Former WSJ Reporter Says Law Firm Used Indian Hackers To Sabotage His Career (reuters.com) 25
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: A former Wall Street Journal reporter is accusing a major U.S. law firm of having used mercenary hackers to oust him from his job and ruin his reputation. In a lawsuit filed late Friday, Jay Solomon, the Journal's former chief foreign correspondent, said Philadelphia-based Dechert LLP worked with hackers from India to steal emails between him and one of his key sources, Iranian American aviation executive Farhad Azima. Solomon said the messages, which showed Azima floating the idea of the two of them going into business together, were put into a dossier and circulated in a successful effort to get him fired.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, said Dechert "wrongfully disclosed this dossier first to Mr. Solomon's employer, the Wall Street Journal, at its Washington DC bureau, and then to other media outlets in an attempt to malign and discredit him." It said the campaign "effectively caused Mr. Solomon to be blackballed by the journalistic and publishing community." Dechert said in an email that it disputed the claim and would fight it in court. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal actions related to hired hackers operating out of India, notes Reuters. "In June, Reuters reported on the activities of several hack-for-hire shops, including Delhi area-companies BellTroX and CyberRoot, that were involved in a decade-long series of espionage campaigns targeting thousands of people, including more than 1,000 lawyers at 108 different law firms."
Solomon said in a statement Saturday that the hack-and-leak he suffered was an example of "a trend that's becoming a great threat to journalism and media, as digital surveillance and hacking technologies become more sophisticated and pervasive. This is a major threat to the freedom of the press."
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, said Dechert "wrongfully disclosed this dossier first to Mr. Solomon's employer, the Wall Street Journal, at its Washington DC bureau, and then to other media outlets in an attempt to malign and discredit him." It said the campaign "effectively caused Mr. Solomon to be blackballed by the journalistic and publishing community." Dechert said in an email that it disputed the claim and would fight it in court. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal actions related to hired hackers operating out of India, notes Reuters. "In June, Reuters reported on the activities of several hack-for-hire shops, including Delhi area-companies BellTroX and CyberRoot, that were involved in a decade-long series of espionage campaigns targeting thousands of people, including more than 1,000 lawyers at 108 different law firms."
Solomon said in a statement Saturday that the hack-and-leak he suffered was an example of "a trend that's becoming a great threat to journalism and media, as digital surveillance and hacking technologies become more sophisticated and pervasive. This is a major threat to the freedom of the press."
This is an outrage! (Score:3)
Jokes aside it's a pretty good racket. You're overseas so it's not worth the effort of going after the hackers and when you're dealing with people that high up the food chain it's unlikely anyone's going to go after the people responsible on shore.
From Russia to India (Score:1)
Indian Hackers (Score:1)
Scalp them.
Re: (Score:2)
Literally. It's in the story:
>Reuters has reported that lawyers for Ras Al Khaimah’s investment agency – RAKIA – used the emails to help win a fraud lawsuit filed against Azima in London in 2016.
This guy apparently tried to either facilitate to in some way assist in fraud, and his partner in crime got convicted for said fraud it with these emails admitted as part of evidence. Transparency is a good thing here, even if it wasn't acquired via legal means.
So he's suing why exactly? (Score:5, Insightful)
disclosed ... in an attempt to malign and discredit him
So, his boss found out information in emails he actually wrote about plans he actually had to start a (presumably competing) business and because of this he got fired?
I've got news for you, dummy. No one else can discredit you with your own words. That's you doing it to yourself. While it's frustrating to have your secrets revealed, when it's your own words I have little sympathy. If your words and actions are such that they can get you fired, the fact that someone else revealed them is the price of doing business. I would think the next time he'd rethink his actions, but the fact that he's suing means he hasn't learned his lesson. Hopefully other people looking in will.
Re:So he's suing why exactly? (Score:5, Informative)
That's you doing it to yourself. While it's frustrating to have your secrets revealed, when it's your own words I have little sympathy. If your words and actions are such that they can get you fired, the fact that someone else revealed them is the price of doing business.
You're forgetting one tiny little piece of information. They broke the law to acquire that information. He didn't just hand it to them.
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Uhh...
He worked for the Wall Street Journal. He's not gonna start a new WSJ with an Iranian-American aeronautics executive.
What he actually got canned for is an ethics violation. The source offered him a minority stake in a company, and presumably he didn't say no hard enough.
Re: (Score:2)
It's much worse than that. Story states that these emails were used as evidence in a 2016 trial where his partner was convicted for fraud on top of other ethics violations.
Re:So he's suing why exactly? (Score:5, Informative)
I've got news for you, dummy. No one else can discredit you with your own words.
The question isn't whether he was discredited, it was how. He's not fighting an unfair dismissal claim here. He's fighting an illegal invasion of privacy.
Re: (Score:1)
Should people in power be held accountable?
Fourth estate is one of the forms of power in modern society. Media openly claims to be the people holding other people in power accountable and often accept evidence that was acquired through illegal invasion of privacy to publish materials aimed at discrediting others.
Are they specially protected from having same light shone on back on them, i.e. who watches the watchers?
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The flip side is whether anyone should have privacy (as a moral, not technical, question). There's things about me I'm just as happy not being general knowledge, and none of them are illegal.
I keep wondering whether part of the solution would be to realize that we've all got our dirty little secrets, and that if pictures of me having sex as a furry (a purely hypothetical situation, you understand) come out, it's no big deal.
Re: (Score:2)
You binary definition is of very poor resolution, confusing you. The main argument of media pundits is that people in power should have minimal privacy. Therefore, as media pundits claim to be the fourth estate, they are also people in power, and have same minimal right to privacy.
As opposed to people not in power, which form the overwhelming majority of people in any given nation. People who are not a part of government, legislative, judiciary or media establishment.
Re: (Score:3)
i.e. who watches the watchers?
Anyone has the right to watch the watchers. They just don't have the right to do it illegally.
You being in a position of power doesn't give me the right to stand in your bedroom and watch you sleep. Privacy is still a thing.
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That wasn't the question. The question was: If watchers are widely allowed to watch others illegally, why is it that same scrutiny is not extended back to them?
Because we don't live in a world where illegally leaked things aren't published in media. We live in a world where that is done as a matter of routine, and in fact considered "good journalistic behavior" to the point where international journalistic organisations like ICIJ specialize in disseminating hacked and otherwise illegally acquired informatio
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It's even worse than that. Story states that these emails were also a part of a fraud trial, where they were used to convict this guy's partner for fraud.
This is a corrupt insider getting outed.
The best part... (Score:5, Interesting)
Is that those hackers are now blackmailing those law firms with proof that they were working for them.
He's lucky. (Score:2)
If it was the Saudi Royal Family, he would be the one slashed to pieces, not just his career.
What a pity (Score:1)
so, they learned from ebay (Score:2)
don't use in-house "talent"
bring the boys from out of town... it's harder to tie them in.
Re: (Score:1)