Hacker Chronicles 1/HACKER1.ISO/cud2/cud212i.txt

Text File | 1992-09-26 | 11KB | 202 lines

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From:        P.A. [e-mail]
Subject: CU in the News--England and Emma Nicholson; VOGON News
Date:        04 Nov 90  16:07:16 gmt

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***  CuD #2.12: File 9 of 9: The CU in the News                  ***
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               "A Bug In The Machine" By Tom Dewe Matthews.
                From: Sunday Correspondent, 17th Dec, 1989.

"Adrian Vole " looked on helplessly as the words on his computer terminal
began to drift down to the bottom of the screen. Soon, all that was left
were skeleton lines of meaningless text. "Oh God", cursed Vole, "I've
been hit by Cascade". There was nothing he could do to stop the computer
virus from running amok. In less than ten seconds, Adrian Vole's computer
had been turned into a useless piece of junk. Vole the hacker had been
hacked.

Adrian Vole is typical of his breed. By day he works at a computer console
for a financial research company and by night he hacks away in a computer-
filled den off his bedroom. Self-sufficient, with his terminal and telephone
modem which connects him to the rest of the computerised world, Vole is
typical in that he himself is open to attack.

Hackers see themselves as fighting for freedom of information, as trying to
break the control which big corporations such as IBM hold over computerised
information, in order to disseminate it freely. "Hackers", says George Stone,
the man who gave birth to Max Headroom, " want to be able to look into a
computer system and say `I understand you and therefore can question you.

You can no longer threaten me. I've beaten you". This curiosity and
sometimes paranoia, is provoked by the sheer power of computers. "On
one computer disc" says Stone,"you can put every address in the UK,
including postcodes, and on another you can put every name from every
electoral role in the country.You correlate those two discs, whack in a
few parameters and you can start up your own credit company, or your own
poll tax."

Hackers may say they want to demystify computers,not to rob them, but they
are nevertheless constantly destroying each other's systems by off-
loading sabotaged computer games on to the electronic notice-boards where
they swap software programs with each other. "Lounge Suit Larry" is only
one in a long line of these tainted computer games which in their pure
commercial state are harmless, but if you run an adulterated copy of
"Larry" through your computer, it will wipe out your hard disc, which in
human terms is the equivalent of removing your spine.

Computer companies have been known to put bugs into the programmes that
they're trying to sell to stop the customer from copying the programme-
which is illegal under copyright law. The computer companies also blur
the battle lines by adopting an attitude of: "If we can't beat them,
let's exploit them". It is now common practice among managers of computer
networks to put the telephone access number and password of a proposed
system on to an electronic notice-board and then sit back and watch
hackers wander around their system. In the mock battle that follows,
the systems designer will even put up barriers which the hackers will
try to knock down or evade. At the end of this phoney war, the system is
dismantled and the manager redesigns it according to what he has learnt.

The real system, with a secret telephone number and password, is then
put in place and if that is hacked into it is likely that the hacker will
be traced and confronted- only to be employed by the company on the theory
that it takes a thief to keep one out.

For the politicians who want to introduce legislation into the computer
industry, such double standards are largely ignored in their pursuit of the
hacker. The Conservative M.P. Emma Nicholson tried unsuccessfully to
introduce a bill last summer which called for a loosening of Home Office
restrictions on phone taps and up to 10 years imprisonment for those who
gain unauthorised access into a computer system. If the government fails to
introduce its own hacking law in the next parliamentary session,
Ms Nicholson promises to be back soon with a repeat of her Private Members
Bill.

Hackers according to Nicholson, "are malevolent, nasty evil doers' who
fill the screens of amateur users with pornography". She believes that
"hacking has now become a regular terrorist action... The European Green
Movement hacks into large companies", she says,"and picks out sensitive
information. It could be pharmaceutical industries; it could be the oil
industry, and they justify it on the grounds of environmental or racial
fairness".

According to Emma Nicholson, the hacked information is then used to carry
out bombing and fires". The Greens may storm American air bases, but do
they really invade computers? "Yes," replies Nicholson, "The Green movement
in Europe is the most aggressive on this. They are akin to the Animal
Liberation movement here." So the Greens are trying to destabilize society
through computers? "Yes, without any doubt at all," she replies, adding that
she has " a lot of validated information" to confirm this fact.

The validation turns out to be a back copy of an anarchist magazine called
*insurrection*, in which a communique from the Dutch anti-Apartheid
movement Ra Ra lists 40 acts of sabotage against Shell in the Netherlands.

A separate article asks its readers to start fires and also lists various
computer viruses but doesn't tell the reader how to create them. The link
between the hackers and the European Greens still seems unclear. "That",
Nicholson replies, "is buried deep in my files". But what's the source?

She then becomes as enigmatic as she was previously emphatic. "You
could call it unofficial secret-service trackers close to the Dutch
government. They're very close to the hackers and if they're named they
could be put in terrible jeopardy. These hackers are very nasty people".

(That's the first approx 1/4 of the article, the rest goes on to describe
a German hacker "Mike Blip" of the Chaos Club).

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From: [e-mail](Tom Fitzgerald)
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 90 18:42:06 EST


<><><><><><><>  T h e   V O G O N   N e w s   S e r v i c e  <><><><><><><>

Edition : 2193             Monday 12-Nov-1990          Circulation :  8447


VNS COMPUTER NEWS:                          [Tracy Talcott, VNS Computer Desk]
==================                          [Nashua, NH, USA                 ]

 Massachusetts - Considering computer-crime bill hailed as a model for others
    {The Wall Street Journal, 9-Nov-90, p. B1}
   The legislation "is the first to properly balance property and free speech
 interests," says Mitchell Kapor, founder and chairman of Lotus Development.
 The bill, which has the support of the governor and is expected to be approved
 by the Legislature, declares that new forms of communication such as computer
 bulletin boards and paperless electronic publications "are protected by
 fundamental rights, including freedom of speech and association and freedom
 from unreasonable government intrusion." The bill orders jail terms and stiff
 fines for those who break into computers without authorization or let loose
 software viruses that disrupt systems or destroy data. Hackers caught causing
 damage of $10,000 or more are subject to as much as 2 1/2 years in prison, a
 fine of up to $25,000, or both.

 European Community - Protecting computer software against piracy
    {The Wall Street Journal, 9-Nov-90, p. A6}
    European Community internal-market ministers gave broad-based support to
 proposals aimed at protecting computer software against piracy. Among the
 topics touched on was "reverse engineering," which allows a manufacturer to
 write compatible software or produce compatible equipment. The EC proposals
 would allow reverse engineering if the purpose was to create compatible, or
 "inoperable" products, although strict limits on the process would be set.


<><><><><><><>  T h e   V O G O N   N e w s   S e r v i c e  <><><><><><><>

Edition : 2194            Tuesday 13-Nov-1990          Circulation :  8450


VNS COMPUTER NEWS:                          [Tracy Talcott, VNS Computer Desk]
==================                          [Nashua, NH, USA                 ]

 Security - Two teens charged with sabotaging voice-mail system
    {The Wall Street Journal, 12-Nov-90, p. B7C}
   Daniel Rosenbaum, 17, and a 14-year-old juvenile, both from Staten Island,
 allegedly gained unauthorized entry to a computerized voice-mail system owned
 by International Data Group, Framingham, Mass., then changed recorded
 greetings to lewd messages, made bomb threats and erased customers' messages,
 said John Keary, a New York state police investigator. The tampering occurred
 between May and September at the company's Peterborough, N.H. office, at which
 eight computer magazines published by the concern are based, said IDG
 telecommunications director Jane Creighton. She estimated the disruptions cost
 the company $2.4 million in lost revenue from advertisers and other expenses.
 Mr. Rosenbaum said the two broke into the company's system because they didn't
 get a free poster they had expected to receive with "Gamepro," one of its
 computer magazines, said Mr. Keary. Mr. Keary said the teen-agers were charged
 with computer tampering, unauthorized use of a computer and aggravated
 harassment. They gained entry to the voice-mail system by entering "certain
 codes" into it through telephones, after calling the company's toll-free
 number, he added. By experimentation or luck, outsiders can learn passwords
 needed to break into voice-mail systems, enabling them to change outgoing
 messages and otherwise disrupt operations. Voice-mail break-ins, however, are
 declining as security aspects of the systems are beefed up, asserts David
 Ladd, executive vice president of VMX Inc., a San Jose, Calif., seller of
 voice-mail systems. IDG's Ms. Creighton said that gaining access to the
 company's phone mail system required use of multiple passwords. The teen-agers
 "are subscribers and readers of ours, therefore they are very
 computer-knowledgeable," she added.


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    Permission to copy material from this VNS is granted (per DIGITAL PP&P)
    provided that the message header for the issue and credit lines for the
    VNS correspondent and original source are retained in the copy.

<><><><><><><>   VNS Edition : 2194     Tuesday 13-Nov-1990   <><><><><><><>

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