As the world’s leading distributor of millions of otherwise ‘paywalled’ research papers, Sci-Hub is often described as “The Pirate Bay of Science”.

At the same time as being loved by many academics and students, Sci-Hub has become public enemy #1 in publishing circles, with the major academic publishers doing everything in their power to shut the platform down, hinder access to it, and prevent its operator from communicating with the world.

A large proportion of that action has taken place via various lawsuits, including one currently pending in India, but other platforms have taken action too. In the UK, for example, a new blocking injunction was quietly passed early this year at the behest of Elsevier and Springer Nature and, in January, it was revealed that Twitter had suspended the official Sci-Hub account.

Sci-Hub Under Fire From Law Enforcement Too

In March, law enforcement in the UK also took the unusual step of warning students not to use Sci-Hub, “as doing so could pose a threat to their personal information and devices.” Now, however, it is Sci-Hub founder Alexandra Elbakyan herself who may be having her personal data compromised.

In a message posted to her personal Twitter account, which is not currently subject to a suspension, Elbakyan draws attention to an email she received to one of her accounts operated by Google.

“At first I thought it was spam and was about to delete the email, but it turned out to be about FBI requesting my data from Apple,” she writes.

As the email reveals, the apparent request to access the data from Elbakyan’s account dates back more than two years but due to its nature, Apple has only just been able to reveal its existence to the Sci-Hub founder. What this is about, however, remains unclear but perhaps the more pressing question is whether it is a genuine email from Apple.

Genuine or Elaborate Fake?

The email’s authenticity (or otherwise) has indeed been considered by Elbakyan who says that after examining the metadata, has concluded that “it is too complicated and useless to be a spoof.” Indeed, the Sci-Hub founder also posted the email’s headers which at first blush do suggest that the email is genuine.

Of course, nothing is really cast in stone as far as faked emails go and scammers are known to go to extreme lengths to masquerade as a third party. That being said, if the email is a fake it makes no effort to phish or indeed do anything else other than advise Elbakyan that her account data has been accessed by the FBI. As scam emails go, the damage rating is relatively low.

Also, the email appears in exactly the same format as others of the same nature reportedly sent by Apple to advise users of law enforcement activity on their accounts (1,2). Cut and pasting is trivial, of course, but given that the email makes no attempt at being anything other than advisory, the balance does shift a little more towards authenticity.

According to the Sci-Hub founder, the Gmail account associated with her Apple account (and from where she received the email) was registered by her a “long time ago” when she “was at school perhaps.” However, a cursory Google search reveals that the address is public knowledge and has been associated with Elbakyan for many years, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that someone is having ‘fun’ at her expense.

Justice Department is Investigating Elbakyan

In December 2019, the Washington Post reported that Elbakyan was being investigated by the US Justice Department on suspicion that she “may” be working with Russian intelligence to “steal U.S. military secrets from defense contractors.”

No evidence to support that claim was published beyond allegations that she has been involved in collecting log-in credentials from journal subscribers in order to access academic literature, presumably so that it can be offered on Sci-Hub. For her part, Elbakyan denied the more sinister allegations.

“I know there are some reasons to suspect me: after all, I have education in computer security and was a hobby hacker in teenage years,” Elbakyan told The Washington Post.

“But hacking is not my occupation, and I do not have any job within any intelligence, either Russian or some another,” she added, noting that while the connections to Russia are “logical”, Sci-Hub has always been her personal project and is not associated with anything more nefarious.

FBI Has Gained Access to Sci-Hub Founder’s Apple Account, Email Claims