Orasecure owner admits fake Oracle expert

In this eWeek article, Ed Haskins admits using fake Oracle experts to stimulate sales from Oracle professionals on his web site www.orasecure.com:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1729523,00.asp

As we noted in earlier new tips, Oracle professionals have been receiving spam from someone claiming to be "Robert Allen", a noted Oracle security expert (see spam below). The eWeek investigator says that Ed Haskins admits that he invented Oracle security expert Robert Allen:

Haskins admitted that Allen, represented as having "over nine years of trial-and-error from painstaking research" and now acknowledged as "a promising top expert in the field of Oracle database security," is in fact a figment of his imagination. "There is no Robert Allen," he said. "It's a marketing figure.

In the article, a business attorney says that Haskins acts are illegal at both state and Federal levels:

The New Jersey Attorney General's office declined to state whether it is investigating Haskins. Haskins' activities are clearly illegal, though, according to Andrew August, a business attorney and principal partner of San Francisco-based Pinnacle Law Group LLP.

"What he's doing is clearly illegal under a potpourri of federal and state statutory schemes," August said. That includes laws such as the CAN-SPAM Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act.

Below is the spam from Ed Haskins, posing as Robert Allen, as sent to an Oracle professional:

From: Robert Allen - Oracle Security Consultant <reply@orasecure.com>
Subject: I recorded it incase you missed it
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 16:40:28 +0000

Hi. I just wanted to send you a quick note to inform you that my "Hack-Proofing the Oracle Database" online class sold out in less than 48 hours.

Many of you have been calling my office to ask when the next course will be offered, but unfortunately I'm booked for security consulting assignments straight through March, 2005.

But I do have some good news however...

I recorded my entire "Hack-Proofing the Oracle Database" onto 5 digital video CD-ROMs; and I even had the course workbook printed up.

I have 100 copies of this package available if you're interested. You can get all the info on this package here:

http://www.orasecure.com/hackproof/hackproof_cdrom.html

Thanks for your time,
Robert Allen
Senior Oracle Security Consultant
OraSecure, Inc

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