Akamai insider pleads guilty to foreign economic espionage

A former Akamai employee has been accused of and has pleaded guilty to having passed on confidential information regarding the company to a man he believed was a Israeli consular official, making him the eight person ever to be prosecuted for foreign economic espionage in the US. If found guilty, he might end up with a prison sentence of 15 years.

According to his own admission, the 43-year-old Elliot Doxer wanted to share the information he had in order to help Israel. In exchange, he wanted $3,000 and information about his estranged wife and son, who are living outside of the US.

He first contacted James Cromer – the FBI special agent who posed as the Israeli official – back in 2007.

Over a year and a half, he delivered to him documents containing information about Akamai’s security practices, lists of company clients and employees, complete with mobile numbers, email addresses and the name of the department they work for.

It is unclear if the two ever met in real life, as the agent instituted a dead drop box where Doxer could deliver the documents and through which they exchanged messages.

As far Akamai can tell, the exfiltrated information was shared by Doxer only with the FBI agent.

According to Computerworld, Doxer has also dropped comments about his estranged wife that might be construed as a invitation to harm her. Talking about his son, he commented that his mother is a terrible human being and that she has caused him tremendous suffering. “Not enough bad things can happen to her if you know what I mean,” he said.