Risky "flight sim" business

[Marvin-E34]

https://fselite.net/news/alleged-eagle- ... 6-manuals/

An alleged employee of Eagle Dynamics has been arrested for buying F-16 manuals to help with the development of the aircraft within combat flight sim DCS. According to the the Standard-Examiner, developer Oleg Mikhaylovich Tishchenko has been charged with “conspiring against the United States, smuggling and violating the Arms Export Control Act”.

The Russian national claimed to be an employee of Eagle Dynamics and had been actively purchasing manuals for USAF fighter jets through eBay. However, as he was a Russian national, the law prevented him from buying the documentation directly due to international restrictions. To combat that, Tishchenko had enlisted the help of people within the US to buy the manuals and then ship them directly to him in Russia.

The person who assisted him lived in Texas and agreed to help. In October 2011, the man sent the manuals to Tishchenko. Jokingly, the Texas man said “If I get busted can you send me a hacksaw?”. However, Tishchenko assured him that there would be no issue as the manuals were “obsolete”. It is said that the manuals contained “concise and clear instructions” for operating and maintaining F-16s.

According to the report, an investigation was launched by Homeland Security and the US Air Force. Initially, he was charged back in 2016, however, was only arrested when Tishchenko had travelled to Georgia. For those who don’t know, Georgia has an extradition agreement with the United States.

Agents on the investigation learned that between January 2012 and September 2015, Tishchenko then auctioned off the F-16 manuals to buyers across the world including Cyprus, Japan, Australia, Germany, Taiwan and the Netherlands.

In 2016, an undercover agent then posed as a buyer and contacted Tishchenko. During these chats, it became clear that Tishchenko was still acquiring new manuals. In particular, those related to the A-10, the F-16C, F-35 and F-22. He told the agent “could guarantee that these manuals will not be provided to any third party, and I think even not shown to anyone in our company.”

Eagle Dynamics has released a very brief statement on their forums suggesting that “nothing has changed” with their plans. They will issue a formal statement after they have discussed everything with their legal counsel. The full statement is below.

Given the seriousness of this situation that Eagle Dynamics got pulled into, we will later issue a formal statement after discussion with legal counsel. Until then, nothing has changed with our future plans, and there is nothing more to say on this matter until we release an official statement.

It has not been confirmed whether Oleg Mikhaylovich Tishchenko is or was an employee of Eagle Dynamics. When we contacted Eagle Dynamics for a response, we were told that the official response will be posted later today.

The man from Texas was originally charged, but had them dropped last week.

[AKar]

Sigh on these times. If someone would have said me ten years back that PC flight sim community of them all would start facing scandals, I would have guessed that he meant something on lines of uncovered webcams and leaked internet adult feeds, not stuff including mentions of "conspiring against [a nation]", "homeland security" and "extradition agreement" (yet being about stuff bought on eBay).

That said, as the convergence of real aviation and simulated aviation I've predicted for years is slowly but surely happening, it is good to recall that lots of seemingly innocent material (and knowledge) we may be in possession of can include stuff under very strict constraint of confidentiality. Be careful on what you share even via direct personal communications, for lines can be crossed almost unnoticed.

-Esa

[patful]

It has not been confirmed whether Oleg Mikhaylovich Tishchenko is or was an employee of Eagle Dynamics. When we contacted Eagle Dynamics for a response, we were told that the official response will be posted later today.

He's listed on LinkedIn as a software engineer for Eagle Dynamics, sooo...they got some 'splainin' to do.

[GunninGamerz]

A certain somebody has his tit in the ringer now! Naughty, naughty!

[AerialShorts]

There’s an update up on the fselite webpage that includes a statement from ED that disavows all knowledge of Mr. Phelps and his IM team...

Well, not exactly. But they do say he wasn’t part of the F-16 project, there’s nothing of interest or related on their servers, etc.

[Ron Attwood]

He's a Russian. It stands to reason he was up to no good.

Jus' sayin' s'all

[CAPFlyer]

This is by far not the first "scandal" that has made national or international news with regards to flight simming. One of the first was the Papa Tango / Peter Tishma airline repaint "scandal".

For those who don't remember, here's a couple of articles -

https://www.avsim.com/pages/0902/pt_again.html

https://www.avsim.com/blogs/entry/48-av ... ve-part-1/

It should be noted that Tishma even went as far as attempting to patent the concept of the Flight Simulator in 2001 in Europe. Sadly, the idea had been patented and expired many years prior, so he didn't get it, but it just shows how brazen of a man he was.

[Ian P]

And there were... three? companies that Tishma set up after Papa Tango, after declaring himself bankrupt to avoid paying developers, not once, but twice? Ariane was his last company that I'm aware of. I was told several years ago that he had no involvement with them after the initial setup, but they still seem pretty widely loathed on their own, even without that particular noose around their neck.

Additionally to the "F-16 manual" thing, however, the same guy sold on the F-16 manuals he obtained and also got far newer models' manuals sent to him, including F-35, according to a number of sources. Now. There are a number of developers here, software, 3d modelling or coders... How many of you would sell on detailed primary sources like aircraft manuals? Seriously? I don't think this guy is a developer at all.

Ian P.

[AerialShorts]

Tishma's thing was about fraud and working angles, but this case with Tishchenko is alleged to be espionage. It’s a whole other level. I tend to believe that ED was being used as plausible cover to provide a reason to access materials as well as a hook to possibly get those with access to those materials to help out. "It’s just a flight sim, and how cool to be able to fly an accurately-simulated F-22 or F-35..."

I realize there are now a range of opinions on Russia, but they have been dangerous antagonists and competitors, an enemy, for most of the time since WWII. They target us with nuclear weapons and we target them. They actively try to learn all they can about our capabilities as we do theirs to have the upper hand when/if there is ever conflict. Having the upper hand by knowing performance data or learning ways to defeat systems means Americans and our allies can die as a consequence. And you never know what bit of information might be useful.

People were recruited here to hand over information. Intelligence agencies solve puzzles. Pieces of innocuous information here and there add up and can reveal secrets. To think this or that bit isn’t important is to assume you know the whole picture of what foreign intelligence agencies have and are working on. Aggregation is a huge danger and people with access always need to be on guard to protect information. What seems like information of no consequence may be a puzzle piece others have been looking for to solve a different puzzle. Those manuals for the F-22 and F-35 are quite a prize. Those are new aircraft and those manuals probably gave up some new information. This case with Tishchenko is a cautionary tale and an unfortunate situation.

[CAPFlyer]

Actually, this has little to do with Espionage. It has everything to do with simple criminal activity. The charges laid were simply that he violated restrictions against the transfer of material to certain countries and citizens of those countries. I believe the US Government sees this guy more as a weapons dealer than a spy, but even then they don't have to prove any of that for a conviction on the charges, only that he is indeed a citizen of a country not allowed to purchase or receive the material and that he did in fact purchase or receive material in an illegal manner. What he received it for doesn't matter. The media is making it a big deal for sure, but on the scale of idiot to spy, he's much closer to the idiot end of the scale because the manuals he received, while detailed in certain areas, don't have a lot of information that would be seen as "useful" for intelligence purposes. They would only be useful if you had the actual aircraft in front of you and had the background information (i.e. how to fly a plane in general) to fill in certain blanks.

[AerialShorts]

While I have no idea the real story behind the charges, I respectfully disagree. It may have had everything to do with Espionage. The object is to appear non-threatening, inconsequential - a friend with common interests. It’s why there are aliases and cover stories. It’s classic spycraft. There is no doubt that Americans gave up manuals to a Russian. If it wasn’t a cover to get access to those materials, it sure wouldn’t have been a bad idea based on the results. The fact is that Tishchenko could just as easily have been acting for Russian intelligence as not and to dismiss the danger of espionage out of hand is naive. That ED disavows all knowledge of his actions is also odd.

The simple fact is those materials should not have found their way to Russia. If Tishchenko wasn’t working for Russian intelligence, it would be hard to argue that they would not have had easier access to those materials on their own soil.

As I said before, to assume the material isn’t valuable is to assume you know the big picture at foreign intelligence agencies. My bet is there is going to be something of value, if nothing more than verifying other sources, in those manuals.

I don’t know if Tishchenko is working for Russian intelligence or not. Maybe he is just an enthusiast like the rest of us. But there are reasons there are laws against transferring that kind of information to foreign nationals and other countries. It could be those actions compromised any number of things.

[AKar]

Actually, this has little to do with Espionage. It has everything to do with simple criminal activity.

Yes, exactly. How I read it is that the guy was actively looking for material, supposedly on Ebay, but as these were under export restrictions, he arranged someone to buy these for him. Not exactly the most...discrete way of operating, no wonder it caught someone's attention. As you said, not quite smart thing to do, to put it politely.

If something truly sensitive was publicly available and for sale, there would have been a serious document control problem happening in the first place. Simply stamping some export restrictions on a document would not prevent it from spreading out all over the www like so many such documents have (the activities supposedly took place already from 2011 to 2016). More sensitive documents are restricted in distribution, and the actual guys getting charges due to them would be the ones giving them out, not only the one who's asking to have them.

-Esa

[AerialShorts]

People have tried to sell all sorts of restricted items on ebay. Some fools try to sell their virginity, kidneys, stolen items, etc.

That people may make things available for sale says nothing about the buyer. If an opportunity presents itself, you act on it. Simply stamping export restrictions on a document is how many things are handled. How these got to somebody willing to sell them to Russians with a Russian mailing address is an issue, but it says nothing about the intentions of the buyer.

[AKar]

That people may make things available for sale says nothing about the buyer. If an opportunity presents itself, you act on it. Simply stamping export restrictions on a document is how many things are handled. How these got to somebody willing to sell them to Russians with a Russian mailing address is an issue, but it says nothing about the intentions of the buyer.

But you sure seem to assume a lot about the intentions of the buyer. Even to the point of calling them collectively "Russians", even if all we know of this far seems to point out into a single individual acting stupidly. If this was an espionage effort, I perhaps would have utilized (for example) these things called document scanners and electronic transfer, or something even slightly anonymous, instead of writing to an unknown person willing to assist me that "Hey, I'm Oleg. I do flight sims. This is my address, mind shipping me that sensitive info you've got for sale?" A free top tip to aspiring spies around! If this indeed turned out to be true espionage with state actors involved, it wouldn't even make a credible comedy.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Besides, if a fighter jet gets seriously compromised because that sensitive information gets leaked, the country's air force really deserves to be shot down. Mind you that the highly sensitive material is not distributed even to the casual operators. Tech folks and pilots should know fairly little of the most sensitive details, for example. There would not be an appendix in the flight manual of the F-22 (that you store in your locker) that shows its radar cross section measurements. Or if there was, then Jesus...

-Esa

[AerialShorts]

The Russian national claimed to be an employee of Eagle Dynamics and had been actively purchasing manuals for USAF fighter jets through eBay. However, as he was a Russian national, the law prevented him from buying the documentation directly due to international restrictions. To combat that, Tishchenko had enlisted the help of people within the US to buy the manuals and then ship them directly to him in Russia.

I see what you mean. How could I have assumed Tishchenko was a Russian?