On June 6, 2011, Scot Terban (aka krypt3ia) published a piece titled The Dragon and Eagle: China's Rise from Hacking To Digital Espionage. A day later, it was re-published with permission by Infosec Island. The re-publishing gives clear credit at the top to Scot Terban ("Contributed By"), and his handle at the bottom ("Cross-posted from Krypt3ia"). Despite that, David Virgil Dafinoiu, writing for "Cyber Intelligence Center" plagiarized the entire article, dropped part of the title ("The Dragon and Eagle") and signed his name to it, stripping Terban's name and handle.
Terban left a terse comment on the plagiarized article:
Author : Krypt3ia
E-mail : [redacted]
Comment:
Either credit me as the author or remove this post ASAP. Next comment/email goes to wordpress for copyright infringement.
Scot A. Terban
Dafinoiu promptly responded to Terban but claims the article was picked from a LinkedIn group "with no indication of the source". We don't know what group he received it from, but unless someone posted it there and stripped credit, it is hard to believe this Dafinoiu did not know the source. Even if credit had been stripped, republishing an entire article and signing your name to it is still obvious plagiarism.
From: David Dafinoiu (david@dafinoiu.com) Date: June 8, 2011 11:24:25 PM EDT To: Scot Terban Subject: Re: [CYBER INTELLIGENCE CENTER | NorAm Intelligence] Please moderate: "China?s Rise from Hacking To Digital Espionage" Hi Scot, Thank you for your email. The article was picked from a LinkedIn group with no indication of the source. Ill remove it for know, but I would like to re-post it when you approve it - please indicate the way your name and other info of the source should appear on the post. Thank you, David Dafinoiu
Even believing Dafinoiu had good intentions, they are immediately shattered when browsing the "Cyber Intelligence Center" blog. Several recent articles are also plagiarized in part or full, demonstrating that he has no intention of giving credit unless his hand is forced. Within five minutes, we found several articles that have been plagiarized:
With this many cases of articles being copied in full, it is difficult to believe anything other than Dafinoiu sees such copying as a shortcut in providing content for his various blogs. To remove any doubt about his intentions, one only has to look at the plagiarism in another article:
The article on Family Security Matters says the following, with two footnotes citing their references:
In the wake of 9/11, Mara Salvatrucha attracted the attention of top al Qaeda officials, who realized that the gang could be used to smuggle operatives and weapons into the United States.[1] An agreement was forged between the terrorists and the gang-bangers. In exchange for safe passage across the border, al Qaeda - through its cells in South America - agreed to pay the Maras from $30,000 to $50,000 for each sleeper agent they managed to smuggle into the country with bogus matricula consulars.[2]
Dafinoiu's article re-arranges most of the material, drops the references and updates it for his current topic:
In the wake of 9/11, Mara Salvatrucha, a Salvadoran street gang that now controls the flow of arms, drugs, and illegal aliens into the U.S., attracted the attention of top al Qaeda officials, who realized that the gang could be used to smuggle operatives and weapons into the United States. An agreement was forged between the terrorists and the gang-bangers. In exchange for safe passage across the border, al Qaeda - through its cells in South America - agreed to pay the Maras from $30,000 to $50,000 for each sleeper agent they managed to smuggle into the country with bogus matricula consulars.
This is willful plagiarism, and cannot be excused as some "accident". To make matters worse, Dafinoiu has plagiarized from Terban before:
All of this from an organization that claims "World-Class Intelligence, Analysis & Advice - 24X7, 365 days a year."
Update: Even after Terban contacted him, Dafinoiu continues to plagiarize and improperly use material.
In other cases, lifting an entire research paper with a simple "Source" linking to the TLD is all Dafinoiu does. This is not proper citation, and such a sourcing does not give him permission to use the text. This is copyright violation.
