Hacker Chronicles 1/HACKER1.ISO/cud2/cud201f.txt

Text File | 1992-09-26 | 8KB | 154 lines

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Date: August 30, 1990
From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: CU in the News

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***  CuD #2.01: File 6 of 6: The CU in the News                  ***
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Source: Computerworld, Aug. 27, 1990, pg. 6, News Shorts

"NSA Denise Killing Security Center"

The National Security Agency (NSA) last week denied a published account
that said the agency is dismantling its National Computer Security Center,
a semipublic unit of the supersecret agency that was established by the
U.S. Department of Defense in 1982 to evaluate and certify the security, or
levels of trust, of computer systems.  A spokeswoman for NSA said the
center is being restructured to align its activities more closely with
NSA's communications security work.  The move was prompted by the blurring
of distinction between telecommunications and computer systems, she said.
Patrick Gallagher will remain director of the center, and the center will
continue to meet its commitments to industry for product evaluation and
certification, the spokeswoman said.

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Source: Computerworld, Aug 20, 1990, p. 74:

"Bozhe Moy!  Hackers and viruses already plague Soviets"

There have already been computer crimes and virus attacks in the USSR.
Over the last several years, the number of incidents has appeared to
increase along with other forms of crime.

One of the earliest cases of a computer virus in the USSR occurred in 1988
when an unidentified programmer at the Gorky Automobile Works on the Volga
River was charged with deliberately using a virus to shut down an assembly
line in a dispute over work conditions.  The man was convicted under
Article 206, the so-called hooliganism law, which provides for a jail term
of up to six years for "violating public order in a coarse manner and
expressing a clear disrespect toward society."

The comments about viruses heard at a number of meetings are worth
reporting:"We are ready to meet the problem." (Moscow State University);
"Viruses come from international exchanges but some day soon come from
here." (National Academy of Economics); "The USSR recently joined Interpol.
A requirement of that organization is that member states' police
departments must ensure date security.  The result has been that the police
management has now become sensitized to that issue." (National Academy of
Economics); "On the physical side [of security], we close what needs to be
closed.  Some say that only a sentry will be sufficient." (A Soviet bank
security official); "How have we responded to viruses?  Up until now we
suffer." (Institute for Information Problems in the Information Sciences
Department of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR).

According to various Westerners, pirated software is all over the USSR, and
the Soviets often get hit with viruses when they buy these "forbidden
fruits" via the Hong Kong or Swiss connections.  A number of the 70 known
Bulgarian viruses also appear to be prevalent, along with two Soviet
strains: Victor and a variant of the Vienna virus.

According to Aryeh Goretsky at McAffee Associates, a computer security
firm, other viruses that have been confirmed by Soviet and Eastern European
antiviral programmers include the following: Yankee Doodle, Vacsina,
Microsoft88 (534), Sunday, Amstrad or Pixel, Disk Killer 170X, Stoned, Ping
Pong, Vienna, Jerusalem, Friday the 13th COM, Pakistani Brain, Disk Killer
and W-13.   Programs available to combat viruses are Aidstest by Lozynky
and Anti-Kot and Anti-Kor by Kotik.  Some Western antivirus programs and
some homegrown versions were also found at various Soviet sites.

It is noteworthy that viruses are increasing, even though a form of data
security exists in the Soviet Union.  This security is of the most basic
type:  It is largely composed of guards and locked doors restricting
access to computer rooms.

Other simple measures are used, such as limiting links between computers
and systems and access controls to files.  These measures are far from
adequate,however, given the pressure to acquire and distribute
microcomputers and to establish networks.

What makes the situation worse is the lack of trained data security
personnel, data security standards and tools, data security supports and,
in some instances (but not in others), lack of knowledge of security
techniques beyond basic approaches.

Sadly, it appears certain that there will be an onslaught of computer
crimes and virus attacks in the near future.  If (and when) perestroika can
lead to computer linkages of even a minimal sort, the types of crime and
abuse problems that have become part of life in the West will be found in
the USSR.  A mixture of homegrown hackers, outsiders and even some business
managers will create what could be a very fearful situation for the Soviet
authorities.  How they will respond to this challenge is, to a large
degree, based on what authority will be functioning in the near future.

Decisions about what information to protect and how to do it are not being
developed in the USSR today.  Unfortunately, it appears that these
decisions will be put off there as they were in the U.S. for too long.

Soviet computerists, both in state enterprises and the fledgling private
sector, can learn about information security from U.S. experiences.  The
main issue is to try to be like us while avoiding the many problems
(including security problems) that we developed in association with
computerization.

-Sanford Sherizen

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Source: Computerworld, August 20, 1990, pg. 102, Inside Lines:

When a young computer hacker broke into an unclassified computer at the
Pentagon last November, the U.S. Air Force was quick to draw a bead on him.
The Air Force's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) is the only federal
agency with a full-time staff of computer crime investigators, according
to the OSI.  There are 14 Air Force computer crime cops stationed
at air bases around the world.  The group was instrumental in tracking
down the Hannover hacker, profiled in _The Cuckoo's Egg_ by Clifford Stoll.

Talk with Soviet users

From Computerworld, August 20, 1990, pg. 74, no author.

Network connections to and from the USSR are few but growing all the time.
Some of the choices include a bulletin board that provides electronic mail
and teleconferencing with Soviet computer users called the San Francisco/
Moscow Teleport located at 3278 Sacramento St., San Francisco, Calif. 94115
[phone].  Another connection is through Peacenet via Jeff Sears,
[phone].

   A Russian text processing mailing list, Rustex-L, is also available.
It is administered by Dimitri Vulius, Department of Mathematics, City
University of New York Graduate Center, who can be contacted at
[e-mail].

   An excellent overview of Soviet technological growth is provided
in a book entitled _Chip in the Curtain: Computer Technology in the
Soviet Union_ by David A. Wellman, Washington, D.C., National Defense
University Press, 1989.  [phone].

From Computerworld, August 20, 1990, pg. 74, no author.

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