Fergie's Tech Blog

In the stolen-data trade, Moscow is the Wild East

Graeme Smith writes in The Globe and Mail:

The most expensive wares in Moscow's software markets, the items that some Russians are calling a threat to their personal safety, aren't on public display.

It takes less than 15 minutes to find them, however, at the teeming Gorbushka market, a jumble of kiosks selling DVDs, CD-ROMs and an array of gadgetry in an old factory west of downtown.

One question -- Where can we buy databases of private information? -- and the young man selling rip-off copies of Hollywood movies leaps to his feet. He leads the customers to another vendor, who wears a bull's head on his belt buckle. This second man listens to the request, opens his cellphone, and punches a speed-dial number.

Moments later, a third vendor appears. He is jovial and blunt about his trade.

"What do you need?" he says. "We have everything."

posted by Fergie @ 7/05/2005 06:30:00 AM