http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/24456.html Cyber cops & security orgs: DIRTy, stupid and out of control By Thomas C Greene in Washington Posted: 18/03/2002 at 13:41 GMT A number of what one would hope to call professional computer security and cyber law-enforcement figures in England, Australia, South America and Asia appear to have been duped by DIRT Trojan marketer Francis Edward "Frank" Jones, according to documents obtained by The Register. A second load of Codex Data Systems correspondence has been released, including contract paperwork in various stages of maturity. We don't know how much has been finally signed, sealed and delivered; but we can infer that the people named below have at least contemplated co-marketing deals with the hustler Jones. Many of them are in high-profile positions of responsibility and trust in the areas of computer security and law enforcement. It makes one wonder if anyone in these fields can ever be trusted. For background on the insidious Trojan Jones is misrepresenting as a crime-fighting tool, and Jones' criminal background, see our previous coverage here and here. First up we have a proposal for marketing DIRT to government spooks, industrial spies and private security firms in the United Kingdom with Dr Kevin A. O'Brien, a Senior Policy Analyst with RAND Europe, and Information Assurance Advisory Council (IAAC) Chief Operating Officer. According to a document dated 24 September 1998, O'Brien was "contemplating being involved in some or all aspects of [Codex's] creation, development, production or sale of intellectual property," in his capacity then as a representative of the Hussar International Research Group, "a virtual organization of professional research analysts based throughout the world. The prime research interests of the Hussar Group are issues of contemporary international security, in all of its aspects." The group, which now appears to have been disbanded or absorbed by a larger entity (in part by RAND, obviously), belonged to the Matrix GDSN (Global Decision Support Network). The Matrix describes itself as "an international network of specialist organizations providing business intelligence, knowledge management, risk assessment and technology evaluation services to future-oriented organizations throughout the world. "Our global resources include intelligence professionals, analysts, and systems designers with collective capability that rivals many intelligence agencies." As for IAAC, it describes itself as "a private sector led and government supported forum that brings together corporate leaders public policy makers law enforcement and the research community to address the challenges of information infrastructure protection. IAAC is developing policy recommendations for government and corporate leaders at the highest levels." Dr. O'Brien may be found at: RAND Europe (Cambridge) 36 Regent Street Cambridge CB2 1PG United Kingdom tel: +44(0)1223-353329 obrien@rand.org Information Assurance Advisory Council 36 Regent Street Cambridge CB2 1DB United Kingdom tel: +44 (0)1223 307711 In Australia we have World Systems Resource (WSR), a discount (used) enterprise computing vendor supplying equipment from HP, SUN, Cisco, Compaq, IBM and EMC. A February, 2000 document indicates that the company was seeking a non-exclusive deal as a DIRT reseller in the Australian cyber-cop/securocrat market. World Systems Resource is located at: Unit 8, 92a Mona Vale Road, Mona Vale, New South Wales 2103 Australia tel: (02) 9979 1455 Covering all of South America in one stroke, we have Mr Ramon Ignacio Izaguirre, who appears to have entertained a 17 March, 2002 agreement to distribute the DIRT Trojan to cops and securocrats throughout the land. Jones praises Izaguirre for his "expertise in marketing to the government, law enforcement and military sector in Argentina and South America," and offers him exclusive rights to market it throughout the region. Izaguirre also appears to operate a company called Segurama, which is involved in security. He may be found at: 1624 Bdo. Irigoyen Street, Buenos Aires 1138, Argentina tel: 54-11 4300-7539 And last, but not least, we have Mr Unho "Tiger" Choi in South Korea, who appears to have entertained a 24 February 2001 deal to get the DIRT circulating among eager government spooks and ambitious industrial spies in his home country. He's also a trusted member of the local CERT. Choi is affiliated with the Korean CERT-CC Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center, which, just as in the US and elsewhere, is an arm of the government. More properly, CERT-CC/Korea is run by the Korea Information Security Agency (KISA), which in turn is run by the Ministry of Information and Communication. Our "Tiger" is also affiliated with KISA. And he seems to have his own consulting business on the side as well. He skips about quite a lot, but should be available for comment at one of these locations: Unho "Tiger" Choi Network and Security Consulting, Inc. 1329-4 Woonam Building, 15th Floor Seocho-dong, Seocho-gu Seoul, South Korea cell: 82-17-263-3433 Korea Information Security Agency (KISA); Information Security Technology Division 78, Karak dong, Songpa-Gu, Seoul 138-160, Korea tel: 82-2-4055-114 CERTCC-KR Senior Members of Technical Staff, CERTCC-KR 5F, Seocho-Donga Tower Bldg, 1321-6 Seocho Dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul,Korea,137-070 tiger@certcc.or.kr tel: 82-2-3488-4122 cell: 017-263-3433 And lest we forget, our friend Jones may be found at: Codex Data Systems, Inc. 143 Main Street Nanuet, New York 10954 and/or 167 Route 304 Bardonia, New York 10954 tel: 845-627-0011