Thursday, June 20, 2002

Russian Mafia May Have Infiltrated Computers at Arizona State and Other Colleges By ANDREA L. FOSTER Arizona state police officers seized two desktop computers and at least five hard drives at Arizona State University earlier this month. The U.S. Secret Service has warned that someone -- possibly the Russian mafia -- installed software in the computers that could record users' credit-card numbers and other personal data. Computers at other colleges may be involved as well. Lt. John S. Sutton, a spokesman for the university police department, said the state police had removed the equipment from three campus buildings. Most of the affected equipment is in kiosks that anyone on the campus can use, he said. He said the Secret Service is taking the lead in investigating the case but is receiving help from the state police. The Secret Service declined to comment. "We have an ongoing investigation," said Mark Connolly, a spokesman for the agency. The software installed on the computers captures keystrokes as they are being typed and saves the data to a file, said John S. Babb, assistant vice provost for information technology at the university. "There seems to be a strong connection to the Russian mafia," he added. He and Lieutenant Sutton declined to elaborate, saying the Secret Service had asked them not to discuss the case. Mr. Babb said the Secret Service is investigating whether the intruders had also installed keystroke software in computers at colleges in Texas, California, and Florida. He said he doesn't know which colleges are part of the inquiry. William E. Lewis, vice provost for information technology at Arizona State, posted a message Wednesday to an e-mail discussion list for university chief information officers. He provided details of keystroke-capturing programs for which the administrators should be on the lookout on their own computer systems. The programs, Mr. Lewis wrote, include Starr Commander Pro, STARRCMD.EXE, RADMIN, and ISPYNOW. "If unauthorized installations of the above files are located or if log routers for authorized installs have been altered, please contact your local Secret Service office," Mr. Lewis wrote. Mr. Babb said the university did not know whether the suspected criminals had obtained users' credit-card numbers or Social Security numbers. Administrators are waiting for the Secret Service to tell them what, if any, personal data were retrieved from the seized equipment. The administration did not alert students about the incident after the hard drives were confiscated, although most now know about it since it was reported in the news media, said Mr. Babb. "We wanted to warn students, but the Secret Service told us to wait." Some students were upset that they were not notified immediately. "It's sad there wasn't a warning issued, but I can understand that it would jeopardize the investigation," said Erin Hawksworth, a junior at the university who reported on the investigation for the student newspaper, the State Press. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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