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Editor, Microsoft on the Issues
Microsoft recently announced its 10-year effort to destabilize and disrupt a global organized crime ring that traded in counterfeit software.
I sat down with Microsoft Assistant General Counsel Matt Lundy, Microsoft Online Piracy Senior Program Manager Peter Anaman, and Microsoft Senior Program Manager of Investigations Peter Fifka to learn about this decade-long case.
What can you tell us about this case? What’s the history of the operation?
Peter Fifka: In 2002, Microsoft investigators identified a small group of Eastern Europe-based criminals that were responsible for a website called cdcheap.net. This organization, which we internally dubbed “CD Cheap,” ran professional-looking e-commerce sites, employing a simple business model to fraudulently trick customers into buying counterfeit software. The online organized crime organization evolved from physical disc delivery model into a download-focused business model over the span of about five years, from 2002 to 2007. Both models created hundreds of bogus e-commerce sites that were primarily advertised by spam sent using sophisticated techniques, including the criminal use of botnets and Trojan-hijacked computers.
Peter Anaman: A professor at University of California at San Diego estimated that the criminals behind CD Cheap made up to $3.9 million per month with spam promoting counterfeit software. In fact, at one time, they had more than 4,000 active websites used for spam campaigns. It became evident to our team of investigators that the same crime organization responsible for CD Cheap also owned servers used for counterfeit pharmaceutical sales. Over the course of 10 years, Microsoft was able to work with law enforcement, ISPs, domain registrars, credit card companies and other financial institutions to shut off funding to these criminal organizations, significantly reducing the presence of counterfeit software spam and sites selling counterfeit software and other illegal products.
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