Following an ordeal over whether the defendants could obtain Russian passports, testify in Europe and hand over work files, lawyers for Google and Litvak traded accusations of lying. In 2022, US District Judge Denise Cote ruled that the defendants were allowed to obtain Russian passports, testify in Europe and hand over work files. sided with GoogleShe found him in a 48-page judgment Cote claimed the defendants “intentionally concealed information” and “misrepresented their willingness and ability” to disclose it in order to “avoid liability and further profits” for Glupteba. “The record here is sufficient to find a deliberate attempt to defraud the Court,” Cote wrote.
Cote sanctioned Litvak and he agreed to pay Google $250,000 total until 2027 The lawyer also ordered Starovikov and Filippov to pay nearly $526,000 in total to cover Google’s legal fees. Castaneda says Google has received payment from all three.
Litvak tells WIRED that he still disagrees with the judge’s findings and that Russia’s tense relationship with the United States may have influenced the judge’s confidence. “It is telling that after filing a motion to reconsider, pointing out serious problems with the court’s decision, the court reversed its original decision and referred[the]case to mediation, which ended without me having to admit any wrongdoing,” he says in an email.
Google’s Castaneda says the case achieved the desired effect: Russian hackers stopped abusing Google services and shut down its market for stolen logins, while the number of computers infected with Glupteba fell by 78 percent.
Not all cases yield measurable results. The defendants in the other three Google hacking cases have not responded to the allegations. That led Google last year Winning a judgment by default against three people in Pakistan accused of infecting more than 672,000 computers by passing off malware as downloads of Google’s Chrome browser. Uncontested victories are also expected in the remaining cases, including one in which App developers abroad They allegedly stole money through fake investment apps and are being sued for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.
Royal Hansen, Google’s vice president of privacy, security and safety engineering, says lawsuits that don’t result in defendants paying up or agreeing to stop alleged misuse can make life even more difficult for alleged perpetrators. Google uses the rulings as evidence to persuade companies like banks and cloud service providers to stop working with defendants. Other hackers might not want to work with them knowing they’ve been caught. Defendants might also be more wary of crossing international borders and becoming targets of scrutiny by local authorities. “That’s a win, too,” Hansen says.
More to come
Google’s small litigation preparation team currently meets about twice a week with other units across the company to discuss potential lawsuits. The team evaluates whether a case could set a useful precedent to give more teeth to Google’s policies or draw attention to an emerging threat.
Team leader Day says that as Google has refined its process, filing lawsuits has become more affordable. That should lead to more lawsuits each year, including some that could, for the first time, be filed outside the U.S. or that represent specific users who have been harmed, he says.
The tech giants’ sprawling empires leave no shortage of novel cases to pursue. Google sister company Waymo recently took the affirmative litigation approach, suing two people who allegedly vandalized and slashed its self-driving taxis. Microsoft, for its part, is weighing bringing cases against people who use generative AI technology for malicious or fraudulent purposes, says Steven Masada, deputy general counsel for the company’s Digital Crimes Unit.
It remains to be seen whether the increased rate of litigation has deterred cybercriminals and whether more internet companies will go on the legal offensive.
Erin Bernstein, who runs the law firm Bradley Bernstein Sands, which helps governments bring civil lawsuits, says she recently approached a handful of companies in various industries about pursuing their own affirmative litigation. Though none have taken her up on her offer, she is optimistic. “It’s going to be a growth area,” Bernstein says.
But Google’s DeLaine Prado expects affirmative action to decline over time. “In a perfect world, this work would eventually disappear if it’s successful,” he says. “I actually want to make sure that our success makes us almost obsolete, at least when it comes to this kind of work.”
