Computer underground Digest Wed Jun 30, 1996 Volume 8 : Issue 50 ISSN 1004-042X Editor: Jim Thomas (cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu) News Editor: Gordon Meyer (gmeyer@sun.soci.niu.edu) Archivist: Brendan Kehoe Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala Ian Dickinson Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest CONTENTS, #8.50 (Wed, Jun 30, 1996) File 1--CWD -- Jacking in from the "Keys to the Kingdom" Port File 2--Sen. Crypto Hearing; SAFE Forum Cybercast; CDT on File 3--Feds aim low File 4--PROFS Case: State E-mail Regulations File 5--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 7 Apr, 1996) CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION ApPEARS IN THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 01:19:09 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh Subject: File 1--CWD -- Jacking in from the "Keys to the Kingdom" Port CyberWire Dispatch // Copyright (c) 1996 // Jacking in from the "Keys to the Kingdom" Port: Washington, DC -- This is a tale of broken codes, betrayal of a social contract, morality run amuck, and a kind of twisted John Le Carre meets the Crying Game encounter. For a range of companies producing so-called "blocking software" designed to keep kids from accessing undesirable material in cyberspace, the road to such a moral high ground turns out to be a slippery slope. These programs, spawned in the wake of the hysteria over how much porn Junior might find on the Net, have chosen the role of online guardians. The resulting array of applications, including names like SurfWatch, CyberPatrol, NetNanny and CyberSitter, acts as a kind of digital moral compass for parents, educators, paranoid Congressmen, and puritanical PTAs. Install the programs and Junior can't access porn. No fuss, no muss, no bother. "Parental empowerment" is the buzzword. Indeed, it was these programs that helped sway the three-judge panel in Philly to knock down the Communications Decency Act as unconstitutional. But there's a darker side. A close look at the actual range of sites blocked by these apps shows they go far beyond just restricting "pornography." Indeed, some programs ban access to newsgroups discussing gay and lesbian issues or topics such as feminism. Entire *domains* are restricted, such as HotWired. Even a web site dedicated to the safe use of fireworks is blocked. All this might be reasonable, in a twisted sort of way, if parents were actually aware of what the programs banned. But here's the rub: Each company holds its database of blocked sites in the highest security. Companies fight for market share based on how well they upgrade and maintain that blocking database. All encrypt that list to protect it from prying eyes --- until now. Dispatch received a copy of each of those lists. With the codes cracked, we now held the keys to the kingdom: the results of hundreds, no, thousands of manhours of smut-surfing dedicated to digging up the most obscene and pornographic sites in the world. And it's in our possession. But it didn't come easy... I'd just spent the better part of a muggy Washington night knocking back boilermakers in an all-night Georgetown bistro waiting for a couple of NSA spooks that never showed. I tried to stumble to the door and an arm reached out and gently shoved me back to my table. At the end of that arm was a leggy redhead; she had a fast figure and even faster smile. There was a wildness about her eyes and I knew it was the crank. But something else wasn't quite right. As I fought with my booze-addled brain, struggling to focus my eyes, I noticed her adam's apple. "Who needs this distraction," I thought, again wondering what kind of comic hellhole I fell into that put me in the middle of yet another bizarre adventure. "I have something for you," she/he deadpanned. Red had the voice of a baritone and a body you could break bricks on. No introductions, no chit-chat. This was strictly business and for a moment I thought I was being set up by the missing spooks. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Out from Red's purse came a CD-ROM. She/he shoved the jewel box across the table. It was labeled: "The keys to the kingdom." What the fuck was this? I must be on Candid Camera. Red anticipated my question: "I can't say; I won't say. Just take it, use it. That's all I'm supposed to say." And she/he got up, stretched those mile-high legs, and loped into the night. The next morning I slipped the disc in my Mac and the secret innards of the net-blocking programs flowed across my screen. CyberPatrol, SurfWatch, NetNanny, CyberSitter. Their encrypted files -- thousands and thousands of web pages and newsgroups with the best porn on the Net. Not surprising, really -- the net-blocking software companies collect smut-reports from customers and pay college kids to grope around the Net for porn. This shit was good. Even half-awake with a major league hangover, I could tell the smut-censoring software folks would go ballistic over Red's delivery. To Junior, these lists would be a one-stop-porn-shop. Susan Getgood from CyberPatrol emphasized this to Dispatch. She said: "The printout of the 'Cybernot' list never *ever* leaves this building. It's under lock and key... Once it left this building we'd see it posted on the Net tomorrow. It would be contributing to the problem it was designed to solve -- [it would be] the best source of indecent material anywhere." She's right. A recent version of CyberPatrol's so-called "Cybernot" list featured 4,800 web sites and 250 newsgroups. That's a lot of balloon-breasted babes. CyberPatrol is easily the largest and most extensive smut-blocker. It assigns each undesirable web site to at least one and often multiple categories that range from "violence/profanity" to "sexual acts," "drugs and drug culture," and "gross depictions." The last category, which includes pix of syphilis-infected monkeys and greyhounds tossed in a garbage dump, has some animal-rights groups in a tizzy. They told Dispatch that having portions of their sites labeled as "gross depictions" is defamatory -- and they intend to sue the bastards. "We're somewhat incensed," said Christina Springer, managing director of Envirolink, a Pittsburgh-based company that provides web space to environmental and animal-rights groups. "Pending whether [our attorney] thinks we have a case or not, we will actually pursue legal actions against CyberPatrol." Said Springer: "Animal rights is usually the first step that children take in being involved in the environment. Ignoring companies like Mary Kay that do these things to animals and allowing them to promote themselves like good corporate citizens is a 'gross depiction.'" CyberPatrol's Getgood responded: "We sent a note back to [the Envirolink director] and haven't heard back from him. Apparently he's happy with our decision. I still think the monkey with its eye gouged out is a gross depiction." Rick O'Donnell from the Progress and Freedom Foundation is amazed that Envirolink would threaten legal action. "It's new technology. It's trial-and-error... There will be glitches." "Filtering software firms have the right to choose whatever site they want to block since it's voluntary... Government-imposed [blocking] is censorship. Privately-chosen is editing, discernment, freedom of choice," he said. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is as unhappy as Envirolink. When Dispatch spoke with GLAAD's Alan Klein and rattled off a list of online gay and lesbian resources that the overeager blocking software censored, he was horrified. "We take this very seriously," said Klein. "Lesbian and gay users shouldn't be treated as second-class users on the Net. These companies need to understand that they can't discriminate against lesbian and gay users... We will take an active stance on this." CyberPatrol blocks a mirror of the Queer Resources Directory (QRD) at http://qrd.tcp.com/ and USENET newsgroups including clari.news.gays (home to AP and Reuters articles) alt.journalism.gay-press, and soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi, Red's list revealed. CyberSitter also bans alt.politics.homosexual and the QRD at qrd.org. NetNanny blocks IRC chatrooms such as #gaysf and #ozgay, presumably discussions by San Francisco and Australian gays. GLAAD told Dispatch they were especially surprised that CyberPatrol blocked gay political and journalism groups since the anti-defamation organization has a representative on the "Cybernot" oversight committee, which meets every few weeks to set policies. However, Dispatch learned the oversight group never actually sees the previously top-secret "Cybernot" list. They don't know what's *really* banned. Why should alt.journalism.gay-press, for instance, be blocked? There's no excuse for it, said GLAAD's Klein. "A journalism newsgroup shouldn't be blocked. It's completely unacceptable... This is such an important resource for gay youth around the country. If it weren't for the Net, maybe thousands of gay teens around the country would not have come out and known there were resources for them." He's right. Even a single directory at the QRD, such as the Health/AIDS area, has vital information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the AIDS Book Review Journal, and AIDS Treatment News. In response to Dispatch's questions about these sites being blocked, CyberPatrol's Getgood said: "It doesn't block materials based on sexual preference. If a site would be blocked if there are two heterosexuals kissing, we'd block it if there are two homosexuals kissing." Fine, but we're not talking about gay porn here. What about some of the political groups? "We'll look into it," said Getgood. NetNanny is just as bad, argues GLAAD's Loren Javier, who called the software's logging features "dangerous." (The program lets parents review what their kids have been doing online.) "If you have someone who has homophobic parents, it gives them a way of keeping tabs on their kid and possibly making it worse for their children," said Javier. Worse yet, CyberPatrol doesn't store the complete URL for blocking -- it abbreviates the last three characters. So when it blocks the "CyberOS" gay video site by banning http://www.webcom.com/~cyb, children are barred from attending the first "Cyber High School" at ~cyberhi, along with 16 other accounts that start with "cyb." In attacking Shawn Knight's occult resources at http://loiosh.andrew.cmu.edu/~sha, the program cuts off 23 "sha" accounts at Carnegie Mellon University, including Derrick "Shadow" Brashear's web page on Pittsburgh radio stations. The geeks at CMU's School of Computer Science had fun with this. In March they cobbled together a "Banned by CyberPatrol" logo that they merrily added to their blocked homepages: http://nut.compose.cs.cmu.edu/images/ban3.gif NetNanny also has a fetish for computer scientists. For instance, it blocks all mailing lists run out of cs.colorado.edu -- including such salacious ones as parallel-compilers, systems+software, and computer-architecture. Guess those computer geeks talk blue when they're not pumping out C code. Dispatch asked Getgood why CyberPatrol blocks access to other seemingly unobjectionable web sites including the University of Newcastle's computer science department, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's censorship archive, and the League for Programming Freedom at MIT, a group that opposes software patents. Getgood replied via email: "I'll forward this message to our Internet Research Supervisor and have her look into the specific sites you mention..." She said there is a "fair process" for appeals of unwarranted blocking. But CyberPatrol doesn't stop at EFF and MIT. It also goes after gun and Second Amendment pages including http://www.shooters.com/, http://www.taurususa.com/, http://206.31.73.39/, and http://www-199.webnexus.com/nra-sv/, according to a recent "Cybernot" list. The last site is run by the National Rifle Association (NRA) Members' Council of Silicon Valley, and bills itself as "the NRA's grass roots political action and education group for the San Jose, Santa Clara, Milpitas, and surrounding areas." Peter Nesbitt, an air-traffic controller who volunteers as part of the Silicon Valley NRA group, says "it's terrible" that CyberPatrol blocks gun-rights web sites. "The people who are engaging in censoring gun rights or gun advocates groups are the opposition who want to censor us to further their anti-gun agenda." An unlikely bedfellow, the National Organization of Women (NOW) ain't too pleased neither. Of course, they're unlikely to feel any other way -- CyberSitter blocks their web site at www.now.org. Not to be outdone, NetNanny blocks feminist newsgroups while CyberSitter slams anything dealing with "bisexual" or "lesbian" themes." CyberPatrol beats 'em all by going after alt.feminism, alt.feminism.individualism, soc.feminism, clari.news.women, soc.support.pregnancy.loss, alt.homosexual.lesbian, and soc.support.fat-acceptance. Dispatch reached Kim Gandy, NOW's executive vice president, at home as she was preparing dinner for her 3-year old daughter. Gandy charged the companies with "suppressing information" about feminism. She said: "As a mother myself, I'd like to limit my kids from looking at pornography but I wouldn't want my teenage daughter [prevented] from reading and participating in online discussions of important current issues relating to womens rights." An indignant NOW? Let 'em rant, says CyberSitter's Brian Milburn. "If NOW doesn't like it, tough... We have not and will not bow to any pressure from any organization that disagrees with our philosophy." Unlike the others, CyberSitter doesn't hide the fact that they're trying to enforce a moral code. "We don't simply block pornography. That's not the intention of the product," said Milburn. "The majority of our customers are strong family-oriented people with traditional family values. Our product is sold by Focus on the Family because we allow the parents to select fairly strict guidelines." (Focus on the Family, of course, is a conservative group that strongly supports the CDA.) Dispatch particularly enjoyed CyberSitter's database, which reads like a fucking how-to of conversations the programmers thought distasteful: [up][the,his,her,your,my][ass,cunt,twat][,hole] [wild,wet,net,cyber,have,making,having,getting,giving,phone][sex...] [,up][the,his,her,your,my][butt,cunt,pussy,asshole,rectum,anus] [,suck,lick][the,his,her,your,my][cock,dong,dick,penis,hard on...] [gay,queer,bisexual][male,men,boy,group,rights,community,activities... [gay,queer,homosexual,lesbian,bisexual][society,culture] [you][are][,a,an,too,to][stupid,dumb,ugly,fat,idiot,ass,fag,dolt,dummy CyberSitter's Milburn added: "I wouldn't even care to debate the issues if gay and lesbian issues are suitable for teenagers. If they [parents] want it they can buy SurfWatch... We filter anything that has to do with sex. Sexual orientation [is about sex] by virtue of the fact that it has sex in the name." That's the rub. It's a bait and switch maneuver. The smut-censors say they're going after porn, but they quietly restrict political speech. All this proves is that anyone setting themselves up as a kind of digital moral compass quickly finds themselves plunged into a kind of virtual Bermuda Triangle, where vertigo reigns and you hope to hell you pop out the other side still on course. Technology is never a substitute for conscience. And for anyone thinking of making an offer for the disc, forget it. Like a scene out of Mission Impossible, we came back from a late-night binge to find the CD-ROM melted and the drive smoldering. Thank God there's a backup somewhere. Red, get in touch. Meeks and McCullagh out... ------------- While Brock N. Meeks (brock@well.com) did the heaving drinking for this article, Declan B. McCullagh (declan@well.com) did the heavy reporting. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 19:12:18 -0400 From: Bob Palacios Subject: File 2--Sen. Crypto Hearing; SAFE Forum Cybercast; CDT on From: CDT POLICY POST Volume 2, Number 26 June 28, 1996 (1) SENATE ENCRYPTION HEARING ILLUSTRATES SEA CHANGE IN POLICY DEBATE On Wednesday June 26, 1996 the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Space, and Technology held a hearing to consider legislation designed to encourage the widespread availability of strong, easy-to-use, privacy and security technologies for the Internet. Wednesday's hearing illustrated that a sea change has occurred in Congressional attitude towards the encryption policy debate. While members of the Subcommittee noted the complex law enforcement issues raised by the encryption policy debate, the Senators also recognized that because of the global nature of the Internet, top down regulations such as export controls and centralized government mandates like the Clipper schemes will not address the needs of individuals, business, and even law enforcement in the Information Age. In addition, several Senators noted that future of electronic commerce, privacy, and the competitiveness of the US computer industry should not be held hostage to law enforcement considerations. This change in Congressional attitude towards encryption policy is significant and extremely encouraging. Wednesday's hearing was also significant because it was the first ever Congressional hearing cybercast live on the Internet. Details on the Cybercast are attached below. The hearing, chaired by Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT), was called to consider the Promotion Of Commerce Online in the Digital Era (Pro-CODE) legislation, which would relax current regulations restricting the export of strong encryption. Witnesses testifying before the panel included: * Phil Zimmermann, Inventor of PGP * Whit Diffie, Sun Microsystems, Father of Public-Key Cryptography * Phil Karn, Qualcomm Inc, Cryptographer * Marc Rotenberg, Director, Electronic Privacy Information Center * Jerry Berman, Executive Director, Center for Democracy and Technology * Matt Blaze, Lucent Technologies Cryptographer, * Barbara Simons, Chair of US Public Policy Committee, ACM * And 135 Netizens (http://www.crypto.com) CDT Executive Director Jerry Berman also testified before the Subcommittee. Noting that the current US encryption policy has left individual Internet users without adequate privacy and businesses without necessary security, Berman urged Congress to instead move forward to reform US policy based on the following principals: * THE INTERNET IS NOT LIKE A TELEPHONE SYSTEM: The traditional approach to wiretapping cannot simply be extended to the Internet. This new medium encompasses a range of social functions far beyond simple two- way voice communication. These broad activities demand a heightened capacity for uses to protect their security and privacy online. * THE INTERNET IS A GLOBAL, DECENTRALIZED MEDIUM: Efforts to impose unilateral national policies -- such as export controls or key escrow proposals -- are unlikely to be accepted widely. Decentralized user choice solutions to privacy problems are preferable to and more effective than centralized, governmental mandates (such as the Clipper proposals). * ON THE INTERNET, THE BILL OF RIGHTS IS A LOCAL ORDINANCE: Constitutional guarantees of privacy and free expression to U.S. Citizens whose communications regularly cross national borders. Policies should be designed to protect Americans outside the shelter of U.S. law. Berman expressed CDT's strong support for Congressional efforts to reform US Encryption policy, and urged Congress to act quickly to liberalize export controls and provide American Internet users with the strong security and privacy they so badly need. Audio transcripts of the Hearing, copies of the prepared statements of the witnesses, and other background information is available at CDT's encryption policy web page: http://www.cdt.org/crypto/ HEARING SHOWS NEW SENSE OF URGENCY AND FOCUS IN CONGRESS The clearest example of the emerging frustration in Congress with the current export restrictions came in an exchange between Senator John Aschroft (R-MO) and Phil Karn, a cryptographer with Qualcomm and a plaintiff in a case challenging the export restrictions: Sen. Aschroft: So for all other countries, the world is the market, but for American companies, America is the only market and the rest of the world is off limits? Karn: You've got it. Sen. Aschroft: Mr. Chairman, I think that's one of the reasons we need to look very carefully at the bill (Pro-CODE) we are looking at here today... Sen. Aschroft: In all our discussions about whether it (cryptography) is good or bad, we ignore the fact that it's THERE, and it can be available to Americans by American companies, it cannot be available to anyone else by American companies, but it can be available around the world by a company in any other country. This exchange, as well as strong statements in support of the Burns Pro-CODE bill from Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), who made the unusual move of coming to a Senate hearing, show that Congress is finally giving the need to reform US encryption policy serious support. A hearing of the full Senate Commerce Committee, chaired by Senator Larry Pressler (R-SD) is expected in mid July. Representatives from the Administration and Law Enforcement agencies are expected to testify. CDT is working with Senator Burns' and Senator Pressler to bring that hearing live online. Check CDT's "Congress and the Net" Web Page at http://www.cdt.org/net_congress/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1996 07:07:19 -0400 (EDT) From: Noah Subject: File 3--Feds aim low (Headers removed) -Noah ========================================================== From--Rogue Agent ::: Feds aim low on hacker crackdown by Lewis Z. Koch Upside Online News, June 21 1996 Nineteen-year-old Christopher Schanot of St. Louis, Mo. has been languishing in a Federal jail since March 25, 1996, charged with four counts of computer hacking. He is not allowed to post bond, because Federal authorities contend he is "a computer genius intent on infiltrating computer systems of some of the largest companies and entities in the country," and because a jailhouse snitch claims Schanot bragged he would run away if he were released. He has never been charged with a crime or arrested before. So, why should you be concerned about a young, middle-American kid hacker? It's comforting to know that government police agencies are combating the wave of billion-dollar computer thievery. The question is: should Schanot, and people like him, be their target? It appears that thousands of Federal hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent to catch this Wendy's burger-tossing hacker and charging him with crimes for which he could spend 30 years in jail and owe a $1.25 million fine -- the kind of fine leveled at international narco-terrorists. First, however, Schanot will have to cough up the $225 he owed in back rent at the time he was arrested. Schanot's problems began after he ran away from home on May 30, 1995, taking some of his disks, a hard drive and personal items. According to a knowledgeable source close to Schanot, Chris felt his parents, especially his father Michael, didn't understand or respect him. Less rocky, it seems, was his relationship with Netta Gilboa, a 38-year-old woman living near Philadelphia. Gilboa is editor-in-chief and publisher of _Gray Areas_, a slick, text-heavy, irregular magazine that explores the "grey areas" of "alternative lifestyles and deviant subcultures." _Gray Areas_ is concerned with what's happening on the edges of law, music, technology, popular culture -- who is pushing the envelope and how they are doing it. Hooker housewives. Hacking. Psychoanalysis and feminism. Computer crime. Music. Porno film stars. The usual suspects. It provides interesting, in-depth coverage of these areas, but it ain't quite _Foreign Affairs_ or _The Public Interest_. There is no doubt that Schanot and Gilboa had talked on the phone before Schanot left home. Schanot told her how he was unhappy in St. Louis, that he didn't have many friends and hated high school. So Gilboa dug into her purse and bought Schanot a ticket to Philadelphia so he could live with her. When he disappeared from home, Schanot's parents did the usual thing -- they called the cops and the FBI. But Schanot didn't attract much police attention until the feds quizzed one of his friends, who said that Schanot had been hacking. According to a government memorandum in the suppressed indictment, Schanot told one of his buddies what he was doing, where he was running and with whom he was going to live. He needed to "lie low" because, as his buddy later told the FBI, Schanot said he had been hacking and feared he was in trouble with the law. FBI agents returned to Schanot's home and asked his parents if they could look through his room. It might give them a clue as to where Schanot could be. (Didn't anyone want to check the phone bill and ask who Schanot was talking to in Philadelphia?) The feds left with a computer hard drive, some disks and some of Schanot's notes. The feds dug deeply into his hard drive, scanned his disks, and read his papers. Now comes the tricky part. Follow the bouncing ball . . . According to the memorandum, the government has evidence that Schanot may have ties to (are you ready for this?) the long-feared Internet Liberation Front (ILF). It is important to note that there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that the ILF has ties with the NLF -- the dreaded North Vietnamese National Liberation Front, which the U.S. government once said might be landing black pajama-clad Viet Cong guerillas onto the shore near San Diego. The ILF, however, is the group accused of the 1994 vandalizing of service to Pipeline, an Internet service provider, causing it to go off-line for several hours, as well as disrupting the electronic mailbox belonging to General Electric/NBC/Channel 4 in New York. Both Pipeline and GE/NBC reported they had been hacked. The government memorandum states it has evidence tying Schanot to the ILF, including a "typewritten list of questions and answers that correspond to the ILF interview [with references to Pipeline and GE/NBC] . . . saved to Schanot's computer on January 22 , 1995, at least three months before the issue of _Gray Areas_ containing the [ILF] interview was released." That is hard to explain, but curiously the government has chosen -not- to indict or charge Chris with any infractions against Pipeline or GE/NBC. The memorandum also says the Feds found other ILF messages, including the famous "FEAR US!" ILF manifesto in his hard drive, as well as files containing "hundreds of passwords to various multinational corporations, universities, governmental organizations, military contractors and credit reporting agencies." The computer allegedly also contained a file of hundreds of credit card numbers and AT&T calling card numbers. But once again, -no indictment-. No doubt, Schanot may have to come up with a believeable explanation of why his computer allegedly had some of ILF quotes in its hard drive three months before Gilboa published them in her magazine, and why he had all those passwords. But he probably won't have to offer those explanations under oath, because there's no indictment stemming from that evidence. As for those "hundreds of credit card numbers and AT&T calling card numbers," there is one indictment against Chris pertaining to that evidence -- illegal use of three Sprint calling card numbers for "an aggregate value of one thousand ($1,000) or more, said use affecting interstate commerce." What is the evidence against Chris? Federal authorities contend that while Schanot's busy little fingers were typing away at his keyboard he found a security hole in a computer known as "bigbird" -- belonging to Southwestern Bell and caused a loss of $1,000 or more during the period of October 23, 1994 to April 23, 1995. The indictment includes those stolen card numbers from Sprint and an uninvited visit to Bell Communications Research and SRI -- no big-bucks damage, and it was all fixed pretty quickly. Apparently, Southwestern Bell did not report being hacked. Fact is, it may not even have known that an unauthorized person had come to visit. According to sources, the FBI visited Southwestern Bell and asked about "bigbird," i.e., had there been any damage from illegal and unauthorized entry? Whaddaya know? Somebody had made an unannounced visit or two! The FBI wanted to know in dollars and cents what the smart little runaway had cost the company, because the FBI isn't interested in low-dollar crimes, and the U.S. Attorney's office has enough prime-time crime on its hands to keep assistant federal attorneys busy without adding $100 cases to its inventory. Kind of hard to figure out, Southwestern Bell responded. Try, said the FBI. Southwestern Bell huffed and puffed and came up with a figure of $500,000. Now, that's a figure you can take to the U.S. Attorney and get an indictment, maybe some headlines, even a promotion to headquarters in D.C. Only it turns out that Southwestern Bell fudges a bit. There wasn't $500,000 worth of damage to "bigbird," but $500,000 Southwestern Bell spent repairing the security hole Schanot uncovered. Let's be very clear here. The security hole was there. Schanot didn't create it. He found it. The Feds were no longer looking for a runaway teen, but rather an arch-criminal/diabolical mastermind, "a computer genius intent on infiltrating computer systems of some of the largest companies and entities in the country, and compromising the security of those systems, enabling him to seize control of those computers," as the U.S. Attorney's office put it. What did the Justice Department have in mind, "War Games"? When arch-criminal/mastermind Schanot was arrested by FBI agents, he was paying Social Security taxes under his own name, slinging burgers at Wendy's to earn a living. Considering his reputation with the feds, you would have thought he'd have been downloading proprietary information from the Human Genome Project or playing hide-the-billions with some fat Boston banks. Schanot was arrested without a struggle. Were you expecting him to go a la James Cagney, just before he was immolated by the fiery inferno in "White Heat," screaming out to the cops below, "Top o' the world, Ma! Top o' the world!"? So Schanot wound up in a Philadelphia jail. There was a bond hearing, because most people who aren't charged with first-degree murder, treason or bombing the World Trade Center, can be freed on bond. But the federal prosecutor wasn't taking any chances with a burger-slinging, computer break-in demon. If Schanot is freed on bond, the prosecutor insists, he must not be allowed near a computer, must not talk about computers on the phone, must not be allowed to even tinker with a phone, lest he crash every telco in the land . . . or maybe round the edges on every square Wendy's burger. Then, according to the feds, just as Schanot was to be released from the slammer, the cunning, insightful hacker allegedly told one of his new jail buddies that as soon as he was released, he would run away. Schanot is probably in jail because he bragged, because he showed off, because he behaved like a 17-year-old computer genius who is as emotionally immature as he is bright. In fact, Schanot may be guilty of, well, acting his age. Federal authorities have a hard time understanding that young adolescents sometimes behave like adolescents. It's true, among wanna-know adolescent computer crackers who just want to break in, look around and learn something without doing any harm there are others with a degree of criminal intent. But their criminality seems a tad less serious than selling crack or carrying Uzis as they take part in drive-by shootings. Some create frightening names for their (four- or five-member) gangs, such as "Legion of Doom" or "Masters of Destruction." They pick fear-inspiring pen names such as "Scorpion," "Phiber Optic," " Zod," "The Wing," "Damage" or "Acid Phreak." (Aren't we having fun!) They're just thieving hacker kids stealing phone card numbers, credit card numbers, hassling others, reading other people's e-mail, and sometimes bringing e-mail systems down. It's wrong, illegal -- no question. But is it big-time hacker crime? Even journalists are caught in the game, dubbing schlepper Kevin Mitnick "the dark side hacker," as if he were accompanied by Satan. In the media, hackers are often depicted with brimstone wafting over their heads and new 120 MHz Pentium laptops at hand. The adolescent hacker/cracker's criminality and destructiveness pale in comparison to their street gang counterparts in the Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, Latin Kings or Maniac Latin Disciples, who have an estimated 100,000 members in Chicago alone, according to the Chicago Crime Commission. These gangs peddle millions of dollars in drugs, murder and terrorize entire neighborhoods as well as the jails and prisons (And don't forget about the serious hackers and their yearly billions). Gilboa says Chris has met a lot of new people in jail -- mafia members, child molesters, etc. Travel can be so enlightening. The government, with its limited resources, needs to make a simple business decision: should it continue harassing and jailing teenage hackers for specious or petty crimes, or should it concentrate its efforts on catching true criminal cyberthieves who roam free, stealing their annual quota of billions of dollars in computer secrets? It's your tax dollar, your secrets, your kids. Stay tuned. Keep your bookmark turned to this station. ---------- RA agent@l0pht.com (Rogue Agent/SoD!/TOS/attb) - pgp key on request ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 14:33:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Eddie Becker Subject: File 4--PROFS Case: State E-mail Regulations Florida, Maryland decide e-mail messages are public records --A pair of attorney general opinions issued in Maryland and Florida in May have declared that e-mail messages are public records subject to disclosure. In Maryland, Attorney General Joseph Curran responded in late May to two questions concerning e-mail: first, does the Maryland Open Meetings Act prohibit e-mail communications among a quorum of members of a public body, and second, does the Maryland Public Information Act apply to e-mail communications? The Attorney General found that the Open Meetings Act does not apply to e-mail communications among members of a public body, unless a quorum of a public body is engaged in a simultaneous exchange of e- mail on a matter of public business. Curran also found that an e-mail message sent between government officials "surely falls within [the] definition" of public records under the Public Information Act. "[E]ven if the message was never printed, the version of the e-mail message retained in the computer's storage would also be a `public record,'" Mr. Curran opined. Florida Attorney General Robert Butterworth issued a similar opinion in mid-May. The Sarasota County Property Appraiser had asked for an opinion on whether e-mail messages made or received by the employees of the appraiser's office or to other governmental agencies were "public records" under the law, and whether, and for how long and in what form such messages must be saved. Reposting this brief *with permission* from: NEWS MEDIA UPDATE - Digest version VOL. 2, NO. 9 July 1, 1996 published by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Note: Anyone can subscribe *free* to the digest: send e-mail to rcfp@rcfp.org with "subscribe" (without quotes) as the subject. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 22:51:01 CST From: CuD Moderators Subject: File 5--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 7 Apr, 1996) Cu-Digest is a weekly electronic journal/newsletter. Subscriptions are available at no cost electronically. 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