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Ex-CIA Boss Says Spy Suspect Eyed Hack-Bust Job
From: InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 19:07:41 -0600
http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-02-23/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a-100928.asp By RICHARD SISK Daily News Washington Bureau Friday, February 23, 2001 Accused FBI turncoat Robert Hanssen wanted to retire into a job selling anti-hacker technology to the government to guard against double agents a former CIA director said yesterday. James Woolsey, who led the CIA under former President Bill Clinton, said Hanssen pushed for a job with Invicta Networks, a firm founded by Soviet KGB defector Viktor Sheymov to develop hack-proof computer software for U.S. spy agencies. "Hanssen twice aggressively expressed an interest to Invicta executives on being employed by Invicta following his retirement from the FBI," said Woolsey, who is on Invicta's board and also serves as Sheymov's attorney. Hanssen, who allegedly used his computer expertise to hack into FBI files for secrets to sell to Moscow, also boasted to FBI colleagues about getting a big-bucks job when he retired, according to an FBI affidavit. In February 1988, Hanssen told his Soviet handlers that he could read the FBI'S files on Sheymov's debriefings, the affidavit said. More recently, "Hanssen told FBI co-workers that he was considering an offer of lucrative employment by Sheymov after retirement in April," the affidavit said. Woolsey declined to discuss the Hanssen-Sheymov connection in a brief phone conversation yesterday. But in a statement faxed to the Daily News, he said Hanssen met Sheymov in the 1980s and "since that time, the Sheymov and Hanssen families indeed came to be on friendly terms." The families had little contact in recent years, but in December, Hanssen "expressed keen interest in Invicta's technology," Woolsey said. Three weeks before he was arrested Sunday, Hanssen "was briefed on the Invicta technology" as part of his official duties along with several other FBI computer experts, Woolsey said. Sheymov was a rising star and the youngest major in the KGB at age 33 when he defected to the U.S. in 1980 with his wife and daughter. His defection was considered one of the CIA's major Cold War coups. Hanssen, 56, has been charged with espionage crimes carrying the death penalty for allegedly selling secrets to the Soviets and later the Russians for at least $1.4 million in 15 years as a mole. ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of "SIGNOFF ISN".
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