back to article To Russia with Love? Georgia snaps 'cyber-spy' with his own cam

Georgia has taken the unusual step of publishing photos of a man it suspects of being the hacker who has been attacking the former Soviet Republic's systems for months. Photos of the alleged cyber-spy were captured after Georgia security experts set up a honeypot sting, tricking the person they believed to be the hacker into …

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  1. Anonymous Coward 101

    Why?

    If they knew he was the hacker, why did they expose him? He would be much more valuable compromised but without that being known to the Russians.

    1. Mark C Casey

      Re: Why?

      You're right.

      But, now this person has an image plastered over the internet the chances of him going abroad are next to nil. He'll be limited to Russia for the rest of his life. Lest Georgia put a request for his extradition with some pretty solid criminal evidence.

      Because that is what I'd do, I'd find out who this person is and keep an eye out for when he goes abroad. The moment he lands in another country I'd put out an arrest warrant through interpol and have him extradited to Georgia.

      So, no going to defcon for this fellow. Ever.

      1. David Neil

        Re: Why?

        They could catch him with his hands on the keyboard, wouldn't make a blind bit of difference if he is a Russian Citizen, they will not extradite their own.

  2. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Pint

    So the government used PDF files to secretly spy on his PC. Then you go and post a link to an official PDF government report.

    Hmmmmm....

    1. Mark C Casey

      What I'm amazed at is that pretty no one uses javascript in PDF's... no one.

      Yet everyone leaves it enabled by default, you'd think some companies and governments would disable it by default. Since disabling it mitigates almost every single exploit.

  3. Sir Runcible Spoon

    Sir

    Not much of a black hat if he still hasn't taped up his webcam ffs.

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Sir

      "Not much of a black hat if he still hasn't taped up his webcam ffs."

      Unless he was wearing a Guy Fawkes mask

    2. Scorchio!!

      Re: Sir

      "Not much of a black hat if he still hasn't taped up his webcam ffs."

      Tricky things web cams, and worse than a video problem. Mine's not connected unless and until I need it, because due to the mike.

      1. Sir Runcible Spoon
        Angel

        Re: Sir

        Because of the mic I've deleted all the drivers for the webcam on my laptop.

        I haven't taped it up though, but then again I'm not a black hat. I mainly did it because the office wanted me to be on WebEx calls with the video enabled. So rather than upsetting people and telling them to FOAD, I just disabled it and told them it was broken :) I know, I'm a coward, but a nice one :P

  4. Tom 38

    Hacked off Georgians say hacker hacked them so they hacked the hacker and took a photo of the hack.

    Hackneyed.

  5. BlueGreen

    Leet hacker makes endless noob mistakes

    leaves own machine totally open, webcam enabled, naively downloads and opens any crap that looks interesting.

    Seems odd.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If this was CSI Miami ...

    They would be able to zoom in to the window behind him, enhance the image, zoom into the enhanced image and pick out key geographical features in order to triangulate which building and which room he was in.

    Georgian security services needs to take some lessons from the Miami crime lab.

    1. Dom 3

      Re: If this was CSI Miami ...

      OTOH, if you look at the PDF, you'll probably conclude (as I did) that he's not working out of a government office.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: If this was CSI Miami ...

        "building and which room" does not have to mean government office, it can mean home and bedroom or tower block and flat or hotel and room or ....

        1. Dom 3

          Re: If this was CSI Miami ...

          Exactly, but whereas the Georgians are trying to make out it's the FSB (ex-KGB) behind it, the perp has a distinctly non-military haircut and is sitting in what is clearly not a government office.

  7. William Higinbotham
    Black Helicopters

    Face recognition

    I am not familiar with Apple or Facebook face recognition software. Has anyone tried this to see what they hit? Post hits below.:-)

    1. Scorchio!!

      Re: Face recognition

      No luck from here. I tried one image search engine:

      http://www.tineye.com/search/08595e0a6c3b12b942747eb9757e9de3cfe3268b/

      http://www.tineye.com/search/fa5f95d98a9443ca0ee3ae9a8911e20cbb1b99ad/

      The image quality is not good and some of his face is missing in each image. Perhaps the Georgians would be so kind as to either wait until they have a good image or to release a better copy, assuming they have one.

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