FC: FBI reportedly recruited "Equalizer" hacker as informant

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

********

From: "Kevin L. Poulsen" <klp () well com>
To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
Subject: Max Vision: FBI pawn?
Date: Tue, 8 May 2001 23:01:24 -0400

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/203

Max Vision: FBI pawn?

by Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus.com
May 8, 2001 2:48 PM PT

Federal officials used threats and a false promise of leniency to lure
computer security researcher and admitted cyber intruder Max Butler into
becoming an undercover FBI informant, according to a defense motion filed in
the case Tuesday.

It was only when Butler balked at covertly recording a friend and colleague,
and instead sought advice from an attorney, that the government threw the
book at him, the motion charges. "The government as much as promised him he
would receive consideration," says defense attorney Jennifer Granick. "At
least until he hired an attorney."

[...]

The agents gave Butler the nickname "Equalizer," and immediately put him to
work. Phone hackers had infiltrated 3Com's PBX, and were using the company
phone system for free teleconferencing. Butler's first mission was "to
familiarize himself with new telephone system intrusion tools and techniques
and to be able to pose as a 'phone phreak' (telephone hacker) in the
investigation," the motion reads.

"Mr. Butler, using his computer knowledge, and dropping the names of people
the intruders knew from Internet Relay Chat (IRC), was able to lull the
intruders into a sense of security. They then revealed, to Mr. Butler and
through him to the FBI, the name of the hacking group that had committed the
intrusion and the handle of the primary intruder," reads the motion. "During
this monitored conversation, the suspects also discussed several instances
of credit card fraud occurring over the network."

Butler went on to hold IRC conversations with the hackers, and provide the
FBI with transcripts.

The agents were evidently pleased enough with Butler's work to give him
another assignment, and near the end of July they summoned "Equalizer" to a
meeting in the FBI offices high above San Francisco's Golden Gate Boulevard.

Butler's new mission: Attend the DEFCON hacker convention at the Plaza Hotel
and Casino in Las Vegas -- the largest annual gathering of security experts,
hackers and cybercops in the world. "There, he was to collect PGP encryption
keys from conference attendees and try to match people's real names with
their hacker identities and with the keys," reads the motion.

The motion doesn't reveal how much information Butler gathered at DEFCON 6.0
on behalf of the FBI, and in an interview, Granick said Butler doesn't
recall what he reported back to the Bureau. On Granick's advice, Butler
refuses interviews about his case.

After DEFCON, the FBI had another assignment for Butler. This time he was to
wear a transmitting device - a 'wire' - and secretly record friend and
colleague Matthew Harrigan, then CTO of San Francisco security services firm
MCR, for which Butler had performed some consulting.

<snip>




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