The US accused two New Yorkers of helping "Russian hackers"

[Carding 4 Carders]

The US Department of Justice has charged two citizens of the United States with helping "Russian hackers" break into the taxi dispatcher service of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The agency's report states that " for many years, hacker attacks by the defendants prevented honest taxi drivers from paying for travel at JFK in the order in which they arrived. Thanks to the joint work of the Ministry of Justice and the airport administration, these defendants face serious criminal charges for their alleged cybercrime."

According to the prosecutor's office, 48-year-old New Yorkers Daniel Abaev and Peter Layman" in collusion with Russian citizens " hacked the electronic dispatch system of the taxi service at JFK airport. This allegedly allowed them to bring certain taxis to the front of the queue in exchange for a fee.

As specified in the Ministry of Justice, cyber attacks were committed in the period from 2019 to 2020. Police arrested the accused in Queens. The two men now face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

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Two 48-year-old Americans with the help of "Russian hackers" hacked the IT system of a New York taxi and earned $10 thousand a day. They issued taxi drivers passes to the front of the queue of similar drivers at JFK Airport, so that they could be the first to pick up a passenger and leave. They paid hackers $100 thousand.

How the Russians helped the Americans

Two Americans bribed "Russian hackers" to break into the taxi dispatcher service in New York (USA), writes The Register with reference to the US Department of Justice. The purpose of the cyberattack was to earn money from taxi drivers who prefer to search for passengers at airports, but do not want to wait in line among other cabbies.

US citizens, Daniel Abayev and Peter Leyman, came up with a scheme that allowed taxi drivers not to stand in line for a customer, but to become a little richer. According to the Ministry of Justice, enterprising 48-year-old Americans agreed with "Russian hackers "to hack the information system, which allowed them to write out so-called" passes " to taxi drivers at the beginning of the queue in exchange for a modest reward of $10 (690 rubles at the exchange rate of the Central Bank on December 21, 2022).

Men went to success. It didn't work out

Abayev and Leyman launched their business at JFK Airport. At the time of publication of the material, it was not known exactly how much they managed to earn from taxi drivers, but the amounts can be estimated in millions of dollars. There was also no information about who exactly complained about them to law enforcement agencies – airport employees who found traces of hacking, or one of the taxi drivers who felt that $10 was too high a fee for being able to get a client without waiting for a long time.

According to the materials of the Ministry of Justice, "Russian hackers" conducted an attack on the taxi information system in the period from 2019 to 2020. A more precise date has not been set. Thus, Abaev and Leiman could earn money for years on impatient taxi drivers.

The identity of the cybercriminals is unknown. The exact amount of money they received for their work is also available. According to The Register, the service of "Russian hackers" cost Abaev and Leiman $100 thousand (6.9 million rubles).

According to preliminary estimates, every day about 1,000 taxi drivers used the opportunity to go around the queue and stand at its beginning. Thus, every day "businessmen" earned $10 thousand (690 thousand rubles) for two, that is, they were able to compensate for the cost of hackers in less than two weeks, after which they began to make a net profit.

Also, there is no data yet on why the Americans turned to specialists from Russia.

Large-scale network

Abayev and Leiman worked on a large scale. They preferred to communicate with drivers via instant messengers, where they created shared chats in which they were notified about the possibility of saving time. Payments were accepted in cash or via mobile money transfers.

To use this scheme, drivers sent their taxi company employee ID numbers to a group chat. In response, they received a message telling them which terminal to go to to pay their fare. In other words, Abayev and Leyman did not have any contact with them in real life.

Entrepreneurs even came up with a system of bonuses and incentives that provides drivers with a 100% discount on their services. To get the right to free travel to the front of the queue, you had to connect another driver to the system who had not previously used their services. As a result, everyone won – Abaev and Leiman got a new client, and the driver saved $10.

Super-secret hacking

The indictment documents do not specify exactly how the hackers managed to break into the taxi's computer system, what methods they used for this, and what they eventually did when they were inside the network. But they cite a violation of the American law on computer Fraud and abuse, which involves the use of malware.,

According to The Register, before turning to hackers for help, they tried to break into the system on their own, including by bribing one of the employees of the taxi dispatcher service. They wanted to give the employee a bribe in exchange for launching a flash drive with malware on computers in the control room. They offered someone money for the password from the Wi-Fi network in the control room, and someone-for stealing tablet computers connected to this network.

Currently, Abayev and Leiman are charged with two counts each of conspiracy to hack a computer, with a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. The court will determine the number of years of imprisonment.

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A federal court in the United States has filed charges against two new defendants in the case of hacking the digital taxi distribution system at JFK Airport, New York, committed several years ago. Both men are active citizens of the Russian Federation, who are still at large.

At the same time, two previously successfully detained suspects, this time with American citizenship, have already pleaded guilty to participating in this scheme, which from September 2019 to September 2021 allowed them to charge taxi drivers for early receipt of orders.

The illegal feature, which" digital businessmen estimated at $ 10 for a one-time movement to the top of the list, quickly gained popularity among local taxi drivers, as it allowed them not to stand in line to receive an order for several hours.

Thirty-year-olds Alexander Derebentsov ("Sasha Novgorod"), and Kirill Shipulin ("Kirill Russia"), were charged by an American court on October 30. On the same day, 47-year-old Daniel Abayev, who was detained earlier, admitted his role in the hacking, while 49-year-old Peter Layman, an accomplice of Abayev, pleaded guilty in early October.

According to the latest information from the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), Derebenz and Shipulin participated in the fraud from 2019 to 2021, operating from Russia, while Abaev and Leiman conducted business locally, located in Queens, New York.

Allegedly, the suspects managed to bribe one of the local employees of the taxi distribution system to insert a virus flash drive into the work computer and thereby open remote unauthorized access to Russian hackers.

As a result of this illegal operation, up to a thousand taxi drivers a day could bypass the queue, which indicates the scale of the crime, involving hundreds of accomplices.

If found guilty, Derebenz and Shipulin could each be sentenced to ten years in prison in a U.S. prison. However, both hackers are most likely currently in Russia and are unlikely to be extradited to the United States.

At the same time, Abayev and Leyman, who have already admitted their role in the crime, can be sentenced to at least five years. The final sentence for the men will be handed down in 2024.

Damian Williams, the US attorney, stressed: "Cyber hacking can pose a serious threat to the infrastructure systems that we rely on every day, and our task is to pursue criminal hackers, whether they are in Russia or here in New York."

 

[Teacher]

Americans who hired "Russian hackers" to make a taxi in New York work like a human being were jailed

US citizens Abaev and Leiman hacked the dispatch system with the help of Russian hackers and organized a business that helps taxi drivers not wait in line for an order. For this, Abayev received four years in prison, while Leiman received two years in prison.

The Russians helped the Americans

The hacking of the taxi dispatcher system at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) resulted in two Americans being jailed for several years, PCMag reported.

U.S. citizens Daniel Abayev and Peter Leyman were sentenced to four and two years in prison, respectively, after both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to hack a computer system. The monetary punishment of the accused amounted to more than $3.5 million.

They were in cahoots with Russian citizens Alexander Derebenets and Kirill Shipulin, who, according to US officials, remain at large.

Abaev and Leiman "allegedly, with the assistance of Russian hackers, caused damage to JFK's electronic taxi dispatching system, disrupting fair order and creating chaos for honest taxi professionals," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

"Their actions have enabled up to a thousand fraudulent taxi rides a day, highlighting the serious threat that cyber hacking poses to critical infrastructure. Thanks to our joint efforts with law enforcement partners, their scheme was uncovered, and the defendants were rightfully sentenced, " Williams said.

To make taxi driving in New York work like a human being

At JFK Airport, taxi drivers usually have to wait in the parking lot before the dispatch system calls them so they can pick up a passenger. This is a first-come, first-served system that could lead to hours of waiting for drivers.

CNews wrote in detail about how the Russians helped the Americans solve this problem in December 2022. But the identities of Russian cyber intruders were still unknown at the time.

Enterprising 48-year-old Americans Abaev and Leiman agreed with "Russian hackers "to break into the information system, which allowed them to write out so-called" passes " to taxi drivers at the beginning of the queue in exchange for a modest reward of $10 (690 rubles at the exchange rate of the Central Bank on December 21, 2022).

"I know the Pentagon is being hacked... so can't we hack the taxi industry[?], "Abayev wrote in a message to one of the Russian hackers.

According to the US Department of Justice, the scheme operated from at least September 2019 to September 2021.

To use it, drivers sent their taxi company employee ID numbers to a group chat. In response, they received a message about which terminal to drive to.

Entrepreneurs even came up with a system of bonuses and incentives that provides drivers with a 100% discount on their services. To get the right to free travel to the front of the queue, you had to connect another driver to the system who had not previously used their services. As a result, everyone won — Abaev and Leiman got a new client, and the driver saved $10.

Abaev and Leiman were able to compensate for the cost of hackers, who they paid $100 thousand, in less than two weeks, after which they began to make a net profit.

The maximum penalty for the charges against them is 10 years in prison. So they still got off easy.

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In Manhattan Federal Court, 47-year-old Daniil Abayev and 49-year-old Peter Leiman, yellow taxi drivers from Queens, who were arrested in 2022 and pleaded guilty to conspiring with two Russian computer scientists to hack into the computer system of taxi dispatchers at JFK Airport, allowing drivers to serve taxis for $ 10. to terminals without a queue.

Judge Paul Crotty sentenced Abayev to 4 years and Leiman to 2 years in prison, ordering one to pay $161.858 and the other more than $ 3.4 million, which the lawyers consider an exaggeration of the illegal profits allegedly received by their clients. The prosecution explains that the defendants received up to a thousand such tens per day, and worked at least from September 2019 to September 2021, that is, 726 days minus weekends. I multiplied it to $ 7,260,000 with the same deduction. The Port Authority, which includes JFK Airport, believes that cyber fraudsters earned about $ 3.4 million. Russian hackers Aleksander Drebenets, who goes by the online nickname "Sasha Novgorod", and Kirill Shipulin, aka" Kirill Russia", are still on the international wanted list, and they were charged in absentia on October 30 last year.

Peter Layman and Daniil Abayev, who live in the Rigaud Park area in Queens, were arrested in December of the year before last, accused of hacking, or rather of illegal intrusion into a computer program, and released on bail of 100 thousand dollars with a transfer to house arrest and an obligation to wear electronic watchdog bracelets on their ankles, not to leave the territory of the Southern District state of New York and do not use computer communication facilities without the permission of the supervisory authority. Both live next door to each other in the Rego Park neighborhood of Queens, both pleaded guilty last October, and 82-year-old judge Paul Crotty set the sentence for Layman on January 11 and Abayev on February 12 this year, but apparently decided to save time and sentenced them on the same day. Commenting on his sentencing on February 12, Damian Williams, the Federal Prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, said that the defendants " allegedly, with the assistance of Russian hackers, caused damage to the JFK electronic taxi dispatch system, affecting fair order and creating chaos for honest taxi drivers. Their actions have allowed up to a thousand fraudulent taxi flights to be made every day, highlighting the serious threat that cyber hacking poses to this critical infrastructure. Thanks to our joint efforts with our law enforcement partners, their scam was eliminated and the defendants were legally convicted."

Last October, he said much the same thing, with John Gay, chief inspector of the Port Authority, which includes JFK Airport, adding that "this audacious scheme corrupted the system that our hard-working taxi drivers relied on to make a living, not for the defendants to make a living." According to the prosecution, Derebentz and Shipulin in Russia created, and Leyman and Abaev in New York introduced, a malicious program (malware) that invaded the electronic communication system of yellow taxi dispatchers at Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in Queens. The prosecution explained that drivers must wait in line at the Central Taxi Hold (CTH), and the dispatcher calls them to the terminal as needed, and sometimes they have to wait for several hours. The computer system guarantees the order and priority of such calls, but Leyman and Abayev, in collusion with Russian hackers, invaded this system and for $ 10 gave taxi drivers the opportunity to take passengers without waiting in line. As a rule, these are profitable passengers, since the fare from JFK airport to Manhattan has a fixed fee of $ 52 plus a surcharge during rush hours, and other passengers go much further and pay more. For $ 10, the driver of the yellow cab would give Abayev and Leiman the number of his medallion; at their direction, Russian hackers would make their own adjustments, and the driver in the parking lot at JFK would be told by the dispatcher to go to the terminal.

The prosecution specified that with the help of an unnamed accomplice, whom they paid, Leiman and Abaev inserted a flash with a Russian malware program into the computers connected to the dispatcher system and used it to log in to the dispatchers ' computers via the Wi-Fi communication system from their smartphones. On the same program, they communicated with each other and two Russian accomplices, without fear of discussing the details of the scam. "I know that the Pentagon was hacked," Abayev wrote to one of them on November 10, 2019. - So why don't we hack the taxi industry?" Conversations about the possibility of just a tenner without waiting in line to take or, as Russian-speaking taxi drivers say, "raise" a passenger in JFK, went among drivers, and in the end, as expected, reached law enforcement officers, but to this inevitable finale Abaev and Leiman via chat-rooms on the Internet informed taxi drivers exactly when they would be able to use their services. In such cases, they wrote that "the shop is open" or" the shop is closed "("Shop open "or"Shop closed"). During the day, Abaev and Leiman received up to 10 thousand dollars from drivers, and Sasha Novgorod and Kirill Rossiya were allegedly paid more than 100 thousand dollars in two years. With the Russians, they paid by transfers to their accounts in unspecified banks under the guise of payment for "software development" or for"computer maintenance".

Prior to his sentencing, Jacob Kaplan, Peter Leyman's lawyer, asked Judge Crotty to let his client serve his sentence not in prison, but at his home in Queens with a watchdog bracelet on his leg. The lawyer explained this by Leyman's health, as well as the fact that in his absence, the money deposited in the bank for the locket for a taxi and a pickup truck may disappear. The lawyer also wrote that his client played a much smaller role in the case than Abaev, who contacted the "Russians". The lawyer also wrote to the judge that it was Daniil Abayev who colluded with an employee of the dispatching service of the Port Authority in JFK, and called his client "the least guilty and least known" participant in this scam, the essence of which was to collect money from drivers. Jacob Kaplan added that Layman "made a terrible decision" to get involved in all this just because of serious financial difficulties, owing $ 120 thousand for his medallion, suffering from the competition of Uber and Lyft taxis, and of course, losing passengers due to the coronavirus pandemic. The lawyer's letter also went to the JFK dispatch service, which has long been in need of modification and has already been recognized as unsafe and insufficiently protected, which made it easy prey for Russian hackers through his client and a friend.

Matthew Myers, Daniil Abayev's lawyer, also wrote to Judge Crotty, calling his client "an extremely loving and caring husband and father" who helps the unfortunate members of his extended family. Myers noted that the prosecutor's office exaggeratedly considers his client the leader and think tank of this scam, since "you don't need a lot of intelligence to collect a tenner from fellow taxi drivers who wanted to file a car without waiting in line." Judge Crotty took both letters into account, and his sentences were quite humane, although he took into account that Abayev was twice as "guilty" as Leyman, whom he did not leave under house arrest.

About five years ago, I wrote that the yellow taxi industry in New York, once the caregiver and breadwinner of the" Brezhnev wave " of our immigrants, which was traditionally considered a heavy but reliable business, is in crisis, if not dying. In 2014, the" medallion " of a yellow cab cost $ 1.3 million, and now, due to competition, it has fallen in price in May 2022 to 150 thousand. "In the early 80s of the last century, every second man of the third wave of our immigration worked as a yellow taxi driver," 79-year - old Zinovy Yakovlevich Feldblum, who immigrated in 1980 and spent almost 14 years driving a taxi, told me at the time. "With a poor command of spoken English, this was the only way to make a decent living." In the early ' 80s, there were a lot of "Russian" taxi drivers in New York, he repeated: "Jews, Tatars, Ukrainians, Georgians - in short, all immigrants from the Soviet Union-were called 'Russians'. There were many Crimean Tatars. Many Polish Jews. There were few Native Americans in the yellow taxi business, and even fewer Blacks. In the 90s, a lot of Hindus, Pakistanis, and Chinese people appeared. But Russian taxi drivers were distinguished by their education and culture."

Zinovy Feldblum worked as a yellow cab driver throughout the eighties and the first half of the nineties of the last century. "It was the most dangerous time for us," he told me. - According to statistics, then an average of 17 taxi drivers were killed per year. The Mayor's Office and the police took measures, and special groups were set up to protect taxi drivers in the most dangerous areas. The profession brought Feldblum together with the former St. Petersburg thief-in-law Yevsey Agron, who is considered the first boss of the "Russian mafia" in the United States. "There was such a newspaper as Dovlatov's Novy Amerikanets, then Viktor Perelman's Vremya I We magazine," Zinovy Feldblum recalled another episode in the history of Russian culture in New York. - He calls me once, they have a dump with Dovlatov for a magazine. Come, he says, hurry up, he's a hooligan here. I say, "Viktor, I'm sorry, but you can figure it out for yourself." And Yevsey was connected to Turov, a corrupt TLC host who lived in Manhattan Beach. Evsey had an assistant, Michael, who was so bearded, maybe you remember, through him we all made "lysens" - professional driver's licenses. Yevsey got in touch with Turov through Misha, and I did so to the extent that I tried to stay away from Yevsey, but you know, I had to deal with him." Needless to say, these were difficult times before the cyber disaster, which made it possible to steal more and kill less.