Security

Israeli Hacker Says He Contemplated Suicide

Israeli hacker Ehud Tenenbaum (aka “The Analyzer) who was arrested last year in Canada for allegedly masterminding a series of hacks on financial institutions, has told Canadian officials and a psychiatrist that he has contemplated suicide while in custody. Tenenbaum (seen in an old file photo at right) is facing charges in the U.S. and […]

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Israeli hacker Ehud Tenenbaum (aka "The Analyzer) who was arrested last year in Canada for allegedly masterminding a series of hacks on financial institutions, has told Canadian officials and a psychiatrist that he has contemplated suicide while in custody. Tenenbaum (seen in an old file photo at right) is facing charges in the U.S. and Canada.

"I feel I am in jail inside of jail," he wrote officials, according to an article from the Canwest News Service. "I can't even sleep with the sleeping pills."

Tenenbaum also claims that authorities wouldn't provide him with the kosher food he requested and he has, therefore, lost weight.

As Threat Level previously reported, Tenebaum was arrested last August in Montreal with three accomplices for allegedly hacking Direct Cash Management in Calgary, a company that sells pre-paid debit and credit cards. Tenenbaum is accused of increasing the cash limits on cards that his accomplices purchased and withdrawing CDN $1.8 million from ATMs.

Tenenbaum was charged with six counts of fraudulent use of credit card data and one count of fraud over $5,000. He was granted release on $30,000 bail but before he could leave Canadian custody, U.S. authorities filed a provisional warrant to detain him until they could indict him on U.S. charges. Those charges include one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud and one count of access to device fraud. Two of his accomplices were cleared of Canadian charges last week, although authorities have up to a year to revive the charges.

Now an affidavit filed by a Calgary police detective details some of the activity behind the U.S. charges against Tenenbaum. It alleges that Tenenbaum is part of an international conspiracy to hack financial institutions and that his involvement began around January 2008.

According to the affidavit, U.S. investigators learned hackers were using servers in McLean, Virginia, to invade financial institutions, and this activity was further traced to a Dutch hosting company called LeaseWeb, Canwest writes.

On April 18, Tenenbaum allegedly sent a message to someone claiming responsibility for hacking Global Cash Card, a California-based pre-paid card distributor. Tenenbaum also discussed hacking Symmetrex, a Florida-based company that, like the recently hacked Heartland Payment Systems, processes card transactions. Symmetrex specializes in processing pre-paid card transactions.

In one message to a co-conspirator, Tenenbaum allegedly discussed hacking another U.S. bank: ``is HUGE i saw, atm outputs, tons of cards, i am admin there, and i already cracked some of the domain.''

Tenenbaum allegedly helped create fraudulent cards that were used in Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Turkey and the U.S.

A news story out of Canada last week indicated that Tenenbaum was out on bail and living with his girlfriend in Montreal, but the Canwest article this week says he's still in prison. Canadian and U.S. authorities have not yet responded to calls from Threat Level for clarification.

Tenenbaum faces hearings in Canada next month on the U.S. and Canadian charges.

UPDATE: Robert Nardoza, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in the Eastern District of New York, told Threat Level that Tenenbaum is indeed still in custody in Canada and is facing extradition to the U.S. He doesn't know how long that process will take. He couldn't comment on the details of the U.S. crimes that are disclosed in the Canadian affidavit against Tenenbaum.

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