Ex-CIA Boss Says Spy Suspect Eyed Hack-Bust Job

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

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.

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