[ISN] Wi-Fi hopper guilty of cyber-extortion

[InfoSec News]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/26/wifi_hopper_extortion/

By Kevin Poulsen
SecurityFocus
26th June 2004 

A Maryland man with a grudge against a Connecticut-based patent firm
used unsecured wireless networks at homes and businesses in the
Washington DC area to penetrate the company's computers and deliver
untraceable threats and extortion demands, until an FBI surveillance
team caught him in the act.

Myron Tereshchuk, 42, pleaded guilty this month to a single charge of
"attempted extortion affecting commerce" for demanding a $17m ransom
in exchange for not broadcasting proprietary information he obtained
from MicroPatent, LLC, an intellectual property firm that packages
patent and trademark information for law firms.

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."

The FBI began following Tereshchuk, and in March a surveillance team
watched as he drove to a computer lab at the University of Maryland,
where he used a purloined student account to send more threatening
email. "During this drive he was observed driving erratically and was
paying a lot of attention to something in the front passenger side
seat," an FBI affidavit notes.

The Bureau got a search warrant for Tereshchuk's home, where they
found evidence of his campaign against MicroPatent, as well as the
components for hand grenades and the formula and ingredients necessary
for making Ricin, according to prosecutors, who say the FBI is still
investigating some aspects of the case. Tereshchuk is scheduled for
sentencing on October 22nd.