DATE=5/26/2000 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=RUSSIA / HACKERS NUMBER=5-46388 BYLINE=EVE CONANT DATELINE=MOSCOW CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: The onslaught of computer viruses like the recent "Love Bug," and growing cases of online credit card fraud has brought the world's attention to computer crime and the vulnerability of the internet. Moscow correspondent Eve Conant reports much of this crime originates in Russia, where overeducated and underemployed young computer specialists strive to become world famous "hackers" capable of breaking into secret and lucrative databases. TEXT: /// NAT SOUND APPLAUSE /// A crowd of young men and teenage boys applaud the leader of Moscow's first annual "hacker congress" -- 26-year old Ilya Vasilyev. He stands before the crowd wearing a purple T-shirt, which advertises his school for Russian hackers with the words, "all information should be free." /// Vasilyev Act in Russian, fade under /// "Before, people thought it was impossible to teach hackers, that a true hacker is a hacker by birth. But I disagree," says Ilya, brushing his long hair from his eyes. "And I will show you how to create an environment favorable for developing hacking skills." But Russia already is a favorable environment for hackers. For one, the country's combination of over- educated and underemployed specialists is a recipe for computer hackers. Russia's hacker community was infused with professionals following a financial crash in 1998 that left many computer programmers and businessmen financially destroyed and out of work. /// Opt /// Another typically Russian strength is a deep tradition of science. Russian students excel at mathematics and physics, and the Soviet education system encouraged and produced vast numbers of "engineers" in various technological fields. /// End Opt /// Eduard Proydakhov, editor-in-chief of the magazine PC Week, says the number of internet users in Russia doubles each year, and the amount of internet crime is skyrocketing. /// Proydakhov Act in Russian, fade under to translation /// Russian hackers are different than other people. A Russian hacker has fewer resources, so he is forced to be more inventive. /// End Act /// /// Begin Opt /// In 1999 hackers broke into the state gas monopoly Gazprom's computer system, which controls pipeline gas flows. Russian hackers even reached as far as the United States, systematically hacking into Defense Department computer systems. Russia is still largely a cash-based society, so a great deal of computer crime in Russia targets foreign consumers or banks. In the mid-1990s, one young hacker in St. Petersburg managed to break into a computer banking system in New York and transfer out millions before being caught and jailed. Solving cyber crimes in Russia is difficult considering the country's underpaid police force, which lacks the training to combat high-tech crimes as well the absence of laws concerning computer issues. But Dimitry Chepchugov, head of "Department-R" -- the Interior Ministry's high tech crime division -- says things are improving. His men have uncovered more than 200 computer-related crimes this year, including the arrest in April of a five-member cyber gang, caught using a fake on-line shop to defraud Russian and foreign credit card holders of at least 630- thousand U-S dollars. /// Chepchugov Act in Russian, fade under translation /// They were almost all youngsters between 14 and 18 years old who had mastered computer techniques. But they were being controlled by professional criminals. /// End Act /// /// End Opt/// Many of Moscow's young hackers have visited Ilya Vasilyev's one room apartment, home to Moscow's only "shkola hackerov" or "hacker school." They are not allowed to smoke or drink -- only to focus on programming. /// Begin Opt /// /// NAT Sound computer typing up and under /// 20-year-old Sergey Tsaregordsky studies computer science at a Moscow university, but comes to Vasilyev's tiny apartment twice a week for hacking lessons. /// Tsaregorodsky Act in Russian, fade under translation /// If I could find a place where they really know how to train programmers, I would study there. But there is no good place in Russia, we just have to teach ourselves. /// End Act/// /// End Opt /// Teacher Vasilyev insists that despite his own background as a computer hacker who pirated software, he is not encouraging young computer whizzes to apply their skills in computer crime. /// Vasilyev Act /// During my childhood we cracked programs and distributed them for free. It was like our donation to society. If we take some program from a capitalist society and it was protected by some computer defense, we thought it would be good to crack this program, to bring the program to the people. It was a form of honor, like Robin Hood who brings programs to the people. /// End Act /// /// Opt /// He insists he is doing society a favor by training young hackers, and is sure his students will not decide on a life of crime. /// Vasilyev Act /// I can feel people. If I look at a person and see that the knowledge I am giving him he will use to commit a crime, that my art will not bring him happiness but will take him to prison, then I will not take this student. /// End Act /// /// End Opt /// But perhaps those are naive words. At Vasilyev's "hackers congress," 15-year-old Yaroslavl admitted his aims were hardly pure. /// Yaroslavl Act in Russian, fade under translation /// I want to stand out from everyone else, not just sit and fiddle around on computers to no end. I want to make some big break-in, all by myself. /// End Act /// /// Rest Opt to End /// Or there is 21-year old Gosha, a hacker who refused to give his last name. He says Russia's federal Security Services, the F-S-B, often recruit people like him to dig out information on suspects. But Gosha says he is more often approached by criminals who want him to do their dirty cyber work. /// Gosha Act in Russian, fade under translation /// People often come to me and ask me to break into some system. Usually they are workers trying to break into their organization's database and steal money from their own company. /// End Act /// One outdoor market in Moscow for years has been openly selling pirated software. Perhaps it is the best proof of what all the Russian hackers say: until Russia's police and legal system catch up with the times and with the growing hacker industry, cyber crime in Russia will continue to go unpunished and will, in fact, flourish. (Signed) NEB/EC/GE/ENE/JP 26-May-2000 12:09 PM EDT (26-May-2000 1609 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .