International. The Bucharest Court of Appeals recently granted an extradition request filed by the US for two Romanians accused of hacking the surveillance cameras of the Washington DC police.
Mihai Alexandru Isvanca, 25, and Eveline Cismaru, 28, but in the case of the younger one postponed the surrender until a case filed in the Bacau Office of the Directorate of Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) is closed, or in case of conviction, until his release.
The court also ordered the release of Mihai Alexandru Isvanca, who was placed in pre-trial detention on 16 December.
As far as Eveline Cismaru is concerned, the judges decided to maintain his provisional house arrest to hand him over on 14 March.
According to a press release published on December 28, 2017 by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, a criminal complaint and arrest warrants were disclosed at the time accusing two Romanian citizens of a conspiracy to illegally access approximately 123 computers associated with the Metropolitan Police. Department surveillance cameras (MPDs) and use those computers in connection with a plan to distribute ransomware in January 2017.
As described in the affidavit in support of the lawsuit, on January 12, 2017, the Secret Service was notified that several MPD surveillance cameras had been compromised. Agents from the Washington Field Office immediately launched an investigation. The investigation uncovered information that the MPD's surveillance cameras were compromised between January 9 and January 12, 2017, and that ransomware variants called "cerber" and "dharma" had been stored on computers. Other evidence in the investigation revealed a plan to distribute ransomware via email to at least 179,000 email addresses.
This case was of the highest priority because of its impact on the Secret Service's protection mission and its potential effect on the security plan for the 2017 Presidential Inauguration.
According to the statement, in partnership with the MPD's Chief Technology Office, the Secret Service and MPD quickly ensured that the surveillance camera system was secure and operational prior to possession and continued to investigate criminal offenses.
