The FBI has reportedly indicted a small group of four hackers who are apparently responsible for stealing between $100 - $200 million in intellectual property (how that’s measured is a bit of a mystery) from famous videogame studios like Microsoft and Epic as well as the US Army (this is never a good idea, folks).
The material that was stolen is said to have consisted of important data relating to the Xbox One, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Gears of War 3 and what they call “proprietary software used to trail military helicopter pilots.” - as a side note, it was also noted that the group managed to hack into Valve’s network.
The indictment, which consisted of a rather impressive 18 counts of criminal activity, included “conspiracies to commit computer fraud, copyright infringement, wire fraud, mail fraud, identity theft and theft of trade secrets.” The charges are not, however, being spread amongst the 4 evenly and in some cases the hackers are being charged as a conspiracy and in others as individuals. The indictment can be seen here.
According to various court records which date back as far as January 2011, the defendants “accessed and stole unreleased software, software source code, trade secrets, copyrighted and pre-release works and other confidential and proprietary information. Members of the conspiracy also allegedly stole financial and other sensitive information relating to the companies - but not their customers - and certain employees of such companies.”
The indictment also goes on to say that the conspiracy was planning on selling the stolen intellectual property for a profit.
The four hackers who have been indicted are David Pokora (22, Ontario), Sanadodeh Nesheiwat (28, New Jersey), Nathan Alcala(20, Maryland) and Austin Alcala (18, Indiana). David and Sanadodeh have pleaded guilty to the charges whilst Austin and Nathan have not. Nesheiwat and Pokora are scheduled for sentencing on 13th January, 2015 and ,according to the indictment, they are facing up to five years in prison and a potential fine of at least $250K - Yikes.
Pakora, who is “believed to be the first conviction of a foreign-based individual for hacking into U.S. businesses to steal trade secret information,” according to the FBI’s announcement.
The indictment goes on to say that an Australian citizen has also been charged under Australian law for a role in the conspiracy. This is referencing SuperDaE - or Dan Henry, as he is known in real life - who tried to sell a leaked Xbox One kit (then called The Durango) on eBay. Dan Henry was raided by the FBI in February of 2013 for the incident, but Microsoft backed off after a while.
“The American economy is driven by innovation. But American innovation is only valuable when it can be protected. Today’s guilty pleas show that we will protect America’s intellectual property from hackers, whether they hack from here or from abroad.”, said assistant attorney general Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“Electronic breaking and entering of computer networks and the digital looting of identities and intellectual property have become much too common,” said US attorney Charles M. Oberly III of the District of Delaware. “These are not harmless crimes, and those who commit them should not believe they are safely beyond our reach.”
Oliver Zimmerman
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