University worker accused of extorting student file sharers

If you thought the Recording Industry Association of America was hard on illegal file sharing, consider Dorin Dehelean.

Dehelean, an Internet security analyst, was in charge of tracking illegal file sharing at the University of Georgia until he tried to shake down the student downloaders he caught.

Last week, police arrested the 37-year-old Dehelean on a felony extortion charge, according to a report published by the Web site of the Athens Banner-Herald. Police allege that Dehelean contacted a female student two weeks ago to tell her that he'd caught her violating school policy by illegally downloading copyright materials.

He also told her he could make the "situation go away in exchange for money," Jimmy Williamson, chief of campus police at the university, told the Banner-Herald. "All he was doing was (offering) to keep the information from going to Judicial Programs."

The student, who apparently could have faced disciplinary action for the downloading, told Dehelean that she didn't have the money and then informed a school official about the conversation. The police were contacted and they sent a plainclothes officer to meet with Dehelean posing as the student. After Dehelean accepted a payment of an undisclosed amount, he was arrested and the school immediately fired him.

Police believe Dehelean tried to extort other students and may have been paid off by at least one student. No word yet on whether the female student was disciplined for the downloading.

[Yelonde]

Would downloading wirelessly make a difference? I would think that not being physically attached to a wire would make your computer, and identity harder to find, and identify.

[Mr_fleabite]

Nope.
If it was connected to the school's network wires or not they know who you are and what you are doing on their network.

[PixP]

Not really. Anyone worth their Amateur Radio salt could track that.

[mike_m_ekim]

Sure PixP, cops are gonna bust internet downloaders by triangulating their position with the ham radio in the back of their plain white van.

[sanenazok]

@mike: if you're using a school IP you're being watched no matter the use of wires. If the school knows what it's doing, it would require authentication on the wireless and so it's even EASIER to track on wireless than anywhere else.

[unknown unknown]

In my experience most universities require some sort of login before they let you on the internet. The university I attended required you to login with Cisco's Clean Access Agent (which can also check for P2P software if configured to do so) to access the internet in dorms. All the lab computer required you to login as well. Wireless or wired makes no difference. There is usually a line in agreement about you being responsible for anything that happens under you credentials.

Having worked in an office that did this work I would tell you no it wouldn't make a difference. I worked for a University doing residential networking and the students had to use their campus login information to get on the University wireless network. Likewise, if you were not a student you could not get on the network. Everything was traceable back to the student no matter what.

[Renegade Knight]

@ mike_m_ekim

At our U they create an account and that's what you use. They even have you bring in your laptop to plug in the info. Unless you are a hacker in your spare time, it's not easy to back out your info and share it. So, yes, they would know who was doing what on the U's network. Who's enough. You can then visit them at your leisure.

[mike_ekim]

@ sanenazok and Renegade Knight: why not read the post I was responding to (i.e. Anyone worth their Amateur Radio salt...) and then put my post in context.

Anyone who's disagreeing with me, is saying that amateur radio operators can identifying what people are illegally download content. Seriously, get a clue.

[sportsbud1]

@ unknown unknown Same Here with the Cisco Clean Access agent yet I have managed to bypass it, but I know the incompetent IT guys are watching me. LOL

[unknown unknown]

@sportsbud1 Yeah, the user agent switcher add-on for Firefox was a big help. I could tell them I was using linux or BSD and login through a landing page instead. Which wasn't a total lie I did have Open SUSE installed at the time.

[ambrose1987]

So, when Sony does it it is a lawsuit, but when a private citizen does it it is extortion? Oh well. Everyone should learn to use SSH anyway.

[kryptonianjorel]

Yes, because when Sony does it...its because it was their content that was being infringed upon, as apposed to this bozo, who didn't own anything?

On an unrelated point, "No word yet on whether the female student was disciplined for the downloading." What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

[T_Hoff]

When Sony does it, it is the copyright owner asking for compensation for the unauthorized use of their works. When a network administrator or security analyst requests money in order to hide the unauthorized use, it is extortion.

[mike_m_ekim]

kryptonianjorel - When the RIAA does it, they are often using unlawful tactics to get information. And the difference between a rootkit and any other malware is... ?

[Random_Walk]

Err, SSH only gives you a *nix shell. Perhaps you meant SCP?

Otherwise, I agree perfectly.

[hawkeyeaz1]

@Random_Walk: SSH gives a Secure SHell. It works on Windows too. SCP is Secure CoPy. RDP might be cioser to what you were referring to, as it is Remote DesktoP.

Regardless, they will require a end point outside of the college network to connect to, unless you are trying to frame your buddy.

[Random_Walk]

It all depends on context, really... If you're looking to get a terminal session to something offsite, then you can use SSH (which can also transmit Xorg/X-Windows), or RDP. OTOH, neither one is all that practical for passing files around.

The reason I mentioned SCP? The SCP session (like SSH) is encapsulated in a key-encrypted tunnel, and therefore the packet contents are unreadable to anyone who is not you and/or not the server you're copying from. There are specialized P2P clients out nowadays that use this (or use a variant thereof).

If you're using straight-up RDP, you also have an SSL encapsulation, but it would present a bit of a security hazard to whomever is hosting the remote server.

HTH.

[mike_m_ekim]

Chief of campus police at the university, told the Banner-Herald. "All he was doing was ..."

All he was doing was breaking the law. Why is the chief sticking up for criminals?

He was point out what the accused extortionist had done. What was not said told what the accused did not ask for in exchange for not sending the matter to the authorities.

[krosafcheg]

How about spend a freakin buck and just pay for it?

[Yelonde]

Ok, how about you go to college, and try buying adobe CS4 for $1500? Or would you rather get it for free?

[T_Hoff]

@Yelonde

How about doing it legally and taking advantage of the educational / student discount?

[Yelonde]

It is still $1000 for the student discount - a prince many of us cannot afford, especially in this economy.

however any good University supplies those type of editing utilities in places like the Library, which is open extensive hours... just sayin cause I am in college lol

[Kiljoy616]

Well said, poor people are always ******** about not been able to afford things, well to bad that is life. The world is not for losers, but for the winers. Winers take all, get over it.

[XCMeathead]

Who needs all of CS4 anyway? You can just buy the student versions of the components you need surely?!

[viper396]

Yelonde is completely ignorant. You cannot put much faint in the comments of someone who thought a wireless connection made you anonymous at a University.

The Student version of Adobe CS4 is only $200 at Amazon. Most universities sell it for even less. (you can check the online bookstores of many schools to verify). And if you should want to pay full price for the full version, that is $699 from Adobe which is still much less then the whoafully exaggerated $1500 figure that Yelonde made up.

[baconstang]

Gotta love the South.

[myopiccyclops]

Say what??? Gotta love ignorant generalizations. Trust me, "the South" certainly doesn't hold a monopoly on scumbags and crooks.

[sanenazok]

I'm surprised this involved *only* money. What college student has any worthwhile amount of cash in any event. Stupid dude.

[tm_anon]

And add a prostitution charge against him as well? Good call.

[Magallanes]

The goal of internet is, not more or less, than share information.

[codynews]

more "less" than more.

The Internet is a means to DISTRIBUTE information. Lots of that information is free, or advertiser supported. However, a lot of the 'information' is media (songs, moves, books, etc.) that are no more "free" than their physical counterparts in the store.

Cody

[mike_ekim]

The intent of a gun is to punch holes into things, that doesn't make it legal to go around doing so.

[inachu1]

Wait does this mean that college networks are faster?
13 years ago it would take 2 minutes for a website to load at AU.
If P2P is banned and the network IS faster then awsome!

[rbeck88]

Man, where have you been? Colleges (and military contracts) are the reason we have high speed internet as consumers. They provide the research and development and funding, the ISPs get consumer grade spin-offs of their tech. Most large institutions are running fiber-optics between buildings and campuses and convert to copper wiring with hundreds of access points, sub-nets, and bridges to create a single, institution wide network.
13 years ago, no one in the academic world with buying power really thought the internet would continue to grow throughout the world like it has. Also, technology has evolved significantly over time to the point that some end user internet access on universities networks are faster, and safer, than the access that consumers in the area may be able to get from the local ISP.

[Kiljoy616]

Poor people should just stop downloading, go back to listening to radio. Its not like this world was made for poor people don't they get it, music is for those who have the means to buy it.

As for the guy, dam he had a sweet deal, if your going to extort first make sure you have clout on your side, take out a few students then the rest will fall in line, take a play from religion if your going to play the game right.

[Dalkorian]

He's learning.
:D

[Kiljoy616]

Haha, like that every stop anyone from going to jail or been extorted with libel suit from religions nut jobs.

[smartin684]

"As for the guy, dam he had a sweet deal, if your going to extort first make sure you have clout on your side, take out a few students then the rest will fall in line, take a play from religion if your going to play the game right."
What the h*** are you talking about??????

[socratesfoot]

The problem with colleges and Universities enforcing ethics policies is that for the most part they lack ethics. Even if it is not talked about, you would be surprised what students know about. The only reason this guy was singled out is that the student contacted the police. Colleges have this kinda crap going on all the time. I've been a student at several Universities, then worked for several colleges as well and I can honestly say that higher education is a racket. I've seen college techs try and trade sexual favors for removing virus or spy ware from female students' computers. I've seen extortion similar to this from staff members. I've seem students buy grades and rapes go unreported because they might embarrass the college. But what's more, I've seen college administrators misappropriate grant money, staff from student aid steal from students, financial offices take loans out in students names without their authorization then demand their signatures after the fact, and so much other crap that everyone on staff knew about and nobody dared challenged if they wanted to keep going to school or keep their jobs.

[sanenazok]

@socratesfoot: no way, large institutions with people who never had to work in the real world are screwed up? No way! Higher education is not a racket, it's the way to move up in life. Don't tell me you got your jobs at universities by starting out as an uneducated ditch digger.

Most of the stuff you say is unsubstantiated rumor on tinfoil hat level. Especially the financial office stuff. Really, wouldn't this kind of a thing get reported. On something called the INTERNET?

[rbeck88]

For all you idiots who aren't in college and apparently have gobs of money laying around to buy all your software toys, shut up. You have no idea what you're talking about. Should the girl have been illegally downloading? No. If she actually was doing it, which remains to be proven according to the article, she should have done it off campus where the university's network doesn't reach.
At my college, the university requires us to authenticate with our university username and password on a secured website BEFORE we have access to the internet at large. This occurs on both the Wi-fi and hard wired networks. My college also monitors all network traffic for illegal downloads and simply shuts off your connection if you do it on their network. Then they email you to set up a meeting with Campus Tech support and the Campus police to solve the issue. This generally scares students into quitting illegal downloads. Campus monitoring and shut offs do provide a layer of protection for students from the legal barbarism employed by RIAA and large software companies. They aren't going to pursue a major university with it's own high powered legal counsel that takes care of the problem with student downloads. They will pursue lone individuals viciously though.
As a college student, if I can get stuff for free, then I will. That doesn't allows mean it's going to be legal, but I don't get caught by the college. My college has subscriptions to the MSDN Academic Alliance, which provides free, legal, and fully functional copies of Microsoft software for personal and academic uses. This includes OSes, development suites, Servers, etc. all for free to students enrolled in select course disciplines. This option has helped greatly in my software needs and allowed me to save money.
This guy who was extorting students deserved getting fired and should serve his time.

[sanenazok]

I don't know why you're jumping to the conclusion that she was downloading software. It only says "copyright materials" (sic) which to me means most likely a movie.

[rbeck88]

@sanenazok
I didn't say she was downloading software. I said "illegal downloads". The article jumped to that conclusion first. I simply used software as a primary example, because software is one of the most popular choices for illegal downloads, along with music, movies/TV shows, and probably E-books soon enough. The article's author addressed RIAA and went on to talk about software. You are right, though. "Copyrighted materials" sounds more like a movie than it does software.

[dumbbust]

I know that a schools "network" is a public network and that the school can get in trouble for letting students download pirated software. Microsoft gives free or cheap copies of its software to students with valid ID...with the way tuition and the economy is ALL companies should do this. If a student does illegal downloads well then so be it, you can't bust them for the obvious plagerism thats going on in todays internet connected world...as for the IT guy that got arrested, he got what he deserved...you dance with the devil your gonna get burned!!!

The academic price for CS4 Master Collection is $323 at my university. All other versions are under $200 and Acrobat Pro by itself is just $10. All pretty affordable.

[Fire Balls]

Getting though a colleges filtering system even if you have to log in to it is very easy. But I will not into detail here.

[Stormspace]

What the guy did was wrong, but this type of behavior is the result of the environment the AA's have created.