On Wednesday, May 14, a joint press conference was conducted by General Inspector of Romanian Police, Questor Gheorghe Popa; Directorate for Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), Codrut Olaru; and eBay VP & Chief Information Security Office, Dave Cullinane regarding the the arrest of Vlad Duiculescu (“Vladuz”).
The press conference was an opportunity for eBay to publicly commend and thank the dedication and hard work of Romanian law enforcement in helping bring Vlad to justice.
Following the press conference, I was fortunate to get some time on the phone with Dave Cullinane and his team of security experts to discuss the arrest further. Unfortunately, because the Romanian authorities leading the prosecution have not finalized charges, I was unable to address specific allegations. However, I do plan on pursuing further when that time comes.
I was impressed to learn the extent to which the investigation stretched across many different agencies in different geographies. Dave explained that the arrest was due to a formalized collaboration between eBay and the Romanian General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, the DIICOT and in cooperation with the US Secret Service and the FBI. In addition to those police agencies, authorities in Romania and the US Department of Justice played significant roles in gathering electronic evidence across multiple jurisdictions.
The eBay Fraud Investigations, Information Security, and Legal teams work in a cross-functional, global capacity and have a current headcount of 50 specialists that have formalized relationships with crime and investigation agencies both in the US and abroad to help investigate cases such as this. Given the intricacies of the relationships formed, I would think that the multi-year investigation, and subsequent arrest, will make for an excellent case study in cybercrime detection – and one that eBay can build upon for future cases.
Cheers,
RBH
