| .oO Phrack 50 Oo. | |
| Volume Seven, Issue Fifty | |
| 15 of 16 | |
| PWN PWN PNW PNW PNW PNW PNW PNW PNW PNW PNW PWN PWN | |
| PWN PWN | |
| PWN Phrack World News PWN | |
| PWN PWN | |
| PWN Compiled by disorder/alhambra PWN | |
| PWN PWN | |
| PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| Intro: As usual there are literally hundreds of interesting articles | |
| that could be put here. I have tried to narrow the focus to | |
| hacker/security related stuff only. Enjoy. | |
| Sources: Access All Areas mail list: | |
| echo "help" | mail majordomo@access.org.uk | |
| CSP (run by Frosty): | |
| Computer Underground Digest: | |
| echo "subscribe cu-digest" | mail cu-digest-request@weber.ucsd.edu | |
| Cyberwire Dispatch: | |
| echo "subscribe" | mail cwd-l-request@cyberwerks.com | |
| Defcon Stuff: | |
| echo "subscribe" | mail majordomo@dis.org | |
| Half a dozen other mail lists, elite people who forward me | |
| neat shit, and various news type web pages. | |
| Phrack World News #50 -- Index | |
| 01. Computer Attack Slows Service at New York Times' Web Site | |
| 02. [Chinese Hacker Convicted] | |
| 03. Phone 'Super Scanner' Alert | |
| 04. Computer Hacking Whiz Pleads Guilty To Electronic Break-And-Enter | |
| 05. Hackers release two upcoming U2 songs on Internet | |
| 06. Computer Crime Prompts New Parole Restrictions | |
| 07. [Evil Hacker SYN-Flood's WebCom] | |
| 08. German Police Seek 12 After Raids On Computer Gang | |
| 09. The tale of the Russian Hacker | |
| 10. Expert Warns Of Lax Security On Web | |
| 11. [Man pleads guilty to writing AOL hacking soft] | |
| 12. Hackers Hack Crack, Steal Quake | |
| 13. Hackers Sabotage Blair's Internet Image | |
| 14. Police looking into hacking of Government web site | |
| 15. Programmer Accused Of Breaking Into California State Contract Data | |
| 16. [Australian Phone Worker Rigs Radio Contest] | |
| 17. Hacker challenges `dark side' book | |
| 01. The 1997 Summer Security Conference | |
| 02. Hacking In Progress | |
| 03. Defensive Information Warfare And Systems Assurance | |
| 04. Second International Workshop on Enterprise Security | |
| 05. DEF CON V Convention Announcement #1.00 (02.26.97) | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: Computer Attack Slows Service at New York Times' Web Site | |
| author: | |
| source: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition | |
| date: November 7, 1996 | |
| Numerous World Wide Web sites offering political information found | |
| themselves overwhelmed by requests for election information from Tuesday | |
| night. But the New York Times' Web site also had to deal with waves of | |
| requests for access apparently generated by a computer hacker. | |
| Nancy Nielsen, a New York Times Co. spokeswoman, noted that the attacks | |
| -- which continued Wednesday -- only slowed the Times' computers, which | |
| were still able to serve a record number of users on Tuesday. | |
| The attack was similar to a September incident that virtually paralyzed | |
| Public Access Networks Corp., or Panix, an Internet-access provider that | |
| hosts nearly a thousand corporate Web sites. In that incident, a computer | |
| hacker bombarded the service's computers with requests to send information. | |
| Such attacks, presumably generated by malicious computer programs, work | |
| by sending repeated requests -- sometimes more than a hundred per second -- | |
| seeking to establish a connection to send or receive information. The | |
| requests contain fake Internet addresses, which the site's computers waste | |
| valuable resources attempting to establish contact with. This process | |
| prevents the computers from handling legitimate requests from Internet | |
| users for access. | |
| Such attacks are, in effect, similar to campaigns used by some activist | |
| groups to flood a politician's switchboard with phone calls. So much time | |
| is spent sorting out the bogus calls -- in this case, the hacker's false | |
| requests for an electronic "handshake" with a site's machines -- that the | |
| legitimate ones can't get through. The attacks can be differentiated from | |
| heavy volume on a site because of the fake Internet addresses and the | |
| regularity with which such requests come in. | |
| Attacks such as the ones directed at Panix and the New York Times | |
| underscore a key vulnerability of the Internet. | |
| "This is the first major attack of a kind that I believe to be the final | |
| Internet security problem," said William Cheswick, an Internet security | |
| expert at the Bell Laboratories unit of Lucent Technologies Inc., in the | |
| wake of the attack on Panix. | |
| Mr. Cheswick, who assisted Panix during the attacks, said at the time | |
| that while there had been a few previous reports of such incidents, the | |
| Panix episode was the most severe. | |
| Internet computers have no quick way of distinguishing a bogus request | |
| for information from a real one, Mr. Cheswick noted. While upgrades to the | |
| software controlling these computers could ease the problem, hackers could | |
| respond with even more intensive attacks. | |
| "There's going to be the usual arms race" between better security | |
| measures and hackers, Mr. Cheswick predicts. | |
| Panix tried to find the source of the attack by working backward through | |
| the labyrinthine network of phone lines and specialized "router" computers | |
| that form the Internet. But there is no easy way to trace such hackers, Mr. | |
| Cheswick noted. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: (none) [Chinese Hacker Convicted] | |
| author: Magdalen Chow | |
| source: South China Morning Post | |
| Computer hacker who enjoyed free access to the Internet by using other | |
| people's accounts was fined HK$125,000 (about US$16,000) in Hong Kong | |
| Monday. | |
| Judge Gareth Lugar-Mawson also ordered David Yip Shu-chew, 27, to pay | |
| HK$40,400 in compensation to Hong Kong Star Internet Ltd. and HK$404 | |
| to one of the people whose accounts he had used. | |
| The judge said he would not order Yip to pay the costs of approximately | |
| HK$2.6 million incurred in the prosecution and investigation of the case, | |
| but threatened him with jail if he misused the Internet again. | |
| Yip is the first person to be charged with accessing a computer with | |
| criminal or dishonest intent under the Crimes Ordinance. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: Phone 'Super Scanner' Alert | |
| source: The London Telegraph | |
| date: 12th November 1996 | |
| Cellphone fraud, which already costs the British cellphone industry 200 | |
| million a year, is increasing because of a new device that makes it | |
| easier than ever for criminals to "clone" phones, writes Aisling | |
| Irwin. | |
| The new "super-scanner" can soak up all the identification numbers of | |
| vulnerable analogue phones within half a mile. Each phone contains two | |
| numbers: its phone number and a secret verification code. When a call is | |
| made, the phone transmits the two numbers to the nearest of a network of | |
| base stations, which checks that the phone is legitimate before allowing | |
| the call to go ahead. | |
| Normally, thieves pick up the numbers as they are transmitted at the | |
| beginning of each call. Until now, such thefts have been possible only | |
| when victims are making calls - and stealing numbers has taken much | |
| longer. | |
| But the new technique, which is far more powerful, only requires mobile | |
| phones to be switched on to obtain their identification numbers. | |
| By sending out a signal identical to that of a real base station, the | |
| super-scanner gets the cellphones to yield their numbers. These are | |
| received by the scanner, passed to a computer and can then be programmed | |
| into stolen phones. | |
| According to the Federation of Communication Services, which represents | |
| leading cellphone companies, the new technology has evolved over the | |
| past few months. "Its impact is really being felt heavily," said a | |
| spokesman. The FCS has launched a campaign to make the advertising, | |
| sale, ownership or use of cloning equipment illegal. | |
| Although the FCS says the technique cannot be used to clone digital | |
| phones, New Scientist reported last week that criminals may be close to | |
| cloning these as well. If so, the problem will be magnified because | |
| these can be used abroad. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: Computer Hacking Whiz Pleads Guilty To Electronic Break-And-Enter | |
| ST. LOUIS (Nov 15, 1996 11:12 a.m. EST) -- A computer whiz deemed so | |
| cunning he could control almost any computer system has accepted a plea | |
| bargain for hacking his way into the secret files of two major | |
| communications companies. | |
| Christopher Schanot, 20, was linked to the Internet Liberation Front, a | |
| group of hackers who have claimed responsibility for some high-profile | |
| computer pranks and who decry the commercialization of cyberspace. | |
| In exchange for a reduced sentence, Schanot pleaded guilty Thursday to | |
| two counts of computer fraud and one count of illegal wiretapping. He | |
| faces up to 15 years in prison and $750,000 in fines at his sentencing | |
| on Jan. 31. | |
| Prosecutors said Schanot broke into national computer networks and had | |
| passwords to military computers, the credit reporting service TRW and | |
| the phone company Sprint. They gave no indication he tried to profit | |
| from his intrusion. | |
| His hacking caused security breaches that companies said cost tens of | |
| thousands of dollars to repair. | |
| The break-ins took place between October 1994 and April 1995, when | |
| Schanot was an honor student at a Catholic boys' school in suburban St. | |
| Louis. He vanished after graduating in May 1995. | |
| Authorities caught up with Schanot last March and arrested him at the | |
| suburban Philadelphia apartment he shared with a 37-year-old woman, | |
| Netta Gilboa, the publisher of Gray Areas. The magazine professes to | |
| explore subject matter that is "illegal, immoral and/or controversial." | |
| In April, Schanot was placed under 24-hour house arrest and ordered to | |
| not even talk about computers. | |
| Originally accused in a five-count indictment, he pleaded guilty to | |
| charges surrounding break-ins at Southwestern Bell and Bellcore, a | |
| communications research company owned by seven regional telephone | |
| companies. | |
| Mike Schanot said his son made the plea bargain only after prosecutors | |
| threatened him with a wider range of charges. | |
| [dis: You can find a wide variety of other article on Schanot. Check | |
| your favorite search engine to find them.] | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: Hackers release two upcoming U2 songs on Internet | |
| source: The Associated Press | |
| LONDON - Hackers have distributed two unreleased U2 songs on the Internet, | |
| possibly after tapping into computers at the Irish rock group's recording | |
| studio, the Sunday Times said. | |
| The songs, Discotheque and Wake Up Dead Man, have appeared on Internet sites in | |
| at least four countries, the newspaper said. The songs are to appear on an album | |
| scheduled for release in the spring. | |
| Since their illicit appearance on the Internet, the songs have also been copied | |
| onto compact discs, the Times said. The bootleg CDs are going for $10 at street | |
| markets in Ireland and Britain. | |
| "It is an infringement of our copyright," Marc Marot, managing director of | |
| Island Records, told the Times. | |
| Island Records did not immediately return calls for comment Sunday. The Sunday | |
| Times said the record company is trying to shut down the Internet sites. | |
| Conventional, low-tech theft of the songs has been ruled out, the newspaper | |
| said. | |
| Band managers are investigating the possibility that hackers tapped into | |
| computers at U2's Dublin studio, it said. They may have gained access through | |
| cables that have been feeding images of the band's recording sessions to an | |
| Internet site maintained by Island Records. | |
| Since 1981, U2 has sold 70 million records and grossed more than $1.5 billion. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: Computer Crime Prompts New Parole Restrictions | |
| WASHINGTON (Dec 17, 1996 07:42 a.m. EST) -- The U.S. Parole Commission | |
| has approved restrictions on the use of computers by certain high-risk | |
| parolees. | |
| The Justice Department announced Monday that the panel voted this month | |
| to authorize such restrictions as requiring certain parolees to get | |
| prior written approval from the commission before using an Internet | |
| service provider, computerized bulletin board system or any public or | |
| private computer network. | |
| Other restrictions would: prohibit particular parolees from possessing | |
| or using data encryption programs, require some parolees to agree to | |
| unannounced inspection of computers by probation officers, require some | |
| parolees to compile daily logs of computer use or to pay for equipment | |
| to monitor their computer use. | |
| "Unrestricted access to the Internet and other computer online services | |
| can provide sophisticated offenders with new opportunities for crime and | |
| criminal associations," said Edward F. Reilly Jr., commission chairman. | |
| "We cannot ignore the possibility that such offenders may be tempted to | |
| use computer services to repeat their crimes." | |
| The commission noted a surge in "how-to" information on child | |
| molestation, hate crime and the illegal use of explosives available on | |
| the Internet and on computer online services. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: (none) [Evil Hacker SYN-Flood's WebCom] | |
| SAN FRANCISCO - The FBI says it is investigating charges that sabotage | |
| caused a 40-hour outage last weekend on Web Communications, (WebCom) a | |
| Silicon Valley service hosting 3,000 World Wide Web sites. | |
| WebCom said it believes a hacker using a college computer network in | |
| British, Columbia, Canada, flooded its server in San Jose with | |
| requests for connections from phony addresses. It said the attack | |
| ended Sunday after MCI Net, a unit of MCI Communications, blocked | |
| telephone traffic between WebCom and CA-Net of Canada at the request | |
| of WebCom and its local service provider. | |
| WebCom Executive Vice President Thomas Leavitt said the sites the | |
| company hosts were unreachable much of Saturday Dec. 14 and Sunday | |
| Dec. 15, causing customers, some of who operate retail sites, to | |
| suffer "extensive" damages, | |
| "One customer said he lost about $20,000 in revenue due to a special | |
| event that was not able to occur. Others said they lost business on | |
| one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year," Leavitt said. | |
| WebCom said the incident was due to a common type of Internet sabotage | |
| known as "denial of service" or "SYN flood," in which a computer | |
| hacker jams a server with requests for connections from addresses that | |
| do not exist. These types of attacks are easy to carry out and hard to | |
| trace, Leavitt said. | |
| "You can fake where the messages are coming from," Leavitt said, and | |
| almost any with access to the Internet and some technical | |
| sophistication can do it. | |
| Others in the industry have experienced similar attacks, WebCom said. | |
| Public Access Networks of New York City experienced a SYN flood attack | |
| in September. | |
| WebCom, headquartered in Santa Cruz, said its own investigation helped | |
| by three Internet service providers traced the origin of the flooding | |
| message to a computer on a college network in British Columbia linked | |
| to BC-Net, a local Internet service provider there. | |
| Leavitt said that a network administrator at Malaspina | |
| University-College in Nanaimo, British Columbia, has identified the | |
| computer used for the sabotage and that it was broken into by someone | |
| without authorized access to that computer or to the college network. | |
| The individual has not been identified. | |
| FBI spokesman George Grotz said that the FBI is working with the | |
| information tracing the requests for connection to British Columbia | |
| but noted the actual perpetrator may nothing to do with the college or | |
| BC-Net. "BC-Net may just be another link in the case," he said. | |
| The FBI has jurisdiction over such cases under Title 18 section 1030, | |
| which deals with falsely perpetrating denial of service on a computer | |
| network. | |
| Leavitt said if the industry, or specifically Internet service | |
| providers, adopt certain "source filtering" coding they can prevent | |
| people from using one network to send messages that appear to come | |
| from somewhere else. | |
| The U.S. Department of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability | |
| has an advisory warning about SYN Floods. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: German Police Seek 12 After Raids On Computer Gang | |
| MUNICH, Germany (Nov 28, 1996 3:36 p.m. EST) - European police are | |
| seeking 12 members of an international computer chip counterfeiting gang | |
| that was smashed this week in Germany and nine other countries, Bavarian | |
| law officials said Thursday. | |
| The raids, part of an operation code-named "Goldfish," resulted in the | |
| arrest of 12 others suspected of selling counterfeit Pentium chips and | |
| pirated software programs as well as fraud, money-laundering and tax | |
| evasion, Bavarian prosecutor Hubert Vollmann told a news conference. | |
| Police did not release the names of the suspects. | |
| The highly-organized ring specialized in smuggling old Intel Corp | |
| Pentium chips into Europe and selling them as new, Vollmann said. It | |
| also sold illegal copies of Microsoft Corp programs and counterfeit | |
| Hercules graphics adapters, he said. | |
| Vollmann said the ring caused damages of several millions of dollars in | |
| lost sales. | |
| Tuesday and Wednesday, more than 2,000 law enforcement officals | |
| confiscated "truckloads" of files, computer disks and equipment in | |
| Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, he said. | |
| The raids centered on offices and apartments near Munich in southern | |
| Germany, and in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Vollmann said. | |
| Three Germans and five Asians were arrested in Germany. Four other | |
| arrests were made in France. | |
| The raids were the culmination of a three-year probe that began when a | |
| Laotian businessman reported he was robbed of almost $20,000 in 1993. He | |
| came under suspicion after two of his attackers told police they had | |
| robbed him of 500,000 marks. | |
| A series of unusually large bank transactions by the man's companies led | |
| to an investigation into tax evasion and money laundering, police said. | |
| In addition to the 12 individuals under arrest and the 12 still at | |
| large, 16 others were arrested in the raids on charges unrelated to chip | |
| counterfeiting, Vollmann said. | |
| The chip counterfeiting ring operated a multi-tiered organization that | |
| bought used 133-megahertz Pentium chips in Asia and retouched them in | |
| Hong Kong to look like new 166- megahertz processors, Vollmann said. | |
| The group shipped the chips to Europe by courier to avoid customs and | |
| taxes, and sold them to personal computer companies, he said. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: The tale of the Russian Hacker | |
| Everyone wants to know how Vladimir Levin did it, writes Hugo Cornwall. | |
| In mid-1994, as a 26-year-old computer scientist in St Petersburg, he is | |
| supposed to have led a gang that hacked into Citibank in New Jersey, and | |
| organised more than 40 wire transfers from customer accounts. Russia's | |
| Mafia is said to have been involved. | |
| Levin is still denying his involvement and, for the past 21 months, he | |
| has been in prison in south London, fighting extradition. On Sunday, he | |
| speaks for the first time to Channel 4's Equinox programme. | |
| Could Levin really be living proof of the "professional hacker" so often | |
| celebrated in movies, books and lurid conference presentations? Is he | |
| a product of a KGB school of super hackers now turned loose on the | |
| world as part of Russian criminal enterprise? If that turned out to be | |
| true, it would delight the information warriors, the cyber-SWAT teams | |
| set up by the US armed forces whose most recent claims on federal | |
| budgets have been on the basis of threats to the global information | |
| infrastructure. Equally pleased will be the platoons of consultants, | |
| the sales forces of computer companies and the organisers of high- | |
| price exclusive conferences. | |
| Equinox tells a different story. The programme's researchers found a | |
| Russian "recreational" hacker group called Megazoid. The Citibank fraud | |
| because a group of hackers worldwide compiled files on the VAX/VMS | |
| operating system, and some Russian hackers found a Citibank computer | |
| with which they could play and use as a free jumping-off point to | |
| other computers. One of them says that, for $100, he sold details to | |
| Levin and his friends who ran a computer import/export business. In | |
| reality Levin appears to have been an average-ability programmer | |
| with entrepreneurial ambitions. | |
| The Citibank fraud was possible only because of a number of coincidences - | |
| poor security management, a group of Russian hackers getting lucky | |
| and their information falling into the hands entreprenurs with the | |
| right connections. This is the pattern of much computer crime. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: Expert Warns Of Lax Security On Web | |
| SAN FRANCISCO - An outspoken computer security expert, citing his | |
| just-completed study, says up to two-thirds of certain Web sites, | |
| including reputable institutions like banks and the media, are | |
| vulnerable to hacker attacks. | |
| Dan Farmer -- who stirred controversy in 1995 as co-author of software | |
| dubbed SATAN that enables people with basic skills to infiltrate | |
| computer systems -- surveyed more than 2,200 Web sites. | |
| The survey released last week covered a relatively small portion of | |
| the sprawling Web but focused on sites where security is more of a | |
| concern. | |
| Farmer probed 660 bank sites around the globe, 312 North American | |
| online newspaper sites, 274 credit union sites, 47 U.S. federal | |
| government sites and 451 Internet sex clubs. | |
| In a summary, Farmer said that, out of his sample of about 1,700 Web | |
| sites he selected, "over 60 percent could be broken into or | |
| destroyed." As a control, he probed a random sample of 469 sites. | |
| Farmer said he used relatively crude, non-intrusive methods and did | |
| not actually break into the sites. He also said he would not publish | |
| the names of the sites he surveyed. | |
| "I barely electronically breathed on these (computer) hosts," he said | |
| in his report, adding that, considering more intrusive tests, some 70 | |
| percent to 80 percent of sites may have security flaws. | |
| Other computer security experts found Farmer's results credible and | |
| authoritative, David Kennedy, director of research, education and | |
| consulting at the National Computer Security Association, said in a | |
| telephone interview. | |
| Experts and computer industry executives said the study shed more | |
| light on a problem well known within the industry but insufficiently | |
| understood by the public at large. | |
| The threat of hacker attacks was highlighted earlier this year when | |
| intruders broke into the Justice Department and Central Intelligence | |
| Agency Web sites and altered them, prompting the CIA to close its site | |
| temporarily. | |
| Farmer stressed that Web sites are being used primarily for marketing | |
| and advertising purposes and that, although some bank sites may allow | |
| visitors to look up balances, the sites do not provide access to | |
| internal financial systems. | |
| Deborah Triant, president of CheckPoint Software Technologies' U.S. | |
| operating unit in Redwood City, Calif., said banks routinely keep Web | |
| sites on separate computer systems. | |
| "Our experience is the banks are so paranoid that they won't even | |
| allow the access that they should be able to allow and would be quite | |
| safe if you had a modern firewall" protecting their networks from | |
| intruders, said Triant, whose company is the market leader in firewall | |
| technology. | |
| "So, if their Web site is vulnerable, that doesn't mean that anything | |
| else at the bank is vulnerable, or that their customers' accounts or | |
| the transactions their customers are doing are vulnerable," she said. | |
| Nevertheless, with the advent of electronic commerce over the Internet | |
| expected to gain momentum in 1997, lax security remains a critical | |
| issue, experts said. | |
| Farmer separated security flaws into two categories -- a red category | |
| where he said a site was "essentially wide open to any potential | |
| attacker" and a yellow category deemed less serious but with potential | |
| for disastrous consequences. | |
| Of the 660 bank sites, 68 percent were deemed vulnerable and nearly 36 | |
| percent were in the red category. | |
| Some 51 percent of credit unions were vulnerable, 62 percent of the | |
| federal sites, nearly 70 percent of newspapers and 66 percent of sex | |
| clubs. Sites in the red category ranged from 20 percent for credit | |
| unions to 38 percent for federal sites and 39 percent for online | |
| newspapers. | |
| Of the random sample of 469 Web sites used as the control, a far | |
| smaller percentage -- 33 percent -- were found to be vulnerable, and | |
| 17 percent of the group was in the red category. | |
| Farmer said part of the problem is that Web sites are trying to do too | |
| much at once, increasing their complexity and making security far more | |
| difficult to achieve. | |
| But, even with security concerns, credit card transactions over the | |
| Net are much safer than those carried out in shopping malls, said the | |
| security association's Kennedy. | |
| Farmer also said he plans to incorporate some newer testing tools into | |
| a new version of SATAN, which stands for Security Administrator Tool | |
| for Analyzing Networks, early next year. | |
| The program enables people who manage corporate networks to locate | |
| weaknesses and fix them. But it has been controversial because it can | |
| also easily be used by malevolent intruders trying to cause damage. | |
| Triant said there have been no reported security breaches at any of | |
| the more than 15,000 institutions with CheckPoint network security | |
| installed and said such precautions should provide adequate | |
| protection. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: (none) [Man pleads guilty to writing AOL hacking soft] | |
| source: Reuters World ReportJanuary 8, 1997 14:55:00 | |
| WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuter) - A Yale University student pleaded guilty | |
| Wednesday to committing computer fraud for developing a programme that | |
| allowed him to use America Online Inc. without paying, the Justice Department | |
| said. | |
| Prosecutors said Nicholas Ryan, 20 of Victor, New York, entered the | |
| guilty plea at a federal court hearing in Alexandria, Virginia. He faces | |
| up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine at sentencing, scheduled at | |
| the end of March. | |
| Prosecutors said Ryan in June 1995 developed the programme, called | |
| "AOL4FREE," and frequently used it through December 1995, avoiding having | |
| to pay the firm's rate of $2.95 per hour. | |
| Ryan, who identified himself as "Happy Hardcore," also made the | |
| programme available to other America Online users, and it circulated within | |
| AOL chat rooms, prosecutors said. | |
| As the company made changes to stop the use of the programme, Ryan | |
| modified it and made the updated version available to other online service | |
| users, the prosecutors said. | |
| They said the heaviest use of the programme took place from September | |
| through December 1995. America Online estimated that on a single day | |
| individuals using the programme logged onto the system about 2,000 times, | |
| the prosecutors said. | |
| The case was brought by the U.S. Attorney's office and the Justice | |
| Department's computer crime section. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: Hackers Hack Crack, Steal Quake | |
| author: Annaliza Savage | |
| 8:00 pm PST - Hackers broke into the Web server and file server of Crack dot | |
| Com, a Texas gaming company, on Wednesday, stealing the source code for | |
| id's Quake 1.01, as well as Crack's newest project, Golgatha, and older games | |
| Abuse and Mac Abuse. | |
| Although the hackers left a trail that may make them easy to track, the | |
| theft did its damage. "Quake's raw engine market value dropped several | |
| hundred thousand dollars," said Dave Taylor, who formed Crack dot Com | |
| after leaving id Software, where he worked on Doom and Quake. But Barrett | |
| Alexander of id denies that the financial loss will be so great, saying | |
| that the code for Quake's unique engine is recognizable, making it hard | |
| for anyone to be able to use without id's knowledge. | |
| Crack dot Com is also worried that its unreleased techniques, developed for | |
| Golgotha, could make their way into the hands of other game competitors, who | |
| could copy bits of code into their own software. | |
| The hackers, who were able to get through the Crack's firewall, left intact a | |
| bash-history file that recorded all their movements. They even logged onto | |
| IRC's #quake to brag about their exploits, and made Quake's source available | |
| on Crack dot Com's homepage (it is no longer there). | |
| The hackers, who identified themselves as being from the group FEH, | |
| probably broke through Crack's firewall through their Web site. The former | |
| editor of the now defunct hacker magazine FEH denies any knowledge of the | |
| event, and has already posted a disclaimer. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: Hackers Sabotage Blair's Internet Image | |
| author: Robert Uhlig, Technology Correspondent | |
| source: The Telegraph | |
| date: 10th December 1996 | |
| The Labour Party has called for a police inquiry after computer hackers | |
| made repeated attacks on its Internet site, replacing a picture of Tony | |
| Blair with his Spitting Image puppet and headlining the site with "New | |
| Labour - Same Politicians. Same Lies". | |
| A group of British hackers, calling itself the Digital Anarchists, | |
| infiltrated the Labour publicity site for the second time yesterday and | |
| said it would continue to attack the Labour Web site this week. "We're | |
| going to keep doing it again and again until further notice. And we're | |
| going to hit some other sites as well," a spokesman for the group said | |
| last night. | |
| The hackers later infiltrated the Labour site a third time, while | |
| computer experts were attempting to rectify the second attack. The Web | |
| site has now been closed until future notice to prevent more further | |
| embarrassing alterations of its content. | |
| It is believed that the hackers will attack other political parties | |
| including the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party | |
| and Plaid Cymru. Internet sites belonging to other public organisations, | |
| blue-chip companies and newspapers may also be affected. | |
| The first attack, which promised free drugs and beer to young voters, | |
| was made on Saturday while the British hacker community was staging a | |
| Christmas party in Manchester. | |
| The Labour leader's response to the Budget was replaced with a live sex | |
| show of women wearing the "demon eyes" masks seen in the Tory | |
| advertising campaign. The hackers also changed the title "The road to | |
| the Manifesto" to "The road to nowhere" and altered links to other parts | |
| of the site so they read "The Labour Party sex shop". | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: Police looking into hacking of Government web site | |
| author: Adeline Goh | |
| source: The Straits Times | |
| date: Dec 10 1996 | |
| POLICE are investigating how the Singapore government's Web site on the | |
| Internet was modified without authorisation. | |
| In the incident on Sunday, someone replaced the site's contents with a | |
| list of more than 100 user identities (IDs) of people from various | |
| government bodies. | |
| Yesterday, the Commercial Crime Division (CCD) of the Criminal | |
| Investigation Department told The Straits Times that three officers from | |
| its computer crime team had started work on the case. | |
| It added that the first step would be to trace the identity of the hacker | |
| by checking the log files of the computer in which the Web site is housed. | |
| These log files keep track of people who access it. | |
| The web site -- at http://www.gov.sg -- is the on-line version of the | |
| Singapore Government directory and has links to the Web sites of various | |
| bodies such as the ministries. | |
| The original contents of the site were restored by the National Computer | |
| Board (NCB) on Sunday afternoon. When contacted yesterday, NCB, which | |
| maintains the computer that houses the Web site, said that the hackers did | |
| not gain access to any government networks which contain sensitive data. | |
| It added that the computer where the Web site was stored did not contain | |
| sensitive information. | |
| It declined to give further details about the incident, saying that it had | |
| referred the matter to the CCD. | |
| Several computer experts contacted yesterday said that electronic networks | |
| could be broken into with special computer programs. | |
| They are placed into a network by hackers and they capture a user's log-in | |
| password, which can then be retrieved. | |
| Those contacted added that passwords which are proper English words were | |
| easy for hackers to crack. | |
| This is because there are also programs which try to log on by trying | |
| words found in English dictionaries. | |
| One of the experts, Mr A. I. Chow, 32, a partner in a computer firm, said | |
| perpetrators could even impersonate computer system administrators and ask | |
| a particular user on the network to change his password to one supplied by | |
| them. "When the user changes his password, the hacker can then access the | |
| network easily with the user's account." | |
| Those contacted said data on Internet computers could be made more secure | |
| if system administrators allowed Web pages to be updated only during | |
| certain times or from computers within an organisation. | |
| Security could also be improved, they said, if passwords were generated | |
| randomly and refreshed constantly. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: Computer Programmer Accused Of Breaking Into California | |
| State Contract Data | |
| SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Jan 17, 1997 00:36 a.m. EST) -- The Bay Area | |
| computer programmer who was arrested for hacking into the state | |
| Department of Information Technology computer system tapped into | |
| confidential information dealing with nearly a half million dollars | |
| worth of government contracts, court records show. | |
| David Ernesto Salas of Alameda, who faces four years in prison, | |
| allegedly told others he had obtained confidential communication between | |
| a contractor and department officials and he was going to use it in a | |
| lawsuit against the department, said documents on file in Sacramento | |
| Superior Court. | |
| Salas, 34, who is free on $50,000 bail, was arraigned Tuesday in | |
| Sacramento on three felony counts of computer hacking, including one | |
| count which alleges he attempted to destroy the department's computer | |
| system after his hacking was discovered. | |
| Although some data was lost in the crash and the department's computer | |
| system was down for two days in September, nearly everything has been | |
| re-created by a backup computer system. Damage was estimated about | |
| $10,000, officials said. | |
| The incident, however, has been an embarrassment to department officials | |
| and is viewed with concern because Information Technology oversees $2.2 | |
| billion in computer projects throughout state government. | |
| The department was established last year after a series of audits and | |
| investigations showed that millions in public funds were wasted on | |
| bungled state computer projects. | |
| Kenneth Keller, Salas's San Francisco attorney, has said his client, who | |
| was a subcontractor hired to develop and install the department's | |
| computer system, will eventually be vindicated. | |
| Keller, who couldn't be reached for comment Thursday, said last week | |
| that Salas had permission to be using the computer. | |
| But according to court documents, Salas lost his authority to access the | |
| computer when he lost his contract after a dispute with another | |
| contractor in August. Beginning shortly before 11 p.m. Sept. 25 and into | |
| the following day, Salas gained access to the department's computer. To | |
| this day, it is not known exactly what he did once he entered the | |
| system. | |
| The backup computer, unbeknownst to Salas, did capture a trail of | |
| changed passwords that led to the highest administrative level, giving | |
| Salas full access to the entire computer system, documents said. | |
| "Electronic mail (E-mail) regarding state service contracts worth | |
| approximately $400,000 between (a contractor) and DOIT resided on the | |
| DOIT system," said a summary of the facts in the case prepared for | |
| Salas's arrest. | |
| Special Agent Fred Adler of the Sacramento Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force, | |
| which arrested Salas, said Thursday the case is still under | |
| investigation and another arrest is possible. | |
| In his affidavit for the search warrant, Adler said on Sept. 9, Salas | |
| told Information Technology deputy director and chief counsel Alexis | |
| Schatten that he had contacted an attorney to initiate a lawsuit against | |
| a competing contractor for slandering him and other subcontractors. | |
| Adler said there were witnesses who had seen Salas "bringing up | |
| privileged information on (his computer) screen" and that Salas had | |
| "alluded" to others that he possessed confidential information about | |
| Information Technology's business dealings, court records show. | |
| Department officials told investigators that "numerous confidential | |
| communications exist on the their system relative to procurement, | |
| installation and maintenance of multi-million dollar, state computer | |
| systems," the affidavit said. | |
| "Knowledge of these communications could prove to be financially | |
| advantageous to firms involved in these processes," the affidavit said. | |
| Rich Halberg, department spokesman, declined to comment on the search | |
| warrant out of fear it might jeopardize an ongoing prosecution and | |
| investigation. | |
| He did say, however, that the department computer system does not | |
| contain actual contracts, but he did say that there may be E-mail | |
| pertaining to such contracts. | |
| "We are doing the right thing by going after this guy," Halberg said. | |
| "It is all too common in large companies and government to not want to | |
| go after the hacker because it is difficult to prove. Hopefully, this | |
| guy won't be in a position to do this again to another government | |
| agency," Halberg said. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: (none) [Australian Phone Worker Rigs Radio Contest] | |
| source: COMTEX Newswire | |
| date: 12/10/96 7:48 PM | |
| SYDNEY, Dec. 11 (UPI S) -- An Australian telephone company worker who won | |
| $50,000 Australian (U.S. $40,000) in a radio station's phone-in | |
| competition has been charged with fraud after allegedly hacking into the | |
| phone line. Brian Ronald Francis, who police say used his expertise to | |
| ensure he was the 10th caller in the competition, has also been charged | |
| with two more offenses relating to two other radio competitions he won | |
| this year. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| title: Hacker challenges `dark side' book | |
| author: Simson Garfinkel | |
| Special to the Mercury News | |
| KEVIN Poulsen was one of the most talented "dark side hackers" ever to | |
| phreak a phone call. | |
| For more than two years, Poulsen lived the life of a fugitive as part | |
| of the seedy Los Angeles underground. He made money by reprogramming | |
| Pacific Bell's computers for pimps and escort services, re-activating | |
| old telephone numbers and building a voice-mail network pairing | |
| prostitutes with their johns. | |
| And he cleaned up by messing with the phones used by Los Angeles radio | |
| stations, rigging their call-in contests so that he would always win | |
| the big bucks or the car. | |
| But Poulsen got caught and he spent more than five years in jail. | |
| Behind bars in 1993, Poulsen did what any phone phreak would do: He | |
| picked up the pay phone and started making collect calls. But these | |
| calls where different: they went to Jonathan Littman, a journalist in | |
| Mill Valley who had just published a magazine article about Poulsen's | |
| crimes and exploits and was about to write a book on the same topic. | |
| Poulsen wanted to make sure that Littman got the story right. He felt | |
| that Littman had made a lot of mistakes in the magazine article. | |
| Today, Poulsen feels somewhat betrayed by the journalist to whom he | |
| gave total access. After reading an advance copy of Littman's book, | |
| Poulsen says Littman has twisted the truth in order to make a more | |
| compelling story. | |
| "Most of my complaints about Littman's book are small things," said | |
| Poulsen, who is on parole and living in Sherman Oaks, a Los Angeles | |
| suburb. "He has major events right but then he changes the meaning of | |
| them by changing minor events and making up quotes." | |
| Littman stands by his work. | |
| The book, "The Watchman: The Twisted Life and Crimes of Serial Hacker | |
| Kevin Poulsen," is due to be published next month by Little, Brown and | |
| Co. It's an insider's look at the world of a criminal computer hacker, | |
| one of the most detailed yet published. | |
| "He was one of the first to hack the Internet and get busted for it," | |
| said Littman, referring to Poulsen's 1984 arrest for breaking into | |
| university computers on the ARPAnet, predecessor to today's Internet. | |
| "They decided not to prosecute him because he was 17" when he was | |
| arrested, Littman said. Instead, Poulsen was hired by a Silicon Valley | |
| defense contractor. "It was every hacker's dream -- to commit a crime | |
| and instead of going to jail, to get a job with what was a top think | |
| tank and defense contractor," Littman said. | |
| Soon, however, Poulsen was back to his old tricks -- with a vengeance, | |
| according to the book. He started physically breaking into Pacific | |
| Bell offices, stealing manuals and writing down passwords. Much of | |
| what he found went into a storage locker. But Poulsen couldn't handle | |
| his finances, and got behind in his rent. When the locker company | |
| broke open Poulsen's lock his stash was discovered and a trap was | |
| laid. As the FBI closed in, Poulsen left town, a fugitive on the run. | |
| Guilty plea | |
| He was caught June 21, 1991, and spent nearly three years in pre-trial | |
| detention. On June 14, 1994, in federal court in Southern California, | |
| he pleaded guilty to seven counts of computer fraud, interception of | |
| wire communications, mail fraud, money laundering and obstruction of | |
| justice. He was then transferred to Northern California to face a | |
| spying charge, based on his possession of material the government | |
| called classified. He pleaded guilty to fraud, possession of | |
| unauthorized access devices and fraudulent use of a Social Security | |
| number, and was released June 4, last year. | |
| The Watchman is Littman's second book on the computer hacker | |
| underground. His first, "The Fugitive Game," followed the exploits of | |
| hacker Kevin Mitnick, who was on the run and eventually caught by | |
| computer security expert Tsutomu Shimomura and New York Times reporter | |
| John Markoff. Shimomura and Markoff wrote their own book describing | |
| the chase, and they both objected to Littman's version of the events. | |
| For his part, Poulsen seems most angry about the implication of the | |
| new book's title -- that he was somehow obsessed with eavesdropping | |
| and largely acted alone. | |
| Only two wiretaps | |
| In the book, Littman has Poulsen listening to dozens of conversations | |
| -- even wiretapping the telephones of people trying to sell used | |
| equipment through newspaper classified ads, to see if they are being | |
| honest with their prices. | |
| Poulsen insists that he wiretapped the telephones of only two people: | |
| another hacker who was also an FBI informant and his high-school | |
| girlfriend. | |
| "He also reports that I obsessively followed the details of every | |
| escort date, including details of the tricks," Poulsen says, among | |
| other complaints. "He made that up. Totally made that up." | |
| Littman denies making up quotes, and insists that everything in the | |
| book was told to him by one of the participants. | |
| "I've written a book about a very complicated story about | |
| controversial people who had very different versions of what | |
| happened," Littman said. "I've done the best I can to view them | |
| objectively. Somebody else might view them differently, and the | |
| participants obviously have a subjective perspective. My views are in | |
| the book." | |
| But Poulsen says that Littman's fundamental premise is flawed. "John | |
| had a problem in writing this book," Poulsen said. "He wanted to sell | |
| it as the troubled loner-hacker-stalker guy. The problem is I had five | |
| co-defendants and it is hard to portray someone as a troubled loner | |
| when you have five other people making it happen." | |
| Not a loner | |
| Ron Austin, Poulsen's friend and co-conspirator, agrees. "Littman has | |
| to write an interesting book, I guess," he said. "He downplays the | |
| role of a lot of people, but I think that's because he is writing a | |
| book about Kevin. My role is downplayed." Austin also said the role of | |
| Justin Petersen, a hard-rocking hacker and co-conspirator is | |
| underplayed. | |
| Austin, also on parole, said he is concerned that the controversy | |
| regarding Littman's portrayal of Poulsen might obscure some of the | |
| more important issues raised by Littman's book: That the FBI engaged | |
| in widespread wiretapping of foreign consulates in the San Francisco | |
| area, the FBI's apparent hiring of an informant to commit illegal acts | |
| on the agency's behalf, and that the FBI's apparent ability to decrypt | |
| files on Poulsen's computer that had been encrypted with the | |
| U.S. government's Data Encryption Standard, a popular data-scrambling | |
| algorithm. | |
| The FBI office in Los Angeles declined to comment on the Poulsen | |
| case. A representative of the FBI's Washington office said, "We | |
| normally do not comment on books that are coming out until we have had | |
| an opportunity to review the book." | |
| As a condition of his plea bargain, Poulsen is prohibited from | |
| discussing FBI wiretaps. | |
| Littman said he feels "lucky as a writer to have been able to spend | |
| some time with Poulsen and these other characters in the story." | |
| "One thing about Poulsen is he really had a very highly developed | |
| ethical model that he believed in," Littman said. "He found it | |
| challenged by his circumstances and the people he associated with. I | |
| found it fascinating to see how he resolved this age-old computer | |
| hacker ethic with a changing world." | |
| Cellular Code-breakers Blame Standards Process | |
| 577 Words | |
| 4312 Characters | |
| 04/03/97 | |
| TR Wireless News | |
| Copyright (c) 1997 BRP Publications, Inc. | |
| Computer scientists claim they have demonstrated how to break the | |
| industry-standard code that encrypts cellular phone calls-a discovery | |
| they termed "a setback to the U.S. cellular telephone industry." The | |
| code-breakers included Bruce Schneier of Counterpane Systems, a | |
| Minneapolis consulting firm, and graduate student David Wagner of the | |
| University of California at Berkeley. | |
| They criticized the wireless industry's technical standards-setting | |
| process for establishing what they consider a weak standard, and they | |
| attacked the government for "hamstringing emerging cellular security | |
| technology." Release of their announcement and academic paper was timed | |
| to coincide with congressional hearings on encryption policy. | |
| The researchers' press release observes that the digital cellular | |
| system uses encryption to "scramble voice communications." Their paper, | |
| Cryptanalysis of the Cellular Message Encryption Algorithm (CMEA), | |
| concerns cellular phone keypad entries, but not voice conversations. Mr. | |
| Schneier told TRWN that the digital cellular voice encryption standard | |
| is "so incredibly vulnerable" to decryption that it was "not worth | |
| writing about." The voice standard's fundamental code was broken by the | |
| "Union Army in the Civil War," he added. | |
| The researchers didn't challenge either the subscriber | |
| "authentication" or the "fingerprinting" antifraud procedures now common | |
| in the cellular service. Authentication and fingerprinting technologies | |
| "are not compromised by the cryptography announced today," according to | |
| the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. | |
| The technical paper describes a cryptographic "attack" on the CMEA. | |
| Such an attack, in practice, would require analysis of data recovered | |
| from recorded calls, received on radios capable of decoding digital | |
| cellular transmissions. Such radios aren't easily available; the common | |
| "scanner" can't receive them. | |
| "We did not touch a cellular phone in our analysis, and there is no | |
| commercial equipment available that could receive digital cellular | |
| signals. We worked with a paper standard only," Mr. Schneier said. The | |
| attack took "minutes or hours" on a Pentium-class personal computer, and | |
| to comply with U.S. laws and who agreed not to "misuse" the | |
| information. Federal agencies, including NSA, had certain | |
| "sensitivities" as to the encryption power of CMEA and its lawful export | |
| under then-current laws, he said. These concerns led to CMEA's being | |
| somewhat less "robust" than the authentication algorithm. | |
| Updating CMEA to address the concerns raised by the cryptographers' | |
| announcement has become the "highest priority" for the TR45 committee at | |
| its upcoming meetings, Mr. Marinho said. He added that the shift in | |
| federal jurisdiction over encryption from the State Department to the | |
| Commerce Department has enabled TIA to move forward in improving CMEA. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| TRENDS IN BRIEF... | |
| 285 Words | |
| 2117 Characters | |
| 04/07/97 | |
| Report on Microsoft | |
| Copyright 1997 Information Access Company. All rights reserved. | |
| A trade publication reports that a "major" security flaw has been | |
| uncovered in Microsoft's network operating system, Windows NT. | |
| The flaw could enable a user dialing in from a remote location to | |
| unscramble encrypted information -- including a corporate network's | |
| entire registry of user passwords -- and display it as plain text. EE | |
| Times Online (http://www.eet.com) said the discovery is especially | |
| troublesome for Microsoft because it has tried to position NT as more | |
| secure network server than alternatives such as Unix. Two professional | |
| security technologists wrote the code for the "hack" that found the | |
| flaw. | |
| The code has been verified by several experts and is making the | |
| rounds on the Internet via an mailing list frequented by skilled | |
| hackers with an interest in NT-security issues. The potentially | |
| password-cracking code is the third major security flaw found in NT in | |
| as many months and follows recent revelations of security holes in | |
| Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser. The software giant's | |
| security technology has come under closer scrutiny by the hacking | |
| community as NT and Internet Explorer have found broader market | |
| acceptance... At least a dozen major companies have joined the race to | |
| buy, invest or strike strategic alliances with small Java developers, | |
| according to a trade publication report. Driven by the growing | |
| popularity of Java and the need to get products to market more quickly | |
| than they can be developed internally, these vendors frequently are | |
| courting the same developers to shore up their Java offerings. One | |
| developer, while declining to comment on any talks his company has had, | |
| named Sun Microsystems Inc., Microsoft, Novell Inc., Netscape | |
| Communications Corp. and IBM/Lotus as the top Java hunters, followed by | |
| a second tier of tools vendors that include Symantec Corp. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | |
| Social Security officials insist Web info is secure | |
| April 8, 1997 | |
| Web posted at: 12:10 a.m. EST | |
| WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Social security records now available through the | |
| Internet pose few security threats to the individuals who request them | |
| administration officials said Monday. | |
| For the past month, Americans have had the option of having their Personal | |
| Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement (PEBES) sent to them electronically. | |
| The information previously had to be mailed to them in a process that took as | |
| long as six weeks -- and at a cost of millions of dollars in postage each year. | |
| Phil Gambino, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration, said the top | |
| priority of the new program is maintaining privacy, and several security | |
| features have been built into the new system to do just that. | |
| "The information going back and forth between the requester and Social Security | |
| is encrypted, so if it gets intercepted in the middle, it can't be interpreted -- it | |
| would look like jibberish," he said. | |
| Auditors also are able to trace the origin of a request to the exact personal | |
| computer used to make it, he said. | |
| Still, critics concerned about privacy rights are worried. | |
| "As soon as crooks start exploiting this service to get other people's | |
| information, Social Security is going to have a real problem on its hands," | |
| Evan Hendricks, chairman of the U.S. Privacy Council in Washington, told USA | |
| Today. | |
| The newspaper identified various types of potential abuse: potential employers | |
| could get the salary history of job applicants; co-workers could determine how | |
| much fellow employees make; landlords could use the information to determine | |
| whether someone can afford an apartment. | |
| While Gambino insisted someone would have to "go through a great deal of | |
| effort" to steal information, even the PEBES Web page offers a disclaimer: "We | |
| cannot absolutely guarantee that the information you are sending will not be | |
| intercepted by others and decrypted." | |
| Indeed, one person in January decoded an encryption code similar to the one | |
| used to secure the Social Security information. | |
| Responding to a challenge from a computer security firm, a graduate student | |
| cracked the code in 3 1/2 hours. He used 250 work stations to do test 100 | |
| billion code combinations per hour to crack a 40-bit electronic key. The | |
| PEBES page is encrypted with at least a 40-bit key, although it could have | |
| 128 bits or more. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | |
| Web authors linked to suicide sect | |
| By Alan Boyle and Paul Chavez | |
| MSNBC | |
| Members of the religious community who died in Rancho Santa Fe | |
| earned money by designing business sites on the World Wide Web and | |
| may have tied their death pact to coincide with the return of the | |
| Hale-Bopp comet. | |
| Farewell tape shows cultists' calm resolve Cult built an 'earth ship' of | |
| old tires Rendezvous with mortality Cults growing on the Net How to know if a | |
| loved one is in a cult Talk about this story in our News BBS. | |
| The group did business as Higher Source Contract Enterprises and | |
| designed a variety of sites, including the San Diego Polo Clubs home | |
| page on the World Wide Web. | |
| Commander Al Fulmer of the San Diego County Sheriffs Office said | |
| during a Thursday press conference that the group also called itself | |
| Heavens Gate. A Web site using that name makes a connection | |
| between the Hale-Bopp comet, which last visited Earth about 4,200 | |
| years ago, and a time of closure. | |
| The Heavens Gate site was found under several addresses | |
| Thursday, including one Internet address located in Romania. Most of | |
| the sites were either pulled off the World Wide Web later Thursday or | |
| were made inaccessible because of high volumes of Internet traffic. | |
| Katie Greene, a spokesperson for Internet service provider | |
| Concentric Network, located in Californias Silicon Valley south of San | |
| Francisco, said they have been providing Internet service to the group | |
| since March 1995. | |
| A section of one Heavens Gate site outlined the groups beliefs and | |
| said that 2,000 years ago a crew member of the kingdom of heaven took | |
| over the body of Jesus. This Christ-like member prepared others for | |
| departure into the kingdom of heaven. | |
| The site said the groups mission was the same. | |
| I am in the same position to todays society as was the One that | |
| was in Jesus then, the sites author wrote. My being here now is | |
| actually a continuation of that last task as was promised, to those who | |
| were students 2,000 years ago. ... Our only purpose is to offer the | |
| discipline and grafting required of this transition. | |
| Another section of the site described two leaders, a male and | |
| female, who in the early 1970s took over two bodies, which they called | |
| vehicles. | |
| The Heavens Gate group may be a high-tech reincarnation of a | |
| 1970s community that had been dubbed the UFO Cult. | |
| Strong similarities exist between the 1970s group and information | |
| found on World Wide Web sites connected to Heavens Gate. The two | |
| leaders of the the so-called UFO cult have been previously identified in | |
| news reports as Houston residents. News reports also said the female | |
| leader is dead. | |
| One page called Last Chance to Evacuate Earth Before Its | |
| Recycled outlined the groups history and mission. The author of the | |
| page identified himself as Do as in the musical tone. | |
| The author said he was related to the Ti and Do that made news in | |
| 1975 as the UFO cult. The author also said that his female partner, Ti, | |
| left earth in 1985. | |
| Much of the information on the site outlined how representatives | |
| from a Kingdom Level Above Human were on Earth to escort others to | |
| the higher level. | |
| The site also had a section detailing its position against suicide by | |
| non-members. Larry Trachte, professor of religion at Wartburg College, said | |
| that suicide often has a different meaning among religious groups and cults. | |
| Death is seen more in an Eastern perspective, Trachte said. So | |
| there isnt a sense that all this is tragic. Its more the spiritual, mental | |
| orientation of these people that believe this way. They believe this life | |
| is just one in an ongoing cycle or series or wheel of life. And ending this | |
| life is like opening a window or door and moving into another existence. | |
| Trachte said he took some solace in the news that no children were | |
| involved with the group. | |
| He also was not surprised with the connection to the Hale-Bopp comet. | |
| Throughout history, the heavens and the signs of the stars and | |
| peculiar events like comets have signified extraterrestrial powers, | |
| Trachte said. Its not totally surprising that a comet would trigger such a | |
| response. | |
| He said the group was unique in that it apparently mixed modern | |
| phenomena, such as UFOs, computers, the comet and the Internet, with | |
| age-old beliefs of being swept into heaven. | |
| Even in the Christian experience you have that recorded experience | |
| of people from another country following a heavenly display or | |
| revelation, which to them pointed to the birth of Christ, Trachte said. | |
| The Heavens Gate group also designed pages publicizing | |
| Pre-Madonna, an album of Madonnas early songs; | |
| 1-800-HARMONY, a music and video mail-order operation; British | |
| Masters, a clearinghouse for auto parts; and Keep the Faith, a site | |
| devoted to contemporary Christian music and news. | |
| The group used advanced Web page design and technology, | |
| including Java and Javascript, animated images and virtual reality | |
| modeling language. | |
| Beverly Hills businessman Nick Matzorkis, who runs the | |
| Pre-Madonna site, told authorities that he now employs a former | |
| member of the Higher Source group. Matzorkis said that members sent | |
| the employee whom he identified only as Rio two videotapes this week | |
| that described their intentions to commit suicide. | |
| Members of Heavens Gate believed it was time to shed their | |
| containers, perhaps to rendezvous with a UFO they believed was | |
| traveling behind the Hale-Bopp comet, Matzorkis told NBCs Today | |
| show. | |
| The author identified as Do said on the Heavens Gate site, dated | |
| Sept. 29, 1996, that time was short. | |
| The end of this civilization is very close, the site said. The end of | |
| a civilization is accompanied by a spading under, refurbishing the | |
| planet in preparation for another civilization. And the only ones who | |
| can survive that experience have to be those who are taken into the | |
| keeping of the Evolutionary Level Above Human. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | |
| Hecklers hack at human bugs that crawl the Web | |
| A couple of weeks ago the U.S. public was distracted by issues of | |
| Internet pornography. The U.S. Supreme Court was considering the | |
| Communications Decency Act, a law meant to control obscenity | |
| supposedly bombarding youthful computer users. | |
| Meanwhile Marshall Herff Applewhite and 38 members of the Heaven's | |
| Gate cult were updating their Web site, laying in a supply of new | |
| Nike sneakers, and preparing to kill themselves. | |
| Politicians and clergy had a firm grip on the anti-porn franchise. | |
| Who, on the other hand, was tackling murderous mass delusion? | |
| The answer: a few skeptics and hecklers, and they did a good job | |
| of it. | |
| Their postings continue to collect in the forums of Usenet where | |
| cult followers put their prophecies about the alien spaceship that | |
| supposedly follows the comet Hale-Bopp. | |
| "It seems odd that a higher life form would prefer us paltry | |
| humans to wear black Nikes with a white "swoosh' as our ceremonial | |
| sending off garb," sneers a contributor to sci.astro, a group of | |
| otherwise sensible astronomers. "What is wrong with Reebok or | |
| Adidas? Is there a conspiracy here?" | |
| Criticism also focused on syndicated radio host Art Bell, who has | |
| promoted the astronaut-messiah movement. He used to talk more about | |
| evil government, until the Oklahoma City federal building bomb went | |
| off. Lately his agenda has been heavier on spaceships. | |
| "Art's role in their deaths was that of a liar and snake oil | |
| salesman, trafficker in junk science, a promoter of charlatans and | |
| their wares, and a parasitic peddler of pernicious poppycock," says a | |
| contributor "decieving you're some sort of chosen spokesman | |
| for some trumped-up alien scam so you can sell your booklet," says | |
| another. | |
| A preacher surrounding himself with goons in a sealed-off temple, | |
| a con artist fleecing followers in a distant commune, even an | |
| infomercial huckster on radio or television, is protected from | |
| opponents who might distract his victims. | |
| But how many of Jim Jones' followers might have been deterred from | |
| going to Guyana with him, and tasting his deadly brew, had the | |
| Internet been in wider use 20 years ago, complete with its noisy | |
| skeptics countering his preachings? | |
| Jones took more than 900 lives with him. Applewhite only got 38 | |
| to go along. That's progress. | |
| "Think of it as evolution in action. Or maybe they were right and | |
| are aboard the mothership now. Either way, it's 39 fewer idiots | |
| cluttering up the planet," says another contributor. This does not | |
| encourage copycats. | |
| Skeptical argument is not limited to religious themes. In | |
| Usenet's thousands of newsgroups, forums cover politics, social life, | |
| dating and marriage, most of the arts and sciences, journalism and | |
| international relations. To some degree, they are all the scenes of | |
| noisy, sometimes sarcastic and even profane debate. Group members | |
| even patrol for porn, often vigorously repelling sexual-oriented | |
| postings with the same forensic muscle. | |
| Anyone can join in soc.couples, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, | |
| alt.politics.clinton, alt.politics.british, alt.history.what-if, | |
| rec.arts.movies, sci.military, alt.journalism and other cyberbrawls. | |
| They argue feminism, political campaign funding, TV violence, | |
| landmines, sex and Nazism. There is even a fun group that regularly | |
| argues the perennial subject of world domination by hamburger | |
| franchise (it's called alt.nuke.the.usa). | |
| Heckling and skepticism? Indeed, as it should be. | |
| =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | |
| The Netly News Network | |
| April 3, 1997 | |
| IRS raids a cypherpunk | |
| by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com) | |
| Jim Bell's first mistake was publishing an | |
| essay describing how disgruntled citizens could | |
| kill off Federal government agents by using | |
| anonymous betting pools and digital cash. His | |
| second mistake was informing the IRS that the | |
| agency had no legal authority to tax him. | |
| About twenty armed IRS agents and other | |
| Federal police swarmed into Bell's home in | |
| Washington state on Tuesday morning, hunting for | |
| evidence that Bell's "Assassination Politics" | |
| essay had come to fruition. They expropriated | |
| Bell's three computer systems, two guns and even | |
| a solitary mouse cable. The Feds were taking no | |
| chances: Since Bell's voluminous Net postings | |
| mentioned tax collectors, agents from the BATF, | |
| FBI, DEA, and local police forces joined the | |
| raid. | |
| [...] | |
| The raid stemmed from a six-month tussle | |
| between Bell and the IRS, which began in November | |
| 1996 when the 38-year old computer engineer | |
| demanded a hefty tax refund and threatened to | |
| convene his own "common-law court" if it was | |
| refused. That grabbed the Feds' attention. (So | |
| did the actions of the "Multnomah County Common | |
| Law Court," which apparently met in January to | |
| convict IRS agents and Attorney General Janet | |
| Reno of "theft by deception.") In February, IRS | |
| agents seized Bell's 1986 Honda as payment for | |
| back taxes -- and found inside it a printout of | |
| his "Assassination Politics" essay. " | |
| [...] | |
| And it was, ultimately, a Federal magistrate | |
| who signed the search warrant on 9:02 am on March | |
| 28 at the request of the IRS. Jeffrey Gordon, an | |
| inspector in the IRS' Internal Security Division, | |
| details in an 10-page affidavit how he traced | |
| Bell's use of allegedly fraudulent Social | |
| Security Numbers, how he learned that Bell had | |
| been arrested in 1989 for "manufacturing a | |
| controlled substance," how he found out that Bell | |
| possessed the home addresses of a handful of IRS | |
| agents. Gordon's conclusion: Bell planned "to | |
| overthrow the government." The IRS investigator | |
| says in his affidavit that Bell's "essay details | |
| an illegal scheme by Bell which involves plans to | |
| assassinate IRS and other government officals... | |
| I believe that Bell has begun taking steps to | |
| carry out his Assassination Politics plan." | |
| [...] | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| Security/Hacker Conferences | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| The 1997 Summer Security Conference | |
| "SUMMERCON IX.V" | |
| May 31st, 1997 | |
| Atlanta, GA | |
| This is the official announcement and open invitation to the nine | |
| and 1/2 summer security conference, Summercon. A long time ago, | |
| Summercon was an invite-only hacker gathering held annually in St. | |
| Louis, Missouri. Starting in 1995, SummerCon became an open event to | |
| any and all interested parties: Hackers, Phreaks, Pirates, Virus | |
| Writers, System Administrators, Law Enforcement Officials, | |
| Vigilantes, Neo-Hippies, Secret Agents, Teachers, Disgruntled | |
| Employees, Telco Flunkies, Journalists, New Yorkers, Programmers, | |
| Conspiracy Nuts, Musicians, Nudists, and Rug Sucking Wannabes. | |
| This con is going to be different than previous SummerCons. First | |
| off, there are two other major cons happening this summer, Defcon | |
| and Beyond HOPE. If you want to see good technical speakers, meet a | |
| ton of hackers, and have a good time for a couple days, I suggest | |
| you go to one or both of those cons. DefCon information is at | |
| http://www.defcon.org, Beyond HOPE info is at http://www.2600.com. | |
| So why have SummerCon at all? Well, its a tradition, and most | |
| of the people I talked to said we should have it anyways. But, | |
| because of the other 2 cons, I am really aiming just to make this | |
| a fun weekend with yer friends in a new city, not a technical | |
| hacker gala. If you want to learn something, go to HOPE or | |
| Defcon. If you want to meet hackers, go to HOPE or DefCon. If | |
| you have to choose one con to go to this summer, this one should | |
| NOT be it. If you are already going to DefCon and HOPE, and still | |
| have one more weekend you want to waste this summer, this is the | |
| perfect place for you. | |
| If you are a criminal, if you are an anarchist, if you are | |
| interested in pulling fire alarms or breaking things, don't come | |
| to this con; we don't want you here and you wouldn't like us | |
| anyhow. | |
| Why 9.5? Well, SummerCon X should be this huge major security | |
| conference, but with HOPE this year, we didn't think it was the | |
| right year to do another one of those. So, we'll have SummerCon X | |
| next year, this one is just going to be a little party. | |
| LOCATION | |
| It will be held in Atlanta, GA, but we haven't actually figured | |
| out WHERE in Atlanta. That's because this is a pre-release of the | |
| announcement, when this becomes official, we'll fill in the | |
| details. | |
| DIRECTIONS | |
| Fly to Hartsfield International Airport, look for the hackers. | |
| CONFERENCE INFO | |
| It has always been our contention that cons are for socializing. | |
| "Seekret Hacker InPh0" is never really discussed except in private | |
| circles, so the only way anyone is going to get any is to meet new | |
| people and take the initiative to start interesting conversations. | |
| Because of this, the formal speaking portion of Summercon will be | |
| held on one day, not two or three, leaving plenty of time for | |
| people to explore the city, compare hacking techniques, or go | |
| trashing and clubbing with their heretofore unseen online | |
| companions. Futhermore, except for maybe getting Mudge up on | |
| stage to blow us all away with some cool technical details, it is | |
| probably a pretty good bet that the speeches will end up being | |
| boring, long, and a complete waste of time. Don't come to | |
| SummerCon to learn anything, because you won't. | |
| If you are coming from out of town and want the full | |
| hacker/tourist experience, we will be having a specially scheduled | |
| 2600 meeting Friday, May 30th, at 6pm at Lenox Mall food court. | |
| If you don't know how to get there, just ask, everyone in Atlanta | |
| knows. | |
| The formal conference will be held on Saturday, May 31st, 1997, | |
| from 10am to 5pm (with a break for lunch). There will be a | |
| variety of speakers, panel discussions, demonstrations, and other | |
| events that will hopefully keep everyone entertained; if not you | |
| can always start drinking early. | |
| No video or audio tapes will be allowed in the conference room. | |
| No still photography will be permitted in the conference room | |
| without prior permission of all those being photographed. | |
| Violation of these policies will result in you being asked to | |
| leave the conference. | |
| There will be no selling of t-shirts, disks, firewalls, payphones, | |
| etc. in or around the conference area without prior permission of | |
| the organizers, and you WON'T get permission. We can't keep you | |
| from selling t-shirts in your hotel room, but we can keep you away | |
| from the actual conference area, and we can probably get you | |
| kicked out of the hotel for soliciting, and if we can, we will. | |
| T-Shirt sales is where we make up all the money we spend putting | |
| on the conference, and so we will be the only ones selling them. | |
| If you want to sell t-shirts, go have your own con. | |
| If you are interested in demoing or selling something, please | |
| contact us at the address listed at the bottom. If you offer us | |
| money, we might let you do it. | |
| SPEAKERS | |
| The speakers list for Summercon X is still being finalized, but it | |
| is sure to be much less interesting than previous years. In fact, | |
| right now we have NO speakers, and probably we won't until the day | |
| of the con. So again, don't come to summercon for the speakers. | |
| If you are an expert in some aspect of computer, network, or telco | |
| security and are interested in speaking at Summercon, please | |
| contact us to discuss the possibility further at the address | |
| listed at the end of this document.. We won't pay you, don't ask. | |
| We are also going to be having short speeches by real hackers or | |
| phreakers giving their own perspective on some issue or insight | |
| into a new technology. This is an open invitation for you hackers | |
| to be heard; just provide us with a brief outline of the topic you | |
| will be covering and the amount of time you will take (suggested: | |
| 5 - 15 minutes) at the address listed below. | |
| COSTS | |
| Costs for SummerCon X are as follows, these are same rates as last | |
| year, which I think is pretty good. There will be NO refunds, and | |
| if you annoy any of the organizers, we reserve the right to throw | |
| you out, and you won't get your money back. | |
| Secret Service / FBI Rate: $500.00 | |
| Government / Institutional Rate: $ 80.00 | |
| Hacker / Individual Rate: $ 20.00 | |
| Members of the United States Secret Service or Federal Bureau of | |
| Investigations, and anyone that has in the past or currently is | |
| providing information or services to the Secret Service or FBI are | |
| required to pay the 'Secret Service / FBI Rate'. | |
| Employees of a local, state, or federal government, members and | |
| associates of any L.E.O., must pay the 'Government / Institutional | |
| Rate'. | |
| Anyone that does not fit into one of the above categories is | |
| eligible for the 'Individual / Hacker Rate'. | |
| Due to historical lack of interest, there will not be | |
| pre-registration for the conference. Registration will begin at | |
| 10am the day of the conference, and will continue for the duration | |
| of the conference or until the meeting facilities have reached their | |
| capacity. Since the latter is likely to occur, it is suggested you | |
| don't oversleep. | |
| No purchase orders, checks, money orders, foreign currency, stock | |
| certificates, IOUs, or coins will be accepted for registration. | |
| Secret Service agents, small unmarked bills only, please. | |
| Bring money for t-shirts, they are cool, and this year we will make | |
| enough for everyone (we hope). | |
| HOTEL INFORMATION | |
| Still working on this part. | |
| The cost for a double occupancy room at the hotel is $XX. There is | |
| no special conference rate, there is no need to mention you are with | |
| a conference at all, the people in reservations probably won't know | |
| what you are talking about anyhow. | |
| If the hotel is damaged in any manner, you are going to pay for it, | |
| and you will probably end up in jail. And even if you are lucky | |
| enough to get away with it, the rest of the hackers staying at the | |
| hotel will end up paying for it, and I'm sure that's going to make | |
| you a well-liked and respected hacker, especially among some of the | |
| bigger hackers who might feel tempted to inflict bodily harm on | |
| someone who causes any damage to the hotel. Please act responsibly, | |
| don't drink and drive, chew all your food before you swallow, don't | |
| swallow your gum, and recycle. | |
| Anyhow, if you pull a fire alarm, if you damage a room, if you spit | |
| on the floor, and any of the organizers, or any of their friends | |
| find out, we are going to call the police and have you arrested. In | |
| fact, we are making a game out of it. If anyone does any damage to | |
| the hotel, we will give whoever tells us what person or persons did | |
| it $100 in cash if we are able to get that person taken to jail. | |
| CONTACTING SUMMERCON ORGANIZERS | |
| You can contact the Summercon organizers through e-mail. If you | |
| haven't figured out e-mail yet, you probably shouldn't be coming to | |
| Summercon. | |
| As a final note, if you are planning on coming to Summercon, we | |
| would appreciate you sending e-mail to us with the subject of "GOING | |
| TO SCON" or something similar, just so that we have a rough idea of | |
| how many people are going to show up. | |
| E-mail: scon@2600.com | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| --== Hacking In Progress ==-- | |
| 8th, 9th and 10th of August 1997 | |
| Near Almere, Netherlands | |
| http://www.hip97.nl/ | |
| info@hip97.nl | |
| Welcome to the HIP announcement list. We are not | |
| alone! More than 1600 (!) of you subscribed to this | |
| list. | |
| As you probably already know what HIP is about, this | |
| announcement will focus on how you can help us and how | |
| you can stay informed about HIP. Please read the FAQ | |
| for more common questions. | |
| What is HIP? | |
| ------------ | |
| HIP is a place for hackers, artists, activists and | |
| many, many others to network themselves, both in the | |
| social and electronic sense of the word. HIP is a | |
| do-it-yourself event. We, the organizers, will provide | |
| the infrastructure, such as large tents, showers, | |
| toilets and large amounts of reliable electrical power | |
| and network connectivity. We'll also arrange for a | |
| basic set of workshops and lectures, mainly dealing | |
| with the social and political aspects of information | |
| technology, security, Internet, access to technology, | |
| new developments, cryptography and other 'hacker- | |
| related' topics that come to mind. We are open to | |
| suggestions for other fields of interest. | |
| At this moment we are working on discussions and | |
| workshops about smartcard security, Tempest attacks, | |
| the SPAM threat, virtual communities, cryptography and | |
| the law (Trusted Third Parties and Key Recovery), a | |
| tele-presence experiment, activism on the Net, and | |
| much more. | |
| A do-it-yourself event? | |
| ----------------------- | |
| We will absolutely need your help setting up | |
| everything once we're there. HIPcamp will open on | |
| August 5th, three days before HIP starts. If you | |
| decide to join in that early expect some pretty | |
| primitive circumstances. If you don't care about that, | |
| or think that's the best part, you can help build | |
| HIPnet and all other facilities. | |
| We also urgently need you to think now about what it | |
| is you would like to see and do at HIP. Just like | |
| Hacking at the End of the Universe in 1993, we need | |
| lots of people that have ideas for organizing their | |
| own small part of HIP and the organizational talent to | |
| do this without too much help from us. | |
| One of the proven recipes for fun: | |
| * GET a group of friends together in an early stage; | |
| arrange how you're going to get there if you're far | |
| away. | |
| * THINK: Is there something you and your friends would | |
| like to show others, discuss or do there? | |
| * If so: TELL us about it, so we can coordinate, help | |
| or announce things. | |
| * Maybe BUY a nice big army surplus tent for almost | |
| nothing. | |
| * BRING lots of computers and other electronics. | |
| * HOOK it all up once you get there. | |
| * Check out what others have been doing and MEET nice | |
| people, hang out, have fun! | |
| Of course you can also come alone and have lots of | |
| fun, and there will be a huge exhibition tent to set | |
| up computers in. In another big tent there will be | |
| near to a thousand chairs where you can listen to and | |
| participate with panel discussions. | |
| This event will be big, and as said, in this stage | |
| we're looking for people to organize their own chaotic | |
| little part of it. So don't mail us saying "put me on | |
| the list, I want to be a volunteer" when you could say | |
| "I'm xxx and I'd like to do yyy." Tell us what you | |
| need us to do. We could put your workshop or whatever | |
| it is you'd like to do in one of our announcements and | |
| on the website, so people can communicate with you | |
| beforehand. We could make sure there is enough room if | |
| your project requires a lot of space. You name it. | |
| You can use the newsgroup alt.hacking.in.progress to | |
| find people to work with at HIP. Or you can use the | |
| notice board at the website to search for someone to | |
| travel with to HIP. Use it to ask for help or offer | |
| some. | |
| As the days get longer, there will be parts of the | |
| overall organization that need coordination with | |
| volunteers some time before the actual event (workshop | |
| coordination, audiovisual stuff, registration-desk, | |
| bar, network), but now is not yet the time. | |
| This isn't going to be passive entertainment, we all | |
| work together to make it work. Also: HIP is not the | |
| event to buy a computer or get advice on buying one, | |
| and there're not going to be any beginner courses on | |
| using the Internet. If you're not into networking of | |
| some sort, you'll think it's boring. | |
| But if you're very technically inclined, part of some | |
| remote community on the edge of the net, or if the | |
| politics surrounding information technology are just | |
| your thing, HIP is definitely made for you (and by | |
| you, we hope). | |
| HIPcamp will open on August 5th, three days before HIP | |
| starts. If you decide to join in that early expect pretty | |
| primitive circumstances. If you don't care about that, | |
| or think that's the best part, you can help build HIPnet | |
| and all other facilities. | |
| How to stay in contact: | |
| ----------------------- | |
| * Check out the website http://www.hip97.nl/ | |
| * Participate in alt.hacking.in.progress | |
| * Read the FAQ on the website or the newsgroup | |
| * Mail us at info@hip97.nl | |
| Snailmail us at: | |
| HIP | |
| Postbus 1035 | |
| 1000 BA Amsterdam | |
| Netherlands | |
| Tel. +31 20 5352081 | |
| Fax. +31 20 5352082 | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| Defensive Information Warfare | |
| And Systems Assurance | |
| For Community, Company and Country | |
| September 11-12, 1997 | |
| Sheraton Premier, Tysons Corner, VA | |
| Call for Papers | |
| Sponsors: | |
| National Computer Security Association | |
| http://www.ncsa.com | |
| and | |
| Winn Schwartau, Interpact, Inc. | |
| http://www.infowar.com | |
| http://www.info-sec.com | |
| Interested parties from government, law enforcement, academia, | |
| corporations and individuals from all nations are invited to submit | |
| papers or concepts for papers/presentation to be given at | |
| InfoWarCon 7 and published on http://www.infowar.com. The following | |
| Solutions Oriented topics are of special interest to the conference, | |
| but all papers will be considered: | |
| Case studies and real world successes are strongly encouraged. | |
| New technologies, systems, models and approaches to provide higher | |
| levels of information and systems assurance in a world where | |
| conflict has moved to Cyberspace. (Commercial, Law Enforcement and | |
| Government). | |
| Detect and Response Solutions | |
| Denial of Service Methods and Protection | |
| New Info-Sec Models for Local and Global Enterprises | |
| Demonstrations of New Emerging Technologies | |
| Encryption, Access Control, and Identification | |
| The technical and social convergence of the military, law enforcement | |
| and private sectors in the interest of National Security: defensive | |
| mechanisms, policies and cooperative efforts.. (Commercial and | |
| Government) | |
| Electronic Civil Defense Policies | |
| Alternative National Defense and Intelligence Mechanisms | |
| National vs. International Policy Development | |
| Educating Populations for Support | |
| Dealing with the Non-nation State Actor | |
| Cooperative legal, ethical and political means by which to interest, | |
| create and sustain international cooperation for the discovery and | |
| prosecution of computer crimes and cyber-terrorism. (Law enforcement | |
| and Government) | |
| Redefining the State | |
| Case Studies of Prosecution; Successful and Not | |
| Corporate Vigilantism and Self-Preservation | |
| Electronic Bills of Rights for Nation States | |
| United Nations of Cyberspace | |
| Legal Conundra | |
| Multi-media presentations, real-time scenarios or gaming, audience | |
| participation and highly interactive topics are more likely to be | |
| accepted. English is the conference language and all sessions will | |
| be unclassified. | |
| Submissions are to be in Word 6.0 or greater, Powerpoint, or other | |
| popular formats, sent by email to: betty@infowar.com | |
| Submission Deadline: May 16, 1997 | |
| Acceptance Date: June 9, 1997 | |
| For complete information on attendance: | |
| Registration: Conferences@ncsa.com | |
| Sponsorships: Sponsors@ncsa.com | |
| Questions/Help: betty@infowar.com | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| Second International Workshop on Enterprise Security | |
| June 18-20, 1997 | |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), | |
| Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA | |
| Co-sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society and the | |
| Concurrent Engineering Research Center (CERC) at | |
| West Virginia University | |
| ============================================================================== | |
| Enterprises are increasingly dependent on their information systems to | |
| support their business and workflow activities. | |
| There is a need for universal electronic connectivity to support | |
| interaction and cooperation between multiple organizations. | |
| This makes enterprise security and confidentiality more important, | |
| but more difficult to achieve, as the multiple organizations may | |
| have differences in their security policies and may have to interact | |
| via an insecure Internet. These inter-organizational enterprise systems | |
| may be very large and so tools and techniques are needed | |
| to support the specification, analysis and implementation of security. | |
| This workshop will focus on the problems and challenges relating to | |
| enterprise security in inter-organizational systems. We aim to bring | |
| together principal players from both the internetwork and enterprise | |
| security community and will provide plenty of time for discussion. Topics | |
| to be addressed include: | |
| - Internet/Intranet security | |
| - Security infrastructure and protocols | |
| - Java Security | |
| - Specifying and Analyzing Enterprise Security Policy | |
| - Role-Based Access Control | |
| - Supporting enterprise security over the Internet | |
| - Conflicts and harmonization of inter- and intra-organizational | |
| Security | |
| - Distributed Database Security | |
| - Secure Transactions | |
| - Security in Workflow Process | |
| - Object-Oriented and CORBA Security | |
| - Secure Applications and Environments | |
| - Integrating Heterogeneous Security Environments | |
| - Managing inter-organizational Enterprise Security | |
| - Internet Security protocols | |
| - Security Algorithms | |
| This workshop will be part of the IEEE Sixth Workshops on Enabling | |
| Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WET-ICE | |
| 96) organized by the Concurrent Engineering Research Center (CERC)/ | |
| West Virginia University. | |
| Important Dates: | |
| ================ | |
| Papers Due March 25, 1997 | |
| Panel Proposals March 18, 1997 | |
| Authors notified of acceptance April 21, 1997 | |
| Workshop June 18-20, 1997 | |
| Camera Ready June 28, 1997 | |
| INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS OF PAPERS TO BE INCLUDED IN THE PROCEEDINGS | |
| =================================================================== | |
| Mail six copies of an original (not submitted or published elsewhere) | |
| paper (double-spaced) of 3000-5000 words to one of the PC co-chairs. | |
| Include the title of the paper, the name and affiliation of each author, a | |
| 150-word abstract and no more than 8 keywords. The name, position, | |
| address, telephone number, and if possible, fax number and e-mail | |
| address of the author responsible for correspondence of the paper must | |
| be included. | |
| An e-mail submission in postscript format will be accepted. | |
| INFORMATION FOR PANEL ORGANIZERS | |
| ================================ | |
| Send six copies of panel proposals to one of the PC co-chairs. | |
| Include the title, a 150-word scope statement, proposed session chair and | |
| panelists and their affiliations, the organizer's affiliation, | |
| address, telephone and fax number, and e-mail address. | |
| INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS OF POSITION PAPERS | |
| ========================================== | |
| Send six copies of position paper of 2-3 pages to one of the PC | |
| co-chairs. Include the title of the paper, the name and affiliation of | |
| each author, a 150-word abstract and no more than 8 keywords. The | |
| name, position, address, telephone number, and if possible, fax number | |
| and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence of the | |
| paper must be included. An accepted position paper will get less | |
| presentation time than full paper. | |
| Workshop General Chair and Organizer | |
| ==================================== | |
| Yahya Al-Salqan, Ph.D. | |
| Sun Microsystems | |
| alsalqan@eng.sun.com | |
| Program Committee | |
| ================= | |
| Program Committee Co-Chairs | |
| ========================== | |
| Barbara C. Davis | |
| Director of Technology | |
| The Applied Knowledge Group | |
| 231 Market Place, #315 | |
| San Ramon, CA 94583-2785 | |
| USA | |
| Tel. (888) 442-2785 | |
| FAX (510) 275-9695 | |
| bcdavis@appliedknowledge.com | |
| Douglas Moughan | |
| National Security Agency, R23 | |
| 9800 Savage Rd. | |
| Ft. Meade, Maryland 20755-6000 | |
| USA | |
| wdm@tycho.ncsc.mil | |
| Workshop Program Committee (Partial List): | |
| ========================================== | |
| Abdallah Abdallah, Birzeit University, Jerusalem | |
| Takasi Arano, NTT Corp, Japan | |
| Germano Caronni, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland | |
| Taher ElGamal, Netscape Corp., USA | |
| Stephen Farrell, Software and Systems Engineering, Ireland | |
| Takeo Hamada, Fujitsu, Japan | |
| Matthias Hirsch, BSI (Federal Department of Security in the Information | |
| Technology-Germany | |
| Cynthia L Musselman, Sandia Lab, USA | |
| Lisa Pretty, Certicom Corp., Canada | |
| Jeffrey Parrett, LLNL, USA | |
| Sumitra Reddy, West Virginia University, USA | |
| Nahid Shahmehri, Linkoping University, Sweden | |
| Morris Sloman, Department of Computing: Imperial College, UK | |
| Badie Taha, Al-Quds University, Jerusalem | |
| Robert Thomys, BSI (Federal Department of Security in the Information | |
| Technology-Germany | |
| Tatu Ylonen, SSH Communication Security, Finlad | |
| Nick Zhang, EIT, USA | |
| Internet Hot-line | |
| ================= | |
| Information on Enterprise Security Workshop may be obtained through | |
| the WWW using the URL http://www.cerc.wvu.edu/SECWK/ | |
| For more information on WET-ICE'97, visit the URL: | |
| http://www.cerc.wvu.edu/WETICE/WETICE97.html | |
| One does not need to have a paper to attend the workshop. | |
| [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] | |
| -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- | |
| READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIB | |
| DEF CON V Convention Announcement #1.08 (04.09.97) | |
| July 11-13th @ the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas | |
| XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX DEF CON V Convention Announcement | |
| XXXXXXXxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX DEF CON V Convention Announcement | |
| XXXXXXxxxxxxXXXXXX X X DEF CON V Convention Announcement | |
| XXXXXxxxxxxxxXXXXXXX X DEF CON V Convention Announcement | |
| XXXXxxxxxxxxxxXXXX XXXXXXXXX DEF CON V Convention Announcement | |
| XXXxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXX X DEF CON V Convention Announcement | |
| XXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXX XX X DEF CON V Convention Announcement | |
| XXXxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXX DEF CON V Convention Announcement | |
| XXXXxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXX X XX DEF CON V Convention Announcement | |
| XXXXXxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXX XX X DEF CON V Convention Announcement | |
| XXXXXXxxxxxxXXXXXXXXX X DEF CON V Convention Announcement | |
| XXXXXXXxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DEF CON V Convention Announcement | |
| XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X DEF CON V Convention Announcement | |
| READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIB | |
| The only convention with free beer! | |
| IN | |
| SHORT:-------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| WHAT: Speakers and partying in Vegas for all hackers | |
| WHEN: July 11th - 13th | |
| WHERE: Las Vegas, Nevada @ the Aladdin Hotel and Casino | |
| COSTS: $30 in advance, $40 at the door | |
| MORE INFO: http://www.defcon.org or email info@defcon.org | |
| IN | |
| LONG:--------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| It's time to brave Las Vegas again for DEF CON! This is an initial | |
| announcement and invitation to DEF CON V, a convention for the | |
| "underground" | |
| elements of the computer culture. We try to target the (Fill in your | |
| favorite word here): Hackers, Phreaks, Hammies, Virii Coders, Programmers, | |
| Crackers, Cyberpunk Wannabees, Civil Liberties Groups, CypherPunks, | |
| Futurists, Artists, Criminally Insane, Hearing Impaired. It seems that | |
| books about the culture are becoming more popular, so of course reporters | |
| are also welcome. You won't be hurt. I promise. Just bring cash for | |
| drinks. | |
| So you heard about DEF CON IV, and want to hit part V? You heard about the | |
| parties, the info discussed, the bizarre atmosphere of Las Vegas and want | |
| to | |
| check it out in person? You want to do weird shit _away_ from the hotel | |
| where you can't get me in trouble? You have intimate knowledge of the | |
| SWIFT | |
| network, and want to transfer millions of dollars to the Def Con account? | |
| Then you're just the person to attend! | |
| What DEF CON is known for is the open discussion of all ideas, the free | |
| environment to make new contacts and the lack of ego. More people have | |
| made | |
| great friends at DEF CON over the years than my brain can conceive of. DEF | |
| CON is also known for letting the "Suits" (Government / Corporate) mix with | |
| everyone and get an idea of what the scene is all about. The media makes | |
| an | |
| appearance every year and we try to educate them as to what is really going | |
| on. Basically it has turned into the place to be if you are at all | |
| interested in the computer underground. | |
| [Note]---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| - | |
| Now last year over 800 people showed up and threw my whole program for a | |
| loop. I was thinking 500+ people, but when 800 showed up it got a little | |
| crazy for the planning staff. This year I am planning for 1,000. This | |
| way I will be able to accommodate everyone and have less logistical screw- | |
| ups. | |
| I would also like to apologize to everyone last year who had temporary | |
| badges for half the convention, etc. I will do all that is possible for | |
| maximum coolness, and minimum hassles. Anyway, enough of my shit, on with | |
| the details. | |
| [End | |
| Note]------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| SPEAKERS:------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| - | |
| Over the years DEF CON has had many notable speakers. This year there will | |
| be more of an emphasis on technical talks. There will be a separate | |
| smaller | |
| room for break-out sessions of more specific topics. While the talks of | |
| the | |
| past have been great, it always seems some tech people drop out and general | |
| talks fill in. I will load it tech heavy so when people do drop out there | |
| will still be plenty of meat left for the propeller heads. | |
| There will be some speaking on Friday evening before Hacker Jeopardy, all | |
| day Saturday and Sunday. About 20 people will speak, plus smaller tech | |
| sessions. If you are interested in speaking or demonstrating something | |
| please contact me. | |
| Current speakers include: | |
| [> If you are interested in speaking please contact me at | |
| dtangent@defcon.org | |
| [> Nihil - Windows NT (in)security. The challenge response system, NT 5.0 | |
| Kerb security services, man in the middle attacks on domain controllers. | |
| This will be a more technical discussion of NT related security. | |
| [> Koresh - Hacking Novell Netware. | |
| [> Yobie - Emerging infrastructures made possible by Java. He will describe | |
| and talk about Java as the foundation for a global, object-oriented | |
| distributed network. New concepts and computing paradigms will discussed | |
| as well as applications for both applications development or straight-out | |
| hacking. | |
| [> Mudge - System Administrator for L0pht Heavy Industries. He will present | |
| a technical talk on something cool. | |
| [> Clovis - From the Hacker Jeopardy winning team. He will discuss issues | |
| with security and networked object systems, looking at some of the | |
| recent security issues found with activeX and detail some of the | |
| potentials and problems with network objects. Topics will include | |
| development of objects, distributed objects, standards, activex, corba, | |
| and hacking objects. | |
| [> Bruce Schneier - Author of Applied Cryptography and the Blowfish | |
| algorithm - Why cryptography is harder than it looks. | |
| [> FBI Computer Crime Squad - They will make another appearance this year | |
| only if I can bribe them with the audio from last years convention. Can | |
| I do it in time? | |
| [> Richard Thieme - "The Dynamics of Social Engineering: a cognitive map for | |
| getting what you need to know, working in networks, and engaging in | |
| espionage quietly; the uses of paranoia, imagination, and grandiosity | |
| to build the Big Picture. | |
| [> G. Gillis - Packet Sniffing: He will define the idea, explain everything | |
| from 802.2 frames down to the TCP datagram, and explain the mechanisms | |
| (NIT, bpf) that different platforms provide to allow the hack. | |
| [> Seven - What the feds think of us. | |
| [> RK - Electronic countermeasures, counter espionage, risk management. | |
| Should include a demonstration of electronic countermeasures equipment | |
| as well as a talk on what works, what doesn't, and the industry. | |
| [> Tom Farley the Publisher of the "Private Line" journal, and Ken | |
| Kumasawa of TeleDesign Management - Toll Fraud in the 90s: Two | |
| perspectives. An overview of phreaking from a hackers point of view and | |
| an industry/security consultants point. | |
| [> Michael Quattrocchi - The future of digital cash and a presentation about | |
| the modernization and state of register-level debit cards; in effect | |
| currently throughout Canada. | |
| [> Ira Winkler - NCSA - Real life case studies of successful and | |
| unsuccessful corporate espionage. | |
| SCHEDULE:------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| - | |
| FRIDAY: Network Setup, Sign in, Informal PGP Keysigning at the "PGP | |
| table", | |
| Lots of Partying. Capture the Flag Contest Starts at 16:00 | |
| On Friday there will be the demonstrations of the Radio Burst Cannon, a | |
| "real" rail gun, and an omni-directional cell phone jammer. Times to be | |
| announced. | |
| 10:00 - Doors open, sign in starts | |
| 10:00 - Movies start in main conference room | |
| 16:00 - Capture the Flag II starts | |
| Breakout Tech Sessions: | |
| 19:00 - Tech Talks starts in break out room | |
| 24:00 (Midnight) Hacker Jeopardy Starts. | |
| SATURDAY: | |
| Speakers from 10:00 to 19:00 This is _NOT_ the order they will speak in. | |
| 10:00 - 10:50 Keynote (?) | |
| 11:00 - 11:50 Bruce Schneier | |
| 12:00 - 12:50 Yobie | |
| 13:00 - 13:50 Clovis | |
| 14:00 - 14:50 FBI Computer Crime Squad | |
| 15:00 - 15:50 Richard Theme | |
| 16:00 - 16:50 Seven | |
| 17:00 - 17:50 RK | |
| 18:00 - 18:50 Tom Farley | |
| Breakout Tech Sessions: | |
| Nihil | |
| Koresh | |
| Mudge | |
| Weld Pond | |
| G. Gillis | |
| 24:00 (Midnight) Final rounds of Hacker Jeopardy. | |
| SUNDAY: | |
| Speakers from 10:00 to 16:00 This is _NOT_ the order they will speak in. | |
| 10:00 - 10:50 Michael Q. | |
| 11:00 - 11:50 Ira Winkler | |
| 12:00 - 12:50 | |
| 13:00 - 13:50 | |
| 14:00 - 14:50 | |
| 15:00 - 15:50 | |
| Breakout Tech Sessions: | |
| 16:00 Awards for Capture the Flag | |
| End of it all, cleanup, etc. See you all next year! | |
| EVENTS:--------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| - | |
| [> HACKER JEOPARDY: | |
| Winn is back with Hacker Jeopardy!! The third year in the running! | |
| Can the all-powerful Strat and his crypto-minion Erik, whose force | |
| cannot be contained, be defeated?! Will the powers that be allow | |
| Strat-Meister to dominate this beloved event for the third year in | |
| a row?! Can Erik continue to pimp-slap the audience into submission | |
| with a spoon in his mouth?!? Only Skill, Time, and booze will tell | |
| the tail! | |
| The Holy Cow will help supply the beer, you supply the answers. | |
| The first round starts at 12 midnight o'clock on Friday and lasts | |
| until it is done. The second and secret rounds will happen Saturday | |
| at midnight. | |
| 6 teams will be picked at random and compete for the final round. | |
| There can be only one! Strat's Team, the winners from last year | |
| will defend if all the members can be found. | |
| [> FREE BEER! | |
| Holy Cow will provide free beer tickets! If you are over 21 prepare | |
| to consume "hacker" beers. Actually it's whatever beer they have on | |
| tap, but it's the best beer in Las Vegas. Follow Las Vegas Blvd. up | |
| until you see the florescent cow with the big sunglasses. All taxi | |
| drivers know of this Mecca. Over 1,000 free beers in all! | |
| [> BLACK AND WHITE BALL: | |
| We've talked it over, and the verdict is in. For the last two years | |
| at DEF CON there has been a sort of unspoken Saturday night dress up | |
| event. People have worn everything from party dresses and Tuxedoes | |
| to AJ's ultra pimp Swank outfit with tiger print kilt. This year it | |
| is official. Wear your cool shit Saturday night, be it gothic or | |
| PVC | |
| vinyl or Yakuza looking black MIBs. No prizes, just your chance to | |
| be the uber-bustah pimp. | |
| [> THE TCP/IP DRINKING GAME: | |
| If you don't know the rules, you'll figure 'em out. | |
| [> CAPTURE THE FLAG: | |
| The second year of capture the flag is back. With the lessons | |
| learned | |
| from last year the contest should be more interesting and intense. | |
| Up to six machines will be connected running different operating | |
| systems. The object is to control as many machines as possible at | |
| certain time periods. You can form teams or go it lone star. There | |
| will be valuable cash prizes and redeemable coupons for those who | |
| come in first and second, plus various runner up stuffs. | |
| Four protocols (TCP/IP, NetBeui, IPX, and x.25! Yes, you heard | |
| right, x.25) and three segments with 2 boxes per segment. Pick your | |
| segment, protect your boxes. At all times you must have a WWW | |
| server (port 80), finger, and mail working. There will be several | |
| stock operating systems on the network including linux, FreeBsd, | |
| Windows NT, Novell, Some Apple System 7.x, and who knows what else. | |
| More specifics as time goes on. | |
| [> VIRTUAL WORLD: | |
| We are working on the group discounts like the last two years. | |
| [> QUAKE COMPETITION: | |
| http://www.ctive.com/ntech/defcon.htm | |
| This year knightPhlight contacted me and wanted to organize a single | |
| elimination Quake competition to find out who that badest ass 'mo | |
| 'fo | |
| is. Check out the web site to get the rules, sign up, or to | |
| donate a computer the greater good of destruction. | |
| It is IMHO that Quake by id Software rules 3D action gaming. But who | |
| rules Quake? We'll find out this July 11th-13th at the DefCon | |
| Conference in Las Vegas. This isn't going to be a networked game | |
| intent on quickly eliminating as many players as possible in a | |
| single | |
| round. Rather, one-on-one games will be played to absolutely | |
| determine who the best really is. | |
| Of course, you already know your the best so why would you feel | |
| obligated to prove it? Because we'll give the first place winner | |
| $750. Now, being the wily person you are, I bet you would like to | |
| know where I got the money for the prizes. It'll come from your | |
| registration fee of $7.50. Any half wit can do the math and see the | |
| 10,000% return for the winner. But just for entering you'll be in a | |
| drawing for really kewl stuff. If you don't think its kewl you can | |
| just give us your email address and we'll be happy to send you a | |
| couple hundred thousand messages explaining why the prizes are | |
| great. | |
| [> NET CONNECTION: | |
| This year we are pre-building many of the network boxes so the net | |
| can go up first thing Friday. It looks like we will have a T1 line | |
| and we will break it out to 10 BaseT hubs. If you want in on the | |
| network bring along the appropriate cables and adapters. | |
| More Net Madness! The T1 bandwidth will allow us to do the | |
| following cool stuff: | |
| - Have several color quickcams and a CU-SeeMe reflector site set | |
| up so people not at the con can check out what's going on. During | |
| the convention check out the DEF CON web site to get the location | |
| of the reflector site. You should get and install the software | |
| needed to view CU-SeeMe streams in advance! | |
| - Have a RealAudio server set up to stream the speakers talks to | |
| those who can not attend. | |
| - Potentially play a competitive multi user game(s) over the net. | |
| NOTE! If you wish to participate interactively with the convention | |
| please e-mail me and we can coordinate something. It would be | |
| great to get people from all over the world involved. | |
| [> 5th ANNUAL SPOT THE FED CONTEST: | |
| The ever popular paranoia builder. Who IS that person next to you? | |
| "Like a paranoid version of pin the tail on the donkey, the | |
| favorite sport at this gathering of computer hackers and phone | |
| phreaks seems to be hunting down real and imagined telephone | |
| security and Federal and local law enforcement authorities who the | |
| attendees are certain are tracking their every move.. .. Of course, | |
| they may be right." | |
| - John Markhoff, NYT | |
| Basically the contest goes like this: If you see some shady MIB | |
| (Men in Black) earphone penny loafer sunglass wearing Clint Eastwood | |
| to live and die in LA type lurking about, point him out. Just get | |
| my attention and claim out loud you think you have spotted a fed. | |
| The people around at the time will then (I bet) start to discuss the | |
| possibility of whether or not a real fed has been spotted. Once | |
| enough people have decided that a fed has been spotted, and the | |
| Identified Fed (I.F.) has had a say, and informal vote takes place, | |
| and if enough people think it's a true fed, or fed wanna-be, or | |
| other nefarious style character, you win a "I spotted the fed!" | |
| shirt, and the I.F. gets an "I am the fed!" shirt. | |
| NOTE TO THE FEDS: This is all in good fun, and if you survive | |
| unmolested and undetected, but would still secretly like an "I am | |
| the fed!" shirt to wear around the office or when booting in doors, | |
| please contact me when no one is looking and I will take your | |
| order(s). Just think of all the looks of awe you'll generate at | |
| work wearing this shirt while you file away all the paperwork | |
| you'll have to produce over this convention. I won't turn in any | |
| feds who contact me, they have to be spotted by others. | |
| [> RAIL GUN DEMONSTRATION: (Friday) | |
| On Friday afternoon there will be a demonstration of a hand held | |
| rail gun. This garage project should be able to fire a graphite | |
| washer very, very fast. | |
| [> OMNIDIRECTIONAL CELL PHONE JAMMER DEMONSTRAITON: (Friday) | |
| Another interesting creation to be tested on Friday in the desert. | |
| Come along and watch you cell phone antenna explode with power! | |
| See control channels crumble before you. | |
| [> RADIO BURST CANNON DEMONSTRATION: (Friday) | |
| While not quite a HERF gun, this should come close. The RBC should | |
| be able to produce up to or less than one MegaWatt for up to or less | |
| than one second. What will this do? Who knows! Come and find out. | |
| Obviously the above demonstrations will take place away from the | |
| local hospitals and casinos out in the desert someplace, so be | |
| prepared. | |
| HOTELS:--------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| - | |
| [> Book your room NOW!!! We have a block of rooms, but it is first come, | |
| [> first served. Rooms get released about one month before the convention. | |
| [> Book by June 9th or risk it. The room rates are quite cool this year. | |
| PRIMARY HOTEL: The Aladdin Hotel and Casino | |
| 3667 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas, Nevada | |
| Built in 1966 it is one of the oldest hotels in Las Vegas that | |
| hasn't been blown up to make room for newer ones. It is quite nice | |
| and has Tennis courts, two swimming pools, Chinese, Vietnamese and | |
| Korean. A Seafood and steakhouse, Joe's Diner and a 24 hour coffee | |
| shop too. It's located next to the MGM Theme park on the strip. | |
| PHONE: 1-800-225-2632, reference the "DC Communications conference" | |
| for reservations. | |
| RATES: Single & Double rooms are $65 in the Garden section, $85 for | |
| the Tower. Suites are $250 to $350. All costs are plus 8% room | |
| tax. | |
| Rollaway beds are available for an additional $15 a night. | |
| STUFF IN | |
| VEGAS:-------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| URLs | |
| Listings of other hotels in Las Vegas, their numbers, WWW pages, etc. | |
| http://www.intermind.net/im/hotel.html | |
| http://vegasdaily.com/HotelCasinos/HotelAndCasinos/CasinoList.html | |
| VENDORS / SPONSORS / | |
| RESEARCH:----------------------------------------------- | |
| If you are interested in selling something (shirts, books, | |
| computers, whatever) and want to get a table contact me for costs. | |
| If you have some pet research and you want to have the participants | |
| fill out anonymous questioners please contact me for the best way | |
| to do this. | |
| If you want to sponsor any event or part of DEF CON V in return for | |
| favorable mentions and media manipulation please contact me. For | |
| example in the past Secure Computing has sponsored a firewall | |
| hacking contest. | |
| MORE | |
| INFO:------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [> DEF CON Voice Bridge (801) 855-3326 | |
| This is a multi-line voice bbs, VMB and voice conference system. | |
| There are 5 or so conference areas, with up to eight people on each | |
| one. Anyone can create a free VMB, and there are different voice | |
| bbs sections for separate topics. This is a good neutral meeting | |
| place to hook up with others. | |
| The Voice bridge will be changing numbers soon, but the old number | |
| will refer you to the new location. The new spot won't suffer from | |
| "Phantom" bridges! | |
| [> MAILING LIST | |
| send emial to majordomo@merde.dis.org and in the body of the | |
| message | |
| include the following on a separate line each. | |
| subscribe dc-stuff | |
| dc-announce is used for convention updates and major announcements, | |
| dc-stuff is related to general conversation, planning rides and | |
| rooms, etc. | |
| [> WWW Site http://www.defcon.org/ | |
| Convention updates and archives from previous conventions are | |
| housed | |
| here. Past speakers, topics, and stuff for sale. Also a growing | |
| section of links to other places of interest and current events. | |
| [> The Third Annual California Car Caravan to DEF CON! | |
| http://exo.com/~enigma/caravan/ | |
| [> The DEF CON V Car ride sharing page: Use this site to arrange ride | |
| sharing to the convention from all over North America. If you can | |
| spare a seat for someone, or need to leech a ride go to the ride | |
| sharing page set up by Squeaky. | |
| http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/4955/defcon.html | |
| Room Sharing Page: | |
| [> EMAIL dtangent@defcon.org | |
| Send all email questions / comments to dtangent@defcon.org. It has | |
| been said that my email is monitored by various people. If you | |
| want | |
| to say something private, please do so with my pgp key (At the | |
| bottom of this announcement) I usually respond to everything, if | |
| not I'm swamped or had a system problem. | |
| [> SNAIL MAIL | |
| Send all written materials, pre-registrations, etc. to: | |
| DEF CON, 2709 E. Madison, Seattle WA, 98112 | |
| If you are pre-registering for $30 please make payable to DEF CON | |
| and include a name to which you want the registration to apply. | |
| I don't respond to registrations unless you request. | |
| DO YOU WANT TO | |
| HELP?--------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Here is what you can do if you want to help out or participate in | |
| some way: | |
| Donate stuff for the continuous give-aways and the various | |
| contests. | |
| Got extra ancient stuff, or new cool stuff you don't use anymore? | |
| Donate it to a good cause! One person was very happy over winning | |
| an osborne "portable" computer. | |
| ORGANIZE sharing a room or rides with other people in your area. | |
| Join the mailing list and let people know you have floor space or | |
| some extra seats in your car. Hey, what's the worst that can | |
| happen besides a trashed hotel room or a car-jacking? | |
| CREATE questions for hacker jeopardy (you know how the game is | |
| played) and email them to winn@infowar.com. No one helped out last | |
| year, so this year let's try. Everything from "Famous narks" to | |
| "unix bugs" is fair game. | |
| BRING a machine with a 10bt interface card, and get on the local | |
| network, trade pgp signatures, etc. | |
| FINAL CHECK LIST OF STUFF TO | |
| BRING:------------------------------------------ | |
| MY PGP | |
| KEY:------------------------------------------------------------------ | |
| - -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- | |
| Version: 2.6.1 | |
| mQCNAy6v5H8AAAEEAJ7xUzvdRFMtJW3CLRs2yXL0BC9dBiB6+hAPgBVqSWbHWVIT | |
| /5A38LPA4zqeGnGpmZjGev6rPeFEGxDfoV68voLOonRPcea9d/ow0Aq2V5I0nUrl | |
| LKU7gi3TgEXvhUmk04hjr8Wpr92cTEx4cIlvAeyGkoirb+cihstEqldGqClNAAUR | |
| tCZUaGUgRGFyayBUYW5nZW50IDxkdGFuZ2VudEBkZWZjb24ub3JnPg== | |
| =ngNC | |
| - -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- | |
| -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- | |
| Version: 2.6.2 | |
| iQCVAwUBM07aS8tEqldGqClNAQFuSAQAjwGLBdDKA9TKTNAxewgeluvRXPFu+cLf | |
| hQ74qJFtGybyik+Te4FPQI3Uw+wjir/4ES1imyjQ9n9oIOh+E0L3moYxbcQKN7iT | |
| /VWAJXwPNJR8guxGcrRNYO85KXSB2qFrU9JwCwJ/8C5lEi/5FVjqRewpliw68+SW | |
| 9jHqxFccQUs= | |
| =PPpy | |
| -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- | |
| EOF | |