US arrests Akamai employee who it says offered to give information to foreign gov’t for $3,000

US arrests Akamai worker it says offered to spy

BOSTON — Federal authorities in Massachusetts have arrested a man who allegedly offered to be a spy for a foreign country.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said Wednesday that it arrested 42-year-old Elliot Doxer, an employee of Web content delivery company Akamai Technologies Inc., and charged him with one count of wire fraud. Doxer, who worked in Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai’s finance department, is in custody and has a status conference on Thursday in a Boston court.

Authorities said Doxer sent an e-mail to the foreign country’s consulate in June 2006, and offered to provide any information he had access to in order to help that country in exchange for $3,000.

Doxer allegedly said his main goal was “to help our homeland and our war against our enemies,” the office said in a statement. It declined to say which country Doxer wanted to help.

A U.S. federal agent went undercover and posed as an agent of that country in September 2007, and exchanged information with Doxer via a “dead drop” location. From then until March 2009, Doxer visited the drop location at least 62 times and provided an extensive list of Akamai’s customers and employees, including their full contact information, and contract details.

He also allegedly described the company’s physical and computer security systems and said he could travel to the foreign country and support special operations in his local area if needed, it said.

Akamai said in a statement Wednesday that it has been cooperating with the FBI and will continue to do so. It noted that there is no evidence that Doxer actually gave information to a foreign government.

The U.S. Attorney did not accuse the foreign government of any wrongdoing.

If convicted, Doxer faces up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.