Telecom/1996-04-telecom-walnutcreek.iso/security-fraud/war.on.computer.crime

Text File | 1990-09-12 | 15KB | 335 lines

THIS APPEARED ORIGINALLY IN COMPUTER UNDERGROUND DIGEST, VOLUME 2 ISSUE 2

ANOTHER ARTICLE BY JOE ABERNATHY ABOUT THE INTERNET IS LOCATED IN THE
MAIN DIRECTORY OF TELECOM ARCHIVES UNDER THE TITLE
'ABERNATHY.INTERNET.STORY' .


Date: Wed, 5 Sep 90 19:29:47 CDT
From: [e-mail](Joe Abernathy)
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Text of chron-sundevil article


War on computer crime
waged with search, seizure


By JOE ABERNATHY
Houston Chronicle

            The government's first assault on computer crime, un-
veiled with fanfare six months ago, has generated  few  criminal
cases  and  is  drawing allegations that federal agents are using
heavy-handed tactics.

   Although only four people  have  been  charged,  searches  and
seizures  have  been conducted in at least 44 homes or businesses
in the crackdown, called Operation Sun Devil.

   One prosecutor attributed the delay in  filing  cases  to  the
vast amount of information that must be sorted. Authorities would
not say, however, when or if  additional  charges  might  be  re-
turned.

   Sun Devil, so named because it began in Arizona and  targeted
an  evil  that  investigators deemed biblical in stature, is held
forth as a sophisticated defense of the nation's computer  in-
frastructure.  Computer-related  abuses  will cost the nation's
business community $500 million this year, according to some esti
mates.

   Operation Sun Devil and several  related  investigations  made
public in March have been under way for more than two years. Hun-
dreds of agents from the Secret Service, U.S. attorney's  office,
the  Bell  companies,  and assorted law enforcement agencies are
involved.

   But the operation  is  coming  under  fire  for  what  critics
describe  as  unjustified  searches  and seizures of property and
electronic information protected by the Constitution.

   Among examples they cite:

   * An Austin publishing house  is  clinging  to  life  after
Secret  Service  agents  confiscated  equipment  and manuscripts,
leaving behind an unsigned search warrant.
   * A Missouri college student faces an extra year in  school
and  $100,000  in legal fees after defending himself from charges
that he stole a proprietary document from the telephone  company
by publishing it in a newsletter.
   * The wife and children of a Baltimore corporate  computer
consultant were detained for six hours while he was interrogated
in a locked bedroom and his business equipment  was  confiscated.
With  no  way  to support itself, the family has sunk into pover-
ty.

   At a press conference in March, authorities presented Sun  De-
vil as a full-scale response to a serious criminal threat.

   "The United States Secret Service, in cooperation with the  Un-
ited  States  attorney's  office and the attorney general for the
state of Arizona, established an operation utilizing sophisticat-
ed investigative techniques,'' a press release said, adding that
40 computers and 23,000 data disks had been seized in the initial
sweep.

   "The conceivable criminal violations of  this  operation  have
serious implications for the health and welfare of all individu-
als, corporations, and United States government agencies relying
on computers and telephones to communicate,'' it continued.

   Six months later, most officials are silent about  Sun  Devil.
But  at  least  one  principal  denies excesses in the operation.

    "I  am  not  a  mad  dog prosecutor,''  said  Gail
Thackeray, assistant attorney general for the state of Arizona
and the  intellectual  parent  of  Operation  Sun  Devil.
"(Agents) are acting in good faith, and I don't think that can be
said of the hacker community.

   "Over the last couple of years, a lot of us in different places
--  state,  federal  and  local  -- have been getting hit with a
dramatic increase in complaints from computer hacker victims.  So
in  response to that the Secret Service started the Sun Devil in-
vestigation trying to find a more effective way to deal with some
of this.''

   Thackeray said the Secret  Service,  an  agency  of  the  U.S.
Treasury  Department,  assumed  jurisdiction  because computer
crime often involves financial fraud. Most of the losses are  at-
tributed to stolen long distance service.

   "It's not unusual for hackers to reach six figures  (of abuse)
in  one  month''  at  a  single business location, she said. "This
whole mess is getting completely out of hand.''

   But computer experts critical of Sun Devil contend the  opera-
tion  also is out of hand. They have rallied behind the banner of
the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which contends that computer
networks represent a fundamentally new realm of self-expression
into which constitutional protection must be extended.

   Some visitors to this realm deem it cyberspace,  using  termi-
nology borrowed from a science fiction genre set in a gritty fu-
ture in which computer and telephone lines become extensions  of
one's intellect and even physical being.

   Hackers, as those who enter others' computers without authori-
zation are known, are referred to as cyberpunks by some computer
network users.

   It may have been this connection that drew the Secret  Service
to  the  Austin  offices of Steve Jackson Games, which early this
spring  was  about  to  publish  something  called  "GURPS Cyber-
punk."

   It is a rule book for a role-playing adventure along the lines
of Dungeons & Dragons, played with dice and not computers.

   The cover page, however, credits the Legion of Doom,  a  self-
professed underground hackers group, for assistance in providing
realism. The  game's  author  admits  discoursing  with  the  Le-
gion.

   This link ensnared the company in the  nationwide  sweep  con-
ducted  March  1, when 27 search warrants were executed in 14 ci-
ties. A number of cases targeted members of the Legion.

   The  Secret  Service  seized  all  copies  of  the   Cyberpunk
manuscript, along with the computers on which it was being stored
prior to publication.

   "One of the Secret Service agents told Steve Jackson that they
thought  the  book  was  a  handbook  for computer crime,'' said
Sharon Beckman of the Boston firm Silverglate &  Good,  Jackson's
attorney.  "It looks like what (this) was, in effect, was a prior
restraint on protected speech,  speech  protected  by  the  First
Amendment.''

   Jackson's company, which had revenues  of  $1.4  million  in
1989, was nearly dealt a death blow by the raid. Cyberpunk was to
be its main spring release, but it would  have  to  be  rewritten
from  scratch. Jackson was not allowed access to the reams of in-
formation stored on the confiscated equipment.

   "We had to lay off eight people, and we had to cut way back on
the  number  of  products we were producing,'' said Jackson, who
put the cost of the raid at $125,000. That doesn't  include  lost
revenues, "or  the  value to the company of the eight (of 17) em-
ployees we had to lay off, because I don't know where to start to
put a value on that.''

   Beckman described her client as an  ordinary  businessman  who
uses a computer in his business. "He's not a computer hacker. He's
not even a particularly sophisticated computer user,'' she  said.

   "It was terrifying,'' Jackson recal ed. "I was in the hands of
a  lot of keen, earnest, sincere people who had no idea what they
were doing and who had federal law enforcement powers.

 "It's frightening that they can do this to innocent people.''
  No charges have been filed.

   Some of the equipment has been returned, but some was  damaged
beyond  repair.  Jackson  said  agents recently acknowledged that
some equipment indeed is gone forever.

   The Secret Service, Arizona U.S. attorney's office and Justice
Department  all  refused to discuss any specifics of Jackson's
case, or any activities associated with Operation Sun Devil.

  "We're a very efficient organization, and we follow  the  guide-
lines  set  forth by the law,'' said Michael Cleary, assistant to
the special agent in charge of the  Secret  Service  in  Chicago,
which  has  jurisdiction  in the case. "If we have a signed, sworn
affidavit, and a search warrant, we execute that warrant.''

   Cleary wouldn't say why the search warrant used against  Steve
Jackson was not signed. A request by Jackson's attorney for more
information went unanswered.

   Beckman said a raid conducted without a signed warrant  would
violate  Fourth  Amendment  protection against unwarranted search
and seizure.

   Mike Hurst, a Steve Jackson Games editor who lost his  job  to
the  raid  on the company, offered bitter advice: "The Secret Ser-
vice ought to make some attempt to find out if there's actually a
case  involved  before  they  begin searches and confiscations of
property.''

   In one incident, the government did file a case, only to aban-
don it when it fell apart in court. The defendant, Craig Neidorf,
is going back to college at  the  University  of  Missouri  this
fall,  but  his  reputation is stained, he's having to repeat his
senior year, and he's $100,000 in debt.

   An intrusion into the computers of  Bell  South  by  a  Legion
member  in 1988 set off much of the activity in Operation Sun De-
vil, including the case against Neidorf.

   While in Bell South's computer, Legion  member  Robert  Riggs
found  and copied a document describing administrative aspects of
the emergency 911 system.

   Riggs and associates Franklin E. Darden Jr. and E. Grant,  all
three  of  whom  are  from  Georgia,  recently  pleaded guilty to
federal conspiracy charges and  await  sentencing.  Darden  and
Riggs  face  up  to  5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Grant
faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

   Neidorf, publisher of Phrack, a newsletter  for  hackers,  was
accused  of  theft  for  republishing  the 911 document stolen by
Riggs. Prosecutors stopped the trial after  the  document  was
shown to be freely available.

   His case received widespread coverage because it  raised  is-
sues  of  free  speech.  Phrack was published electronically via
computer networks instead of on paper, and thus did  not  immedi-
ately  receive  the  First  Amendment  protection that virtually
would have been assured a paper document, according to  Sheldon
Zenner, Neidorf's attorney.

   "Going through this last seven months is not something I would
wish on my worst enemy,'' said Neidorf, 20, who faced 31 years in
prison. "It devastated my parents. My  grandparents, they  didn't
take it well. They're in their 80s.

   "I kind of broke down myself at one point. I don't like to talk
about it exactly.''

    Leonard Rose, a computer consultant in  Baltimore,  let  the
Legion forward network mail through his computer, an everyday ar-
rangement on the sprawling Internet research and  education  net-
work.  But  because  the  name  of  his  computer appeared in the
group's electronic address, he was portrayed by the government as
the mastermind of the group.

   "I've lost everything because of it,'' he said.  Business con-
tracts worth $100,000 a year, $70,000 worth of computer equipment
used in his business, his top secret clearance, his wife's  dream
home,  their  credit  rating, cars, are gone. The Roses now live
with their two young children in an apartment furnished with  two
mattresses and a TV.

  "I used to look at people in the street and I  couldn't  under-
stand  how  they  could get there,'' Rose said. "I couldn't under-
stand how you could sink that low, but now I understand. I under-
stand a lot more now.''

   He was never charged as part of the Legion of Doom  investiga-
tion,  but during that probe he was found to have received an il-
licit copy of a computer  program  that  must  be  licensed  from
AT&T.

   "What Len Rose is accused of turns software piracy into a felo-
ny,''  said John Perry Barlow, a co-founder of the Frontier Foun-
dation. "If the government is prepared to go out and turn  every-
body  who has engaged in software piracy into a felon, it'll make
the war on drugs look like a minor undertaking.''

   Detractors say  that  the  investigative  techniques  used  in
Operation  Sun Devil are at best rude, at worst illegal. Authori-
ties respond that they are adjusting to a new world.

   Most concerns center on bulletin  board  systems,  a  frequent
point of access into the nation's computer network byways. Locals
call the BBS, which then moves private electronic mail and  pub-
lic  messages  into the public networks, which as a whole are re-
ferred to as Internet or simply the matrix.

   "The government is seizing electronic mail like crazy, in  the
sense  that  it's  seizing BBS's and all their contents,'' Barlow
said. "It's the equivalent of seizing post offices and  all their
contents.''

   The privacy of electronic mail is protected under the Computer
Fraud  and Abuse Act of 1986, which is also the law setting forth
most of the conditions under which computer hacking can  be  con-
sidered a crime.

    "We've seized lots of BBS's,'' acknowledged Thackeray of  the
Arizona  attorney  general's  office, although search warrants
were obtained only for the owner of each computer, not for  each
person with electronic mail stored on that computer.

   Benjamin Wright, a Dallas attorney  who  writes  and  lectures
frequently on electronic data interchange, said that surveillance
of electronic mail poses serious questions  even  when  conducted
properly under the supervision of a court.

   "A huge amount of information could build up, so there could be
a great mass of information laying at the government's feet,'' he
said. "To tap into all the phone lines of a corporation would be a
lot  of work, but if there's this database building up of a large
part of a company's business, then there's a reason for  being  a
little bit concerned.

   "This applies to private people as much as it applies  to  cor-
porations.''
   Authorities see the BBS seizures as preventive medicine.

   "The only thing I have ever found that has an effect  on these
kids is to take their computer away,'' Thackeray said. "It final-
ly sinks in, 'I'm really not going to get this back.' ''

   But Barlow criticizes that  approach.  "Essentially  what they
have  done is to fine (the suspect), without conviction, for the
entire value of his  property,''  he  said.  "They're  not making
arrests.  This  is  turning the whole search and seizure into the
punishment.''

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The preceding appeared Sunday, 9/2/90, on the front page
of the Houston Chronicle.

Please send comments to: [e-mail]


ANOTHER ARTICLE ON THE INTERNET BY JOE ABERNATHY IS LOCATED IN THE
MAIN TELECOM-ARCHIVES DIRECTORY UNDER THE TITLE 'ABERNATHY.INTERNET.STORY'