Cheet-Sheets.com Owner Pleads Guilty; May Face Jail Time
8/27/2002 -- Oregon resident Robert R. Keppel, owner of the now-defunct braindump Web sites Cheet-Sheets.com and CheetSheets.com, pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to a charge of theft of trade secrets, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1832(a)(2).
The charge resulted from allegations made by Microsoft that Keppel was selling questions and answers to Microsoft certification exams.
When he's sentenced on November 1, Keppel faces up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. He also forfeited a Lexus RX300, a 1997 Ferrari Spider and $56,000 in cash as part of a plea agreement. CertCities.com attempted to reach both Keppel and his attorney for comment, but did not receive a response before this story was posted online.
Assistant United States Attorney Annette Hayes, who prosecuted the case, said this is first application of the theft of trade secrets statute to procure a conviction within the realm of IT certification testing. In June, police in Bexar County, Texas seized the assets of TestKiller LTD and its owners citing the same felony charge, but criminal charges have not been filed in that case.
Previously, most "braindump" cases were pursued in civil court, citing copyright and trademark violations. "The [theft of trade secrets] statute is not that old... which is probably why there hasn't been many [criminal cases of this type]. But there's nothing unique about this case," said Hayes. "We picked this statute because it was the one that applied."
According to Microsoft, the case began when the company received allegations from customers that the content of Keen's CheetSheets contained live exam items. Microsoft made a criminal complaint to the Federal Bureau of Investigations during the summer of 2001, which turned the investigation over to its Computer Crimes Division.
In Sept. 2001, the FBI's Computer Crimes Division issued search warrants and seized the cash and cars listed above, as well as papers and other evidence. According to the government, this evidence showed that Keppel began selling the questions some time in 1999. He began buying exam questions from a source in Pakistan in January 2001, which he then incorporated into his test materials. (The government declined CertCities.com's request for the name of the Pakistan source.) Records from a NOVA credit card merchant account, opened by Keppel in July 2000, show that the business earned at least $753,633.03 while that account was active, the government said.
Hayes said that criminal charges were never filed in this case. When her office was given the case in late 2001, they initiated contact with Keppel, and eventually negotiated the guilty plea through Keppel's attorney. The government then filed a Statement of Information with the court on August 8, paving the way for Keppel to enter his plea on Friday.
Hayes told CertCities.com that her office will make sentencing recommendations in late October. According to Hayes, Keppel is currently out on "pre-trial" release.
"I think it's important to note that the government is pursuing these types of cases and we will continue to do so," said Hayes.
Word of the plea spread over the weekend after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published a short news story online.
"I was ecstatic when I heard the news," said Craig Callaway, president of Self Test Software. "Yes, it's good for [test question] vendors like us, but this is really about the industry as a whole. There's got to be a concerted effort to protect the integrity of certification."
"[This plea] will raise awareness of this problem," said Robert Pedigo, executive director of the Information Technology Certification Security Council, an industry organization that works to preserve the integrity of IT certification exams. "It is probably fair to take this as a shot across the bow of anyone who is attempting to cheat."
Pedigo said that certification vendors are working on improving exam security through a variety of means, including tighter nondisclosure agreements, greater scrutiny of testing centers and legal action, but they are also looking to the certified community for help. "This is an active concern that every single person who holds a certificate should bear in mind. By becoming certified, one is a member of a professional group. And it's important that one defend the integrity of that group."
The owner of one braindump site who wished to remain anonymous told CertCities.com that the plea was not that big a concern. Unlike CheetSheets.com, which commercially packaged live exam items, the source explained that most braindump sites are free collections of thousands of questions submitted by end users. "There's a big difference between looking at 150 screenshots [of actual] questions and poring through a thousand questions -- you can't memorize a thousand questions," the source said. "I think the certification programs realize this."
Even so, the source added that this case may influence his/her site: "I'm thinking of moving away from actual questions and more toward study guides."  - B.N.
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There are 142  user Comments for “Cheet-Sheets.com Owner Pleads Guilty; May Face Jail Time”
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| 8/28/02: T from Your Momma says: |
Hey gary from UK, shut your fat mouth. |
| 8/28/02: Why bother trying from UK says: |
In the last 2 years I have seen fellow peers pass exams for programs that they haven't even used. Most of them haven't got jobs yet which does mean something at least. I have 2 of CompTIA's exams and found their exams to be more thorough and rewarding than MS. I have my MCSD but have put off studying for the full MCSE ( I have 2 credits thus far) due to the lack of recognition it holds. I admit to using braindumps for MS exams but I used hard work and real-life experience for the CompTIA exams and my knowledge is still holding up. If people want to cheat their way through, let them, but we all know which vendors produce the most relevant exams and it ain't MS! |
| 8/28/02: annon says: |
ok sure selling this stuff is unethical and the people that disclosed the informations should be decertified , but the people who used them to study should'nt get bothered with it . as i see it , since i did fail two exams at a couple points close ,had to take them over and found myself in front of a totally different exam , this was in the early days of the W2k mcse cursus ( i got a early achiever card for this) , at the time there was no study material , books were'nt even published yet , i also had to take all design exams because there was no electives for the W2k family of products yet , at the time i found the question base was pretty large since i had to re-take the security design exam and found myself in front of a totally different exam . also i'd like to point out the fact that the complexity of the exam dropped dramatically after MS discovered they did'nt get half of the certs the envisionned , then they gave up on killing a cert that was 6 years old and refused to differenciate certified personel based on product. The net result is an extreme confusion in this certification , some got it hard , some got it easy , some pose as W2k experts when they have studied NT4 , this confusion is also very real in "MS approuved study material" some are so far from the actual exam that you could be reading gone with the wind or the bible to get the same result , some others are so close to the real exam that it is clearly a breach of contract (i've reviewed some material from a colleague a year aftfer i've cert and he received at a prometrics class among all he got the testkiller material straight from the teacher , but the teacher did point out to his class he was there to get them to pass the exam , not understand the material , now this is prometric , one of two microsoft approved test providers ...... am i still going to be able to take test at prometrics in a year ...... of course (grin)). of course this is all about money MS is suing the ones they dont get a dime from , if they really want to make a difference they should provide classes and material that is a) affordable for general public ( by that i mean a CTEC class at 2000$ is highway robbery) b) controlled material(and by that i mean close all the companies providing words to words cheats , including the ones present on the MS friends list like prometric or trancender) c) keep the difficulty to tecnical aspects , not reading skills or what a CEO think is best for his corporate network ( sorry but this is a technical job not a CEO ' s job) and finally make sure they have a broad enough question base that will be too long to memorise , and renew these question base regularly basis (i.e weeks not years). the first culprid in this story is the company that permits the cheating and proliferation of cheating sites , i defenetly dont believe this material is comming from people taking the exams ( how could you remember word to word questions answers and correct answer after taking an exam ...... seriously , this is an inside job either inside microsoft or a testing center ) , i am far from convinced that testing centers enforce the regulation equallly all over the world. sure there are a few that actually memorised this material , stayed in the exam 15 min because they correctly answered the heavilly weighted questions and got a paper cert , but there are also others that used this materail along with other material and still worked for their achievement. on another view since this kind of material is also available for cisco and other constructor i would look at the testing companies a little closer |
| 8/28/02: MCSD, MCT from Poconos, PA says: |
I would like to make the following points: 1. Unless the tests have changed in the past year, I find them a moneysucking scheme to make people think you actually know something. Every test I have taken, I have found practically stupid and anal about things that have taken up less than 2% of my programming career. They don't test competence. They test how well you know Microsoft's Bible of Right and Wrong. 2. I would rather hire someone with a college education and a Computer Science degree instead of someone with 20 acronyms behind their name. 3. Most of the stupid stuff on these tests, you would look up in the real world anyway. So you can memorize books and make yourself feel good, big deal. I can teach a monkey to read and take tests too. 4. This whole certification process favors people who can take written multiple choice exams. Not everyone can do that very well. 5. A lot of the questions are contrived and a matter of opinion and not fact. I have taken several Microsoft exams and a few of them I've failed, but in those cases, I failed those exams because I didn't follow Microsoft's Philosophy of programming--does that make me wrong? NO. Programming is an art as much as it is a science. 6. I find it highly ironic that the biggest pirate in the United States is pissed that little people are doing nothing more than following their philosophy. It's funny how no one talks about the issues of our consumer right to privacy and the unethical ways Microsoft works. It's amazing to me how their big legal battle just fizzled out with them feeling no ill effects. Must be nice to be rich and beat us all over the head and steal from our pocketbooks with overpriced, substandard products that work correctly every second or third release. I have two certifications and they are worth as much to me as the garbage down in the backyard. They haven't improved my life at all. The certification process as a whole is a load of crap that just proves that some people can memorize computer trivia and take tests better than other people. In the real world, I have yet to see real meaning to it other than you get to write some letters behind your name. Most companies I know say oh and MCSE or ooh an MCSD and then test the hell out of you anyway. I find them to be more of an ego trip than anything else for most people. I have two of them and they don't mean shit to me. I have them because my boss asked me to get them. Has it changed my job? No. Did I get more money? NO. Big deal... |
| 8/28/02: Greg from Chicago says: |
I don't see what Microsoft is so upset about. If they cared that much perhaps they should write new test questions more than once every two years. Besides, US Copyright Law applies to just that -- the United States. I can think of five or six websites off the top of my head hosted in other countries that post actual exam questions for a price. If Microsoft is truly serious about the skills of its professionals, then they should go the Cisco route, eliminate multiple choice exams and introduce monitored Lab based exams, where you are given a problem, and you have a set amount of time to identify the cause and fix it. Otherwise, there will be paper MCSEs forever. |
| 8/28/02: Concerned English from Surrey says: |
Either you study hard for years or learn the answers to the questions. If you cheat you feel much more reward because you get lots of return for little investment and effort. I also enjoy stealing from single old ladies and changing price tags in shops. |
| 8/28/02: Quitcherbichin says: |
I suspect that the majority of people whining and complaining about Microsoft are also the same people bought into all the hype that if you got an IT certification, you would instantly have people pounding on your door, begging to hire you for ridiculous amounts of money. If you don't have experience, certification is a way to help get your foot in the door. It is an opportunity to really study and learn about the software in depth. What I learned studying for the SQL Server exams really has helped me in my day to day activies, and the Microsoft and Oracle certifications did help in me getting the job I have now. I think the people who want to blame all their problems on Microsoft (or Sun or Novell, etc) should probably re-evaluate what they really want to do in life - IT may not be the right career path for them, especially if they only got into it for the money in the first place. |
| 8/28/02: Don from Miami says: |
Let me share my 2 cents. The guy will be fined for u$250K, He collected over u$750K. Won't this kind of numbers make more people try to do this stuff? I mean: I cheat, I collect, I plead guilty, I "pay" one third of what I collected... I go on with my life and a full pocket... |
| 8/28/02: GARBOT from Stuttgart says: |
The amazing part of this is that almost of the people writing in are talking about MS tests, not CISCO. I have an A+, Network+, MCP, MCSA, and a CCNA. Guess one is the more valuable? CISCO! CISCO tests have performance- based questions. Never used a CLI? Can't subnet? Don't know how to hook-up a router? Not gonna pass a CISCO test. Braindumps, study guides, TK are all helpful to learn the material, but you have to have the practical experience using and installing the product. Meeting someone who is an "MCP" by having passed the 210 exam with a whopping 540 or above just hurts the value of the program. |
| 8/28/02: Rob from Atlanta, GA says: |
I think something needs to be done about Microsoft's exam format. The questions on the exam should relate to the subject of the exam. It seems to me, that since Microsoft isn't playing fair, we can expect more examples of someone trying to beat them at their game. In other words, Microsoft needs to play fair too. I really feel that it isn't right to charge a student money to take a MCSE class, give him (or her) Microsoft's approve course material and then the questions on the exam are no where to be found in the course material. |
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