Gottfrid Svartholm Hacking Trial Nears Conclusion

[Ernesto]

The hacking trial of Gottfrid Svartholm and his alleged 21-year-old Danish accomplice concluded this week in Copenhagen, Denmark. Gottfrid is most well known as one of the founders of The Pirate Bay, but his co-defendant’s identity is still being kept out of the media.

The sessions this week, on October 7 and 10, were used for summing up by the prosecution and defense. Danish language publication DR.dk, which has provided good coverage of the whole trial, reports that deputy prosecutor Anders Riisager used an analogy to describe their position on Gottfrid.

Prosecution: Hands in the cookie jar

“If there is a cookie jar on the table with the lid removed, and your son is sitting on the sofa with cookie crumbs on his mouth, it is only reasonable to assume that it is he who has had his paws in the cookie jar,” he said.

“This, even though he claims it is four of his friends who have put the cookies into his mouth. And especially when the son will not reveal who his friends are, or how it happened.”

Riisager was referring to the evidence presented by the prosecution that Gottfrid and his co-defendant were the people behind hacker attacks on IT company CSC which began in 2012.

The Swede insists that while the attack may have been carried out from his computer, the computer itself was used remotely by other individuals, any of whom could have carried out the attacks. Leads and names provided by Gottfrid apparently led the investigation nowhere useful.

Remote access unlikely

That third-parties accessed Gottfrid’s computer without his knowledge is a notion rejected by the prosecution. Noting that the Pirate Bay founder is a computer genius, senior prosecutor Maria Cingari said that maintaining secret access to his machine over extended periods would not have been possible.

“It is not likely that others have used [Gottfrid's] computer to hack CSC without him discovering something. At the same time the hack occurred over such a long time that remote control is unlikely,” she said.

And, Cingari noted, it was no coincidence that chatlogs found on Gottfrid’s computer related to so-called “zero-day” vulnerabilities and the type of computer systems used by CSC.

Dane and Swede working together

In respect of Gottfrid’s co-defendant, the prosecution said that the 21-year-old Dane knew that when he was speaking online with a user known as My Evil Twin (allegedly Gottfrid), the plan was a hacker attack on CSC.

Supporting their allegations of collusion, the prosecution noted that the Dane had been living in Cambodia when the attacks on CSC began and while a hacker attack against Logica, a crime for which Gottfrid was previously sentenced, was also underway. The Dane spent time in a café situated directly under Gottfrid’s apartment, the prosecution said.

Why not hand over the encryption keys?

When police raided the Dane they obtained a laptop, the contents of which still remain a secret due to the presence of heavy encryption. The police found a hollowed-out chess piece containing the computer’s SDcard key, but that didn’t help them gain access. Despite several requests, the 21-year-old has refused to provide keys to unlock the data on the Qubes OS device, arguing there is nothing on there of significance. According to the prosecution, this is a sign of guilt.

“It is very striking that one chooses to sit in prison for a year and more, instead of just helping the police with access to the laptop so they can see that it contains nothing,” senior prosecutor Maria Cingari said.

Cingari also pointed the finger at the Dane for focusing Gottfrid’s attention on CSC.

“You can see that [the Dane] has very much helped [Gottfrid] with obtaining access to CSC’s mainframe. It is not even clear that he would have set his sights on CSC, if it had not been for [the Dane],” she said.

Defense: No objectivity

On Friday, defense lawyer Luise Høj began her closing arguments with fierce criticism of a Danish prosecution that uncritically accepted evidence provided by Swedish police and failed to conduct an objective inquiry.

“They took a plane to Stockholm and were given some material. It was placed in a bag and they took the plane back home. From there they went to CSC and asked them to look for clues. This shows a lack of an independent approach to the evidence,” she said.

Furthermore, the mere fact that CSC had been investigating itself under direction of the police was also problematic.

“The victim should not investigate itself. CSC is at risk of being fired as the state’s IT provider,” Høj noted.

Technical doubt

Computer technicians presented by both sides, including famous security expert Jacob Appelbaum, failed to agree on whether remote access had been a possibility, but this in itself should sway the court to acquit, Høj said.

“It must be really difficult for the court to decide whether the computer was controlled remotely or not, when even engineers disagree on what has happened,” she noted.

Why not take time to investigate properly?

Høj also took aim at the police who she said had failed to properly investigate the people Gottfrid had previously indicated might be responsible for the hacker attacks.

“My client has in good faith attempted to come up with some suggestions as to how his computer was remotely controlled. Of course he did not provide a complete explanation of how it happened, as he did not know what had happened and he has not had the opportunity to examine his computer,” she said.

Additionally, clues that could’ve led somewhere were overlooked, the defense lawyer argued. For instance, an IP address found in CSC’s logs was traced back to a famous Swedish hacker known as ‘MG’.

“The investigation was not objective. I do not understand why it’s not possible to investigate clues that don’t take much effort to be investigated,” Høj said. “The willingness to investigate clues that do not speak in favor of the police case has been minimal.”

A decision in the case is expected at the end of the month. If found guilty, Gottfrid faces up to four years in jail.

Originally Published: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 07:18:30 +0000
source

[fliba]

soy kids get jail for cookies now?

[RobertX]

I am praying that anakata is going out of this in one piece.

This looks bad.

[ShotChain]

I am praying that anakata is going out of this in one piece.

This looks bad.

I've removed this comment as requested by a SuprBay staff member

NIK edited Oct 18, 2014 21:40 pm this post because: Not sure if you're stupid, lazy or trolling but that video is nearly a year old, from the time he was imprisoned in Sweden and expecting to be released imminently; not renditioned to Denmark for another show trial.

[david leonardi]

Be strong bro Gottfrid.

PS: Is there anything we can do for him mate ?
;`( Damn... no sad smilies here

[Ernesto]

After being arrested in his Cambodian apartment in September 2012 it took two years before Gottfrid Svartholm went on trial in Denmark.

The Swede and his 21-year-old co-defendant stood accused of hacking computer mainframes operated by US IT giant CSC. It developed into the largest case of its kind ever seen in the Scandinavian country.

The case broadly took shape along two lines. The prosecution insisted that Gottfrid and his Danish accomplice, both experts in computer security, had launched hacker attacks against CSC back in April 2012 and maintained access to those systems until August that same year.

The defense claimed it was a case of mistaken identity and that others had carried out the crimes, remotely accessing Gottfrid’s computer after comprising its security.

Evidence was produced by the prosecution which showed discussion taking place between hackers with the names “Advanced Persistent Terrorist Threat” and “My Evil Twin”. The topic in hand was the security and setup of CSC’s databases and systems. These people were Gottfrid and his IT consultant co-defendant, the prosecution said.

From the beginning, Gottfrid’s position was that his computer, from where the attacks had taken place, had been compromised. This version of events was supported by respected security expert Jacob Appelbaum who gave evidence for the defense not only in this case, but also in Gottfrid’s Swedish trial, a case in which he was partly acquitted.

Speaking with Denmark’s TV2 earlier today, Gottfrid’s lawyer Luise Høj said that her client should be found not guilty since it had been established that third parties had carried out the crimes.

“My recommendation has always been that the investigation has focused on finding clues that point to my client, even though the tracks have also pointed in another direction,” Høj said.

“I have recommended that the court dismiss the case based on the remote access argument. It is clear that my client’s computer has been the subject of remote control, and therefore he is not responsible.”

But it wasn’t to be. This morning the Court of Frederiksberg found both Gottfrid and his accomplice guilty of hacking into the systems of CSC. Both unlawfully accessed confidential information including police drivers’ license records, social security information plus criminal records.

Dismissing the remote control defense, Judge Ulla Otken said the hacking of CSC had been both “systematic and comprehensive.”

All three judges and four of six jurors returned guilty verdicts. Two jurors voted to acquit after concluding that the remote access defense could not be ruled out.

Following his extradition from Sweden, Gottfrid has spent 11 months behind bars in Denmark. His Danish accomplice, who refused to give evidence to the police and maintained silence right up until his trial in September, has spent 17 months in jail.

Breaking news, article will be updated.

source