An example of de-anonymization of a "network boom" in open sources

[Ющук Евгений Леонидович]

An example of deanonymization of the "network boom" by open sources (with access to the impact in the "real")

Source

Preamble to the deanonymization of LJ user steady_man

There is a character in the LiveJournal with the nickname steady_man. Until recently, he was very proud of his anonymity. And, considering himself invulnerable in real life, he chose a line of behavior arrogant and rude. This gentleman belonged to the Yekaterinburg party of the "democrats."

In particular, he molested me either with a demand to sue him, or with a demand to deanonymize him. Well, not forgetting, of course, to tell how bad I am and how he does not love me. For this reason, he fell into my field of vision, and sometimes I began to glance at the information on him. Not so much as to closely monitor it or actively seek it, just kept it in sight.

But yesterday it happened to steady_man, and in life a certain change in disposition.



How events developed with the deanonymization of the LJ user steady_man.

There is a specialist in PR in Yekaterinburg, Mamatov Platon Sergeevich, speaking in LiveJournal under the nickname kaisi. A person who writes in an interesting syllable and knows quite well the methods of "digging on the Internet."

And so, when steady_man once again asked - this time already Platon Mamatov (kaisi) to deanonymize him - he received the required.


I must say that fragmentary information about steady_man on the Internet was. And its deanonymization was possible earlier. But with going offline, and therefore required some effort, the appropriateness of which was doubtful. For example, like this:

About steady_man, the Internet initially knew a few things that made it possible to deanonymize fairly quickly - but offline.

1. The name steady_man was known. I don’t remember already - either someone named him, or something else, but the name was known. His name is Sergey.

2. steady_man graduated from the 9th school (gymnasium) in Yekaterinburg. He did not hide it.

3. steady_man lives in Italy

4. steady_man periodically visits Yekaterinburg

6. steady_man - an active participant in the so-called "IT" and "opposition" parties, and during visits to Yekaterinburg he meets with participants in these parties. In this case, in part, it is known - with whom exactly. Moreover - they know who is under the nickname steady_man, because he did not hide it (from "his").



Possible practical steps for offline deanonymization based on available information.
(not undertaken, due to uselessness)

Option 1 (quiet). I find a person who treats me well and at the same time enters into a democratic or IT party. I ask you to make a conversation at the next meeting there so that it sounds something like: “But this Seryoga, steady_man is such an interesting person. I read hard. The guy thinks well, really big. Who is he?” They will give info.

Option 2 (long) We enter into the demo-gathering, we sing “Down with Putin!”, “Give the Ural Republic!”,
“Parnassus is the best party on earth”, “Lenya and Fedya - Karl and Friedrich of our time” (these are the leaders of the Yekaterinburg democrats) and all in the same spirit. We appear on the parties in real life, go to volunteers, observe the elections ...
At the end - we collect all on one barge in one folder - well, steady_man and at the same time.

Option 3 (game) We go to the 9th school. We show the journalist’s identity. We say: "We are writing an article about the graduates of the famous nine who now live abroad. What we have achieved, how we feel. We understand that there are a lot of them, so we decided to start from three very different countries: Sweden, Italy and Bangladesh." We listen to the teachers' memories for a long time and we get what we are looking for in the long run.

Option 4 (a little power) We go to the police, but not to the “duty room”, but to the guys we know. Please help to pull out one freak who is useful in the "collection of butterflies" in caliber. The statement on the 282nd is ready to write, there is a selection. The comrade files in the daddy’s copies of the statements of the sought-after Mr. together with the statement and begins a preliminary investigation on the material. Stomping in the "nine", officially and honestly shows the document and conducts the same official and honestly operational survey. He asks for installation data for a man aged 25-45 years, named Sergei, who moved to work in Italy.

-----------------

This is offhand. All options are working, all require a slightly different time and all give results, although a bit of a different depth.
But, if you look at the first point of the "intelligence cycle" - then you see there appears "target". When she is gone, no one goes anywhere and does nothing.



It is clear that such a person as steady_man simply could not help showing up on the Democracy2 website: firstly, this resource was created by the very Fedya and Lenya, and secondly, not a single Yekaterinburg demodvizhu without a fiery fighter from Italy can dispense in principle.
But on the site "Democracy 2" the authors introduced a rule - indicate real names.

And Plato Mamatov (kaisi) registered there and looked around. And I discovered a man with such data:

Zykov Sergey Arlenovich

Originally from Yekaterinburg. He lived in Ufa for several years, so I’m not completely alien to the problems of this Ural region. He graduated from the 9th school of Yekaterinburg. Scientist and teacher. A specialist in mathematical physics (more specifically, in dynamics and stable structures under conditions of nonlinear interactions), currently living in Italy.
Interested in (so far rather NOT professional) various approaches to the description of neurophysiological and social systems; in many ways very similar in essence and structure. Friends and acquaintances of the experts suggested a number of modern good books on the topic that they read and learned. But for professional mastery of the topic this, of course, is not enough. Thinking and approaches remain, for the most part, physical and mathematical. Although, is it always so bad?
I was surprised to find that to describe social and cognitive structures, an adequate mathematical construction simply does not exist. The closest objects are the "fractal" and "graph" (the same as the "network"). But to understand the dynamics (!) Of the processes that are taking place, these tools are worthless.
As specific applications, an anti-drug topic is of interest.

Plato Mamatov (kaisi) compared, as I understand it, the data provided by Mr. Zykov with those available on steady_man, and wrote these lines on his blog:

Elementary, Watson.

There, in the comments, the steady_man blogger asked me how much his deanonymization costs. This user actively hides personal data and therefore believes that he is the smartest here.
I answer:
Sergey Arlenovich Zykov
- graduate of school number 9 in the city of Yekaterinburg
- former employee of the laboratory of the theory of nonlinear phenomena of the Institute of Metal Physics, Ural Branch of RAS
- specialist in mathematical physics (in dynamics and stable structures in non-linear interactions)
- living in Italy
- active opposition
- longtime supporter of Drug Free Cities
- Signer of the "open letter of scientists to Putin"
- participant in the election campaign of Dmitry Gorchakov

Deanonymization here at such a children's level does not cost anything. Finding your photo, address of residence, and other things - already costs a little, but not very expensive. There for half a day of fuss.


Going to positions that allow you to establish the location, place of work and, ultimately, the vulnerability of the object (for example, deanonymization of the LJ user steady_man).

Skipping the intermediate stages, when Mr. steady_man expressed his “fe” in different ways, I will go to the intermediate finish: in full accordance with [DLMURL="https://yushchuk.livejournal.com/tag/%D1%81%D0%B8% D0% BD% D0% B4% D1% 80% D0% BE% D0% BC% 20% D0% BA% D1% 83% D1% 85% D0% BD% D0% B8 "]" kitchen syndrome "[/ DLMURL ], steady_man actually made two statements:

1. Admitted that Plato Mamatov (kaisi) established it correctly;

2. He indicated that he was not happy with this situation, saying: [DLMURL="https://www.peeep.us/5788b480"] "I would be grateful if you close the record about me under the lock. The hole, as I see, is not so big , as I thought. And it’s one thing when a specialist can find data, it’s quite another thing when every moron just typing in a search engine ... Thank you! ": [/ DLMURL]

I honestly told Mr. Zykov that, unlike Plato, I won’t clean anything up, but I’ll make a case. Or a few cases - it will depend on how Mr. Zykov behaves in the future. I also honestly said that I have problems with those who want to voluntarily become a visual aid, therefore, in general, I welcome when such volunteers appear. Although I do not insist.

Next, I took several steps to verify the information. At the moment, it is still not completely true, in my opinion, but somewhere is already very close to the sought. However, I will show in order.

Step 1 We expand the search for information on Zykov Sergey Arlenovich in foreign languages

Since a person lives abroad, it makes sense to look for information about him in foreign languages - in Italian and English. The question is where is it best to do this. and how to spell correctly his last name in English.

I made this request:

Zykov Sergey Arlenovich email


and got this page here:

Thus, one of the email addresses of Sergei Arlenovich Zykov, and the most likely spelling of his last name, became known.
A request for an email was given by such an email from another page of the Institute of Metal Physics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

Serg@imp.uran.ru

Request for this new email

showed> here is such an English-language page <(words in the text are highlighted by my color)

Zykov Sergey

Institutional address:

Institute of Metal Physics
Ekaterinburg, S. Kovalevskaya str. 18
620219, GSP-170
Russia

E-mail addresses: Serg@imp.uran.ru, mailto: serg_arl@hotmail.com

CURRICULUM VITAE

Serge Zykov Institute of Metal Physics
job tel: 7 (3432) 744353, 783793
home tel: 7 (3432) 180558 Ekaterinburg
fax: 7 (3432) 745244
e-mail: Serg@imp.uran.ru Russia

Birth: February 5, 1972 in Ekaterinburg (forgotten Sverdlovsk), Russian,
Male;

Education:
- Graduated of Urals State University in 1995.
Diploma title "The investigation of crystallization kinetics
in amorphous Films by the method of elastic scattering of light:
experiment and computer simulation "
Supervisor Prof. Vladimir Ya. Shur - Head of Ferroellectric Laboratory and the expert in ferroelectric field.
See for example V.Ya. Shur, SA Negashev, AL Subbotin, EB Blankova,
EA Borisova and SA Zykov, Evolution of morphology during thermal annealing
of amorphous ferroelectric films, Abstracts of 1st European Meeting on
Integrated Ferroelectrics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, July 3-5, 1995, p.41)

- Now I'm Ph.D. student and have to finished my thesis in this year.
Supervisor: Prof. Alexander B. Borisov
Title: "Proliferation of nonlinear equations"

- My temporary affiliation: Associate Professor since 1999,
Dept. of Physics, Urals State Politechnical University.
Since end of 2001 - senior teacher in dept. of Mathematical physics and engineering.

Research interests:
1) Integrable systems: Miura, Darboux and Backlund transformations, Dressing chains of integrable equations, Hamiltonian approach for integrable systems, Inverse Scattering Transform Method.
2) Crystal Growth: cluster analys, percolation and fractals.
3) Applications in theoretical physics, new solution in integrable and semi-integrable systems.

Advanced interest:
Computer simulation and computer experiment:
Programming languages C ++, Fortran, Mathematica, Maple at al.

Je aprenes Frasaice.

Recent publications:
1) ABBorisov, SA Zykov, The dressing chains of discrete symmetries and
proliferation of nonlinear equations, Theor. Math. Phys., V. 115, No. 2, p. 530, 1998

2) ABBorisov, SAZykov, Transparent potentials with infinite discrete spectrum
for sine-Gordon equation, Theor. Math. Phys., V. 118, No. 3, 1999, p. 264-271.

3) ABBorisov, SAZykov, MVPavlov, Proliferation scheme for Kaup-Boussinesq equation,
Phisica D151-152 (special issue for VEZakharovs birthday), p.104-109, 2001

Participation in schools and conferences:

1. La propriete Painleve, un siecle apres, 1996
2. "Kourovka" - Urals international school of theoretical physics 1998, 2000
3. Diffraction Days, St. Petersburg, 1998 (inviting, ref)
"New transparent potentials in Sine-Gordon model: spectral problem & dynamics"
4. Integrable models in theoretical physics, Chelyabinsk, 1998
5. Nonlinear science festival, Kopenhagen, Nils Bohr Institute, 1998
6. NEEDS'99, 1999
"Replication scheme for Kaup-Boussinesq equation." (talk)
"New soliton solutions for Sine-Gordon equation with infinite
discrete spectrum in associated spectral problem. "(poster)
This CV last modified: June, 2001

What was there that interested me the most?

1. Events are dated 2001 - when Sergey Zykov was not hiding from anyone yet

2. Date of birth shown

3. There is a home telephone of that period.



We fix the evidence that the site _ttp: //sergarl.narod.ru/ is related to the desired Zykov S. A.

Here is one of the items in the list of publications for the dissertation of Sergei Arlenovich Zykov "Propagation of nonlinear integrable equations of theoretical physics" on the website https://hi-news.ru/technology/darpa-xoch ... u-set.html

A.V. Borisov, MV Pavlov, SA Zykov. Proliferation scheme for Cairo - Boussinesq equation // Physica D, 2001, V. 151-152 (A Special Issue to Honor Vladimir Zakharov), P. 104-109.

and here is the item from the site _ttp: //sergarl.narod.ru/

3) ABBorisov, SAZykov, MVPavlov, Proliferation scheme for Kaup-Boussinesq equation,
Phisica D151-152 (special issue for VEZakharovs birthday), p.104-109, 2001

I believe that it’s quite enough to consider that the site _ttp: //sergarl.narod.ru/ is connected specifically with Sergey Arlenovich Zykov.

In this case, we get the nickname sergarl (probable spelling variants serg arl, serg-arl, serg_arl) which is also very likely associated with the user LJ steady_man

Nick sergarl, in my opinion, "speaking" - can be formed from the words "Sergey" and "Arlenovich"

There is a lot of information on this nickname.



Step 2 Photo of the defendant

On the main page of the site on the "People"

Step 3. Trying to find a link between nicknames sergarl and steady_man

Solution Option:

Here is the main page of the user sergarl on Yandex:

The address of the avatar of the user sergarl - that same "brick wall", to which Plato Mamatov drew attention in this regard. The steady-man user has the same avatar, which Platon Mamatov identified as Sergey Arlenovich Zykov

TinEye claims that she knows the picture at sergarl's avatar as a steady-man avatar on many blogs

And this is the content of the sergarl blog on Yandex

And this is the content of the steady-man blog (which Platon Mamatov identified as Sergey Arlenovich Zykov) in LiveJournal

Additionally:

Followed by Segarl on Twitter

Segarl's almost empty twitter is seen

he follows several variants of the spelling of “Steadimen” (and also a certain Allan with numbers) at once, and only one steadimen is active (just the same one that was identified by Platon Mamatov as Zykov Sergey Arlenovich), the rest are empty. This is from 2010.

In my opinion, the connection between steady_man and sergarl can be considered proven.



Step 4. We are looking for people on whom the physicist / mathematician Sergei Zykov is dependent in Italy.

So, we continue to search in Italy for Sergey Zykov, who has a mathematical education and worked at the Institute of Metal Physics. the possible goal of such an event is to go to the physical location of Sergey Zykov Arlenovich and, if possible, find his weak points.

Detected > here is a document < - report of a certain Sergey Zykov at the University of Universita del Salento

What can be seen from it:

- a list of people with whom Sergey Zykov works together at the department (in the department) of physics, and their place of work:

- telephone, email and name of secretary for which the name "Sergey Zykov from the Department of Physics" is not empty sounds:

gianna.debonis@le.infn.it
+39.0832.297463

- sample of the signature of Sergey Zykov

- topics of Zykov’s work in Italy

Name and coordinates of the person’s immediate superior on the administrative line:

Professor Armando BLANCO

armando.blanco@unisalento.it

Dipartimento di fisica
+39 0832 29 7468
+39 0832 29 7475
+39 0832 29 7479


University of Salento - Professor Luigi Martina
SISSA - Trieste, Professor Boris Dubrovin
Moscow State University - Professor Maxim Pavlov

All of them are public people, so finding out from them whether this is Sergey Zykov that interests us (i.e., the person who, as Platon Mamatov established, has been hiding under the nickname steady-man for a long time) will not be difficult, in my opinion sight.

During verification activities (if carried out in reality), it will undoubtedly be revealed whether it is Sergey Zykov or not.
If not, then the person whom they will come to as a result, with a high degree of probability, knows how to find the right Sergei Zykov.

Although the probability of error, in my opinion, is rather small: there are not so many Sergeyev Zykovs in Italy who are engaged in mathematics and physics.
Additionally, you can go over the topics shown in the report and compare: is it consonant with what Zykov did in Yekaterinburg at the Institute of Metal Physics. It is better to do this with the help of specialists.


Well, the university itself - here it is (there are phones too, if that)
[DLMURL] https://www.unisalento.it/ [/ DLMURL]

Google Maps Address:

Universita del Salento
Piazza Tancredi, 7, 73100 Lecce, Italy
+39 0832 291111

Google maps



Step 5. We go to the positions from which you can begin to work (if necessary) with the social environment of Mr. Zykov Sergey Arlenovich

He asked Mr. Zykov whether he knew such people as Luigi Martina, Boris Dubrovin, Maxim Pavlov? At the time of writing (and a day after the question was asked) there was no answer, although Sergei Zykov went to his blog and actively communicated in it.

We look for ourselves - how to find these people.

Mr. Zykov from an Italian university, had a job in 2010-2011 with professors Boris Dubrovin and Maxim Pavlov.

So the respected professor Dubrovin included this work in the list of publications:

"Dubrovin B.A., Pavlov M.V., Zykov S.A. Weakly non-linear partial differential Hamiltonian equations and a new class of solutions of the WDVV associativity equations. Functional analysis and its adj., 45: 4 (2011)"


You see - a certain Zykov S.A. (Zykov Sergey Arlenovich?) Took part. And also something about analysis and mathematics (alas, on my own I can’t evaluate how much this is about the same thing, but I don’t need to call understanding people yet)


And there it says that this is all "publication of laboratory staff on the topic of the grant"
And there are already coordinates in Moscow (you can also go with your legs, if anything, and write a letter):

Laboratory: Moscow, Lenin Hills, 2nd humanitarian building, auditorium 456
Seminar audience: Moscow, Lenin Hills, 2nd humanitarian building, auditorium 442
Postal address: 119991, Moscow, Lenin Hills, Main Building of Moscow State University, Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, Laboratory of Geometric Methods of Mathematical Physics.
Email: dubrovinlab@gmail.com

And so, in my opinion, it is indirectly possible to verify that the theme of Sergei Arlenovich Zykov coincides with the theme of "Zykov S. A." in the article.

The article is called "Weakly nonlinear Hamiltonian partial differential equations and a new class of solutions of the WDVV associativity equations. Functional analysis and its adj.,"

I made such a request in Google:

"Sergey Arlenovich" Hamiltonian equations

In my opinion, it turned out quite clearly. Of course, it’s better to deal with the specialist, but the words you are looking for are at least constantly located nearby.

General conclusions that I made at the time of the release of materials with the case on the deanonymization of LJ user steady_man.


1. The anonymity of nickname steady_man, thanks to the skillful actions of Plato Mamatov (kaisi), has been lost

2. Prerequisites have been created for seriously compromising the positions of Mr. Zykov in Italy and in his usual circles - since there is a possibility that his scientific community will not approve of his political activity. Not even so much in essence as in form.
In such cases, the contrast between the “raised boy” and the “impudent foul language” may be too strong. And steady_man has created abundant materials to illustrate this phenomenon during anonymous communication.

3. Scientists working with Mr. Zykov work on a grant from the Government of the Russian Federation received in 2010. This fact can play an additional role in the fate of Mr. Zykov - if he decides to go into conflict with this very government and with active users of the Network

In general, if desired, from these positions it is possible to deploy fairly effective effects on the enemy. I clarify: if it is necessary for someone. My research is theoretical. Anyway, bye.

Mr. Zykov himself, at least, has already begun to understand that all this, as he put it "accidentally provoked himself" . There, you look, and you will understand that it is not always useful to translate theoretical cases into practical developments. I am always glad to see how conscience and adequacy wake up in people. It is a pity, however, that this awakening often has to help.

As new information becomes available, I will do updates.



Yushchuk Evgeny Leonidovich,
Professor of Ural State Economic University-Synkh, Specialist of Competitive Intelligence
01/28/2012

UPDATED 01/29/2012
In connection with this case, a number of readers have a question: is this collection and analysis of information not a violation of the Law of the Russian Federation "On Personal Data"? In this case, I recall, the person involved repeatedly asked him to deanonymize. However, it is clear that the question is also more general in nature, concerns, in principle, such studies.

The answer was given at the Forum of the Community of Practitioners of Competitive Intelligence Alex Toparenko, one of the best Russian specialists in personal data and trade secrets:

"We look at the revised edition after July 25, 2011:

Section 6. Conditions for the processing of personal data
1. The processing of personal data must be carried out in compliance with the principles and rules provided for by this Federal Law. The processing of personal data is allowed in the following cases:

10) the processing of personal data is carried out, access to an unlimited circle of persons to which is provided by the subject of personal data or at his request (hereinafter - personal data made publicly available by the subject of personal data);


T.ch. generalization of PD disclosed by the subject on the Web and their analysis will not be a violation "

 

[Бедеров Игорь Сергеевич]

Super. I was guided by your case. I needed to track down the scam debtor. A search in the left companies yielded nothing, all the phones turned out to be left, there were no addresses.

Found, funny to say, on the announcement of the sale of a car. I made an appointment and handed over to the customer all the relevant data: place of residence, phone, work, etc.

 

[Матушкин Андрей Николаевич]

Thank.
Very interesting.

 

[Гудимов Анатолий Геннадиевич]

Sometimes I want such materials to be more widely distributed - I hope that rudeness and vulgarity in the network will be less

 

[Ющук Евгений Леонидович]

Super. I was guided by your case. I needed to track down the scam debtor. A search in the left companies yielded nothing, all the phones turned out to be left, there were no addresses.

Found, funny to say, on the announcement of the sale of a car. I made an appointment and handed over to the customer all the relevant data: place of residence, phone, work, etc.

Thank. Interesting.
Yes - pulling a person into real life by his own declaration is a frequent and rather successful practice. He himself advertised, so he does not feel an “ambush”.

 

[Бедеров Игорь Сергеевич]

Super. I was guided by your case. I needed to track down the scam debtor. A search in the left companies yielded nothing, all the phones turned out to be left, there were no addresses.

Found, funny to say, on the announcement of the sale of a car. I made an appointment and handed over to the customer all the relevant data: place of residence, phone, work, etc.

Thank. Interesting.
Yes - pulling a person into real life by his own declaration is a frequent and rather successful practice. He himself advertised, so he does not feel an “ambush”.

It is interesting that almost by accident by the number of the car in the photo, an ad was found. When the other methods of the result have not given.
Tell me, is there software for analyzing data in photos or searching for data in photos posted on the network?

 

[Ющук Евгений Леонидович]

It is interesting that almost by accident by the number of the car in the photo, an ad was found. When the other methods of the result have not given.

Well, what is this an accident? This is precisely the system - when if one tool does not find the answer to the question, another can find it. This is what distinguishes system work from unsystematic.

Tell me, is there software for analyzing data in photos or searching for data in photos posted on the network?

Search for photos - yes. Or what interests you?

 

[Бюро Рысь]

It was interesting! I do it myself, the Internet is generally a great storehouse of information, you just need to read it correctly and know where and how to look, especially between the lines.

 

[Бедеров Игорь Сергеевич]

Search for photos - yes. Or what interests you?

Read, for example, the car number from the picture and look for it. Or, conversely, by a given search, search not only text, but also image analysis

 

[Марат]

Thanks, interesting! There were orders when it seemed to us in the process of execution that we were at a dead end. Rescued information obtained from the Internet. An insignificant at first glance clue can ultimately lead to the solution of the task.