people thought it was impossible to teach
hackers, that a true hacker is a hacker by birth. But
I disagree," says Ilya, brushing his long hair from
his eyes. "And I will show you how to create an
environment favorable for developing hacking skills."
But Russia already is a favorable environment for
hackers. For one, the country's combination of over-
educated and underemployed specialists is a recipe for
computer hackers. Russia's hacker community was
infused with professionals following a financial crash
in 1998 that left many computer programmers and
businessmen financially destroyed and out of work.
/// Opt /// Another typically Russian strength is a
deep tradition of science. Russian students excel at
mathematics and physics, and the Soviet education
system encouraged and produced vast numbers of
"engineers" in various technological fields. /// End
Opt /// Eduard Proydakhov, editor-in-chief of the
magazine PC Week, says the number of internet users in
Russia doubles each year, and the amount of internet
crime is skyrocketing.
/// Proydakhov Act in Russian, fade under
to translation ///
Russian hackers are different than other people.
A Russian hacker has fewer resources, so he is
forced to be more inventive.
/// End Act ///
/// Begin Opt ///
In 1999 hackers broke into the state gas monopoly
Gazprom's computer system, which controls pipeline gas
flows. Russian hackers even reached as far as the
United States, systematically hacking into Defense
Department computer systems.
Russia is still largely a cash-based society, so a
great deal of computer crime in Russia targets foreign
consumers or banks. In the mid-1990s, one young
hacker in St. Petersburg managed to break into a
computer banking system in New York and transfer out
millions before being caught and jailed.
Solving cyber crimes in Russia is difficult
considering the country's underpaid police force,
which lacks the training to combat high-tech crimes as
well the absence of laws concerning computer issues.
But Dimitry Chepchugov, head of "Department-R" -- the
Interior Ministry's high tech crime division -- says
things are improving. His men have uncovered more
than 200 computer-related crimes this year, including
the arrest in April of a five-member cyber gang,
caught using a fake on-line shop to defraud Russian
and foreign credit card holders of at least 630-
thousand U-S dollars.
/// Chepchugov Act in Russian, fade under
translation ///
They were almost all youngsters between 14 and
18 years old who had mastered computer
techniques. But they were being controlled by
professional criminals.
/// End Act ///
/// End Opt///
Many of Moscow's young hackers have visited Ilya
Vasilyev's one room apartment, home to Moscow's only
"shkola hackerov" or "hacker school." They are not
allowed to smoke or drink -- only to focus on
programming.
/// Begin Opt ///
/// NAT Sound computer typing up and under
///
20-year-old Sergey Tsaregordsky studies computer
science at a Moscow university, but comes to
Vasilyev's tiny apartment twice a week for hacking
lessons.
/// Tsaregorodsky Act in Russian, fade
under translation ///
If I could find a place where they really know
how to train programmers, I would study there.
But there is no good place in Russia, we just
have to teach ourselves.
/// End Act///
/// End Opt ///
Teacher Vasilyev insists that despite his own
background as a computer hacker who pirated software,
he is not encouraging young computer whizzes to apply
their skills in computer crime.
/// Vasilyev Act ///
During my childhood we cracked programs and
distributed them for free. It was like our
donation to society. If we take some program
from a capitalist society and it was protected
by some computer defense, we thought it would be
good to crack this program, to bring the program
to the people. It was a form of honor, like
Robin Hood who brings programs to the people.
/// End Act ///
/// Opt /// He insists he is doing society a favor by
training young hackers, and is sure his students will
not decide on a life of crime.
/// Vasilyev Act ///
I can feel people. If I look at a person and
see that the knowledge I am giving him he will
use to commit a crime, that my art will not
bring him happiness but will take him to prison,
then I will not take this student.
/// End Act ///
/// End Opt ///
But perhaps those are naive words. At Vasilyev's
"hackers congress," 15-year-old Yaroslavl admitted his
aims were hardly pure.
/// Yaroslavl Act in Russian, fade under
translation ///
I want to stand out from everyone else, not just
sit and fiddle around on computers to no end. I
want to make some big break-in, all by myself.
/// End Act ///
/// Rest Opt to End ///
Or there is 21-year old Gosha, a hacker who refused to
give his last name. He says Russia's federal Security
Services, the F-S-B, often recruit people like him to
dig out information on suspects. But Gosha says he is
more often approached by criminals who want him to do
their dirty cyber work.
/// Gosha Act in Russian, fade under
translation ///
People often come to me and ask me to break into
some system. Usually they are workers trying to
break into their organization's database and
steal money from their own company.
/// End Act ///
One outdoor market in Moscow for years has been openly
selling pirated software. Perhaps it is the best
proof of what all the Russian hackers say: until
Russia's police and legal system catch up with the
times and with the growing hacker industry, cyber
crime in Russia will continue to go unpunished and
will, in fact, flourish. (Signed)
NEB/EC/GE/ENE/JP
26-May-2000 12:09 PM EDT (26-May-2000 1609 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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