International Cooperation and Sting Thwart Cybercrime Extortion of Bloomberg

On August 14, 2000, an international cooperative sting operation involving the United States, the United Kingdom, and Kazakhstan thwarted an attempted cybercrime extortion effort targeting Bloomberg L.P. by arresting two Kazakh men in London leading to a U.S. request for their extradition. The plot started on March 24, 2000, when the Bloomberg corporate offices received an email message, addressed to Michael Bloomberg, the founder and chief executive of the powerful financial information service. Oleg Zezov, known in cyberspace as “Alex”, the sender of the message, said he had a detailed knowledge of the computer systems of the company. He proposed Bloomberg compensate him for discovering and communicating the security breach, ending the message by stating “(y)our security and reputation are in your hands.”...[more]