The Hacker Chronicles - A…the Computer Underground/The Hacker Chronicles - A Tour of the Computer Underground (P-80 Systems).iso/cud3/cud313d.txt

Text File | 1992-09-10 | 20KB | 401 lines

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From: Various
Subject: CU News
Date: April 20, 1991

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***  CuD #3.13: File 4 of 4: The CU in the News                  ***
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From: Anonymous
Subject: Newsweek article--Cyberpunks and Constitution
Date:         Wed, 9 Apr 91 16:22:18 EST

                     Cyberpunks and the Constitution
          The fast-changing technologies of the late 20th century pose
           a challenge to American laws and principles of ages past

By PHILLIP ELMER-DEWITT
SAN FRANCISCO

Armed with guns and search warrants, 150 Secret Service agents staged
surprise raids in 14 American cities one morning last May, seizing 42
computers and tens of thousands of floppy disks.  Their target: a
loose-knit group of youthful computer enthusiasts suspected of
trafficking in stolen credit-card numbers, telephone access codes and
other contraband of the information age.  The authorities intended to
send a sharp message to would-be digital desperadoes that computer
crime does not pay.  But in their zeal, they sent a very different
message - one that chilled civil libertarians.  By attempting to crack
down on telephone fraud, they shut down dozens of computer bulletin
boards that may be as fully protected by the U.S. Constitution as the
words on this page.

Do electronic bulletin boards that may list stolen access codes enjoy
protection under the First Amendment?  That was one of the thorny
questions raised last week at an unusual gathering of computer
hackers, law-enforcement officials and legal scholars sponsored by
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.  For four days in
California's Silicon Valley, 400 experts struggled to sort out the
implications of applying late-18th century laws and legal principles
to the fast-changing technologies of the late 20th century.

While the gathering was short on answers, it was long on tantalizing
questions.  How can privacy be ensured when computers record every
phone call, cash withdrawal and credit-card transaction?  What
"property rights" can be protected in digital electronic systems that
can create copies that are indistinguishable from the real thing?
What is a "place" in cyberspace, the universe occupied by audio and
video signals traveling across state and national borders at nearly
the speed of light?  Or as Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe aptly
summarized, "When the lines along which our Constitution is drawn warp
or vanish, what happens to the Constitution itself?"

Tribe suggested that the Supreme Court may be incapable of keeping up
with the pace of technological change.  He proposed what many will
consider a radical solution: a 27th Amendment that would make the
information-related freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights fully
applicable "no matter what the technological method or medium" by
which that information is generated, stored or transmitted.  While
such a proposal is unlikely to pass into law, the fact that one of the
country's leading constitutional scholars put it forward may persuade
the judiciary to focus on the issues it raises.  In recent months,
several conflicts involving computer-related privacy and free speech
have surfaced:

-- When subscribers to Prodigy, a 700,000-member information system
owned by Sears and IBM, began posting messages protesting a rate hike,
Prodigy officials banned discussion of the topic in public forums on
the system.  After protesters began sending private mail messages to
other members - and to advertisers - they were summarily kicked off
the network.

-- When Lotus Development Corp. of Cambridge, Mass., announced a joint
venture with Equifax, one of the country's largest credit-rating
bureaus, to sell a personal-computer product that would contain
information on the shopping habits of 120 million U.S. households, it
received 30,000 calls and letters from individuals asking that their
names be removed from the data base.  The project was quietly canceled
in January.

-- When regional telephone companies began offering Caller ID, a
device that displays the phone numbers - including unlisted ones - of
incoming calls, many people viewed it as an invasion of privacy.
Several states have since passed laws requiring phone companies to
offer callers a "blocking" option so that they can choose whether or
not to disclose their numbers.  Pennsylvania has banned the service.

But the hacker dragnets generated the most heat.  Ten months after the
Secret Service shut down the bulletin boards, the government still has
not produced any indictments.  And several similar cases that have
come before courts have been badly flawed.  One Austin-based game
publisher whose bulletin-board system was seized last March is
expected soon to sue the government for violating his civil liberties.

There is certainly plenty of computer crime around.  The Secret
Service claims that U.S. phone companies are losing $1.2 billion a
year anc credit-card providers another $1 billion, largely through
fraudulent use of stolen passwords and access codes.  It is not clear,
however, that the cyberpunks rounded up in dragnets like last May's
are the ones committing the worst offenses.  Those arrested were
mostly teenagers more intent on showing off their computer skills than
padding their bank accounts.  One 14-year-old from New York City, for
instance, apparently specialized in taking over the operation of
remote computer systems and turning them into bulletin boards - for
his friends to play on.  Among his targets, say police, was a Pentagon
computer belonging to the Secretary of the Air Force.  "I regard
unauthorized entry into computer systems as wrong and deserving of
punishment," says Mitch Kapor, the former president of Lotus.

And yet Kapor has emerged as a leading watchdog for freedom in the
information age.  He views the tiny bulletin-board systems as the
forerunners of a public computer network that will eventually connect
households across the country.  Kapor is worried that legal precedents
set today may haunt all Americans in the 21st century.  Thus he is
providing funds to fight for civil liberties in cyberspace the best
way he knows how - one case at a time.

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From: Cyber City Public Access BBS * Toronto, Canada * 416/593-6000
Subject: Canada is Accused of using Stolen Software
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 91 11:19:48 EDT

(Reprinted with permission:
1. The article must be reproduced in full
2. The Financial Post must be credited somewhere in the article.
The article's date was Friday, April 5th, 1991.)

CANADA IS ACCUSED OF USING STOLEN SOFTWARE

By Eric Reguly and Alan Friedman
Financial Post and Financial Times of London

NEW YORK -- Government agencies in Canada and other countries are using
computer software that was stolen from a Washington-based company by the
U.S. Department of Justice, according to affidavits filed in a U.S.
court case.

In a complex case, several nations, as well as some well-known
Washington insiders - including the national security advisor to former
President Ronald Reagan, Robert McFarlane - are named as allegedly
playing a role.

The affidavits were filed in recent weeks in support of a
Washington-based computer company called Inslaw Inc., which claims that
its case-tracking software, known as Promis, was stolen by the U.S.
Department of Justice and eventually ended up in the hands of the
governments of Israel, Canada and Iraq.

NEW MOTION
Yesterday, lawyers for Inslaw filed a new motion in federal bankruptcy
court in Washington demanding the power to subpoena information from the
Canadian government on how Ottawa came to acquire Promis software.  The
motion states, "The evidence continues to mount that Inslaw's
proprietary software is in Canada."

The affidavits allege that Promis - designed to keep track of cases and
criminals by government agencies - is in use by the RCMP and the
Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The Canadian Department of Communications is referring calls on the
subject to the department's lawyer, John Lovell in Ottawa, while a CSIS
spokesman will not confirm or deny whether the agency uses the software.
"No one is aware of the program's existence here," Corporal DEnis
Deveau, Ottawa-based spokesman for the RCMP, said yesterday.

The case of Inslaw, which won a court victory against the Justice
Department in 1987, at first glance appears to be an obscure lawsuit by
a small business that was forced into bankruptcy because of the loss of
its proprietary software.

But several members of the Washington establishment are suggesting
Inslaw may have implications for U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
The Case already has some unusual aspects.

At least one judge has refused to handle it because of potential
conflicts of interest, and a key lawyer representing Inslaw is Elliot
Richardson, a former U.S. attorney general and ambassador to Britain who
is remembered for his role in standing up to Richard Nixon during the
Watergate scandal.

Richardson yesterday told the Financial Times of London and The
Financial Post that: "Evidence of the widespread ramifications of the
Inslaw case comes from many sources and keeps accumulating."

A curious development in the Inslaw case is that the Department of
Justice has refused to provide documents relating to Inslaw to Jack
Brook, chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House of
Representatives.

Richardson said, "It remains inexplicable why the Justice Department
consistently refuses to pursue this evidence and resists co-operation
with the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives."

The Inslaw case began in 1982 when the company accepted a US $10-million
contract to install its Promis case management software at the
Department of Justice.  In 1983 the government agency stopped paying
Inslaw and the firm went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

Inslaw sued Justice in 1986 and the trial took place a year later.  The
result of the trial in 1987 was a ruling by a federal bankruptcy court
in Inslaw's favor.

The ruling said that the Justice Department "took, converted, stole"
Promis software through "trickery, fraud and deceit" and then conspired
to drive Inslaw out of business.

That ruling, which received little publicity at the time, was upheld by
the U.S. District Court in Washington in 1989, but Justice lodged an
appeal last year in an attempt to overturn the judgement that it must
pay Inslaw US $6.1 million  (C $7.1 million) in damages and US $1.2
million in legal fees.

The affidavits filed in recent weeks relate to an imminent move by
Richardson on behalf of Inslaw to obtain subpoena power in order to
demand copies of the Promis software that the company alleges are
being used by the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S.
intelligence services that did not purchase the technology from Inslaw.

In the affidavit relating to McFarlane that was filed on March 21, Ari
Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence officer, claims that
McFarlane had a "special" relationship with Israeli intelligence
officials.  Ben-Menashe alleges that in a 1982 meeting in Tel Aviv, he
was told that Israeli intelligence received the software from McFarlane.

FLORIDA COMPANY

McFarlane has stated that he is "very puzzled" by the allegations that
he passed any of the software to Israel.  He has termed the claims
"absolutely false".

Another strange development is the status of Michael Riconosciuto, a
potential witness for Inslaw who once worked with a Florida company that
sought to develop weapons, including fuel-air explosives and chemical
agents.

Riconosciuto claimed in his affidavit that in February he was called by
a former Justice Department official who warned him against co-op
with the House Judiciary Committee's investigation into Inslaw.
Riconosciuto was arrested last weekend on drug charges, but claimed he
had been "set up".

In his March 21 affidavit, Riconosciuto says he modified Promis software
for law enforcement and intelligence agencies.  "Some of the
modifications that I made were specifically designed to facilitate the
implementation of Promis within two agencies of the government of
Canada...  The propriety (sic) version of Promis, as modified by me,
was, in fact, implemented in both the RCMP and the CSIS in Canada."

On Monday, Richardson and other lawyers for Inslaw will file a motion in
court seeking the power to subpoena copies of the Promis software from
U.S. Intelligence agencies.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: [e-mail](Tom Fitzgerald)
Subject: Police confiscate computer equipment dialing wrong number
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 91 19:11:51 EDT

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

Edition : 2301              Monday 15-Apr-1991           Circulation :  8526

                                      [Mike Taylor, VNS Correspondent]
                                      [Littleton, MA, USA            ]

         Police Confiscate Computer Equipment Dialing Wrong Number

    SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1991 APR 3 (NB) --Ron Hopson
    got a call at work from his neighbor who informed him police broke
    down his front door, and were confiscating his computer equipment.
    The report, in the San Luis Obispo (SLO)  Telegram-Tribune, quoted
    Hopson as saying, "They took my stuff,  they rummaged through my
    house, and all the time I was trying to  figure out what I did, what
    this was about. I didn't have any idea."

    According to the Telegram-Tribune, Hopson and three others were
    accused by police of attempting to break into the bulletin board
    system (BBS) containing patient records of SLO dermatologists
    Longabaugh and Herton. District Attorney Stephen Brown told
    Newsbytes that even though the suspects (two of which are Cal Poly
    students) did not know each other, search warrants were issued after
    their phone numbers were traced by police as numbers  attempting
    access to the dermatologists' system by modem "more than three times
    in a single day."

    Brown told Newsbytes the police wouldn't have been as  concerned if
    it had been the BBS of a non-medical related company, but faced with
    people trying to obtaining illegal narcotics by calling pharmacies
    with fraudulent information...

    What the suspects had in common was the dermatologists' BBS phone
    number programmed into their telecommunications software as the
    Cygnus XI BBS. According to John Ewing, secretary of the SLO
    Personal Computer Users Group (SLO PC UG), the Cygnus XI BBS was a
    public BBS that operated in SLO, but the system operator (sysop)
    moved less than a year ago and discontinued the board. It appears
    the dermatologists inherited the number.

    John Ewing, SLO PCUG editor, commented in the SLO PC UG  newsletter,
    "My personal opinion is that the phone number [for the Cygnus XI
    BBS] is still listed in personal dialing directories as Cygnus XI,
    and people are innocently calling to exchange information and
    download files. These so-called hackers know that the password they
    used worked in the past and attempt to connect several times. The
    password may even be recorded as a script file [an automatic log-on
    file]. If this is the case, my sympathies go out to those who have
    had their hardware and software confiscated."

    Bob Ward, secretary of the SLO PC UG, told Newsbytes, "The number
    [for Cygnus XI] could have been passed around the world. And, as a
    new user, it would be easy to make three mistaken calls. The board
    has no opening screen, it just asks for a password. So, you call
    once with your password, once more trying the word NEW, and again to
    try GUEST."

    {contributed by Barry Wright to RISKS-FORUM Digest V4.38}
    {contributed by Wes Plouff}

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
        Please send subscription and backissue requests to CASEE::VNS

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

<><><><><><><>   VNS Edition : 2301      Monday 15-Apr-1991   <><><><><><><>

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From: Gordon Meyer <[e-mail]>
Subject: The CU in South Africa (Reprint from Mondo)
Date: 10 Apr 91 01:24:37 EDT

This 'letter to the editor' appeared in the Winter '91 issue of _Mondo
2000_.  It provides insight and a first hand account of CU interest in
South Africa.
-------
Great that you could help us information hackers down here in South
Africa.  Things are probably a lot more simple in our country than yours
- recent events such as a march on the South Africa Broadcasting
Corporation SABC, demanding that they free the airwaves will recall
similar events in the 60's USA.  Our brains have stagnated in a cultural
wilderness which has more in common with your local totalitarian
bananastate than the subtle manipulations of western 'democracy.'
Anyway, I mean 'simple' in the sense that two thirds of our population
has no electricity. Solution = give them electricity.  Our country
produces 60% of Africa's electric output so there is more than enough.
But here's where you people are important: tho achieve any of the
seemingly simple goals of basic human rights we need to know how to hack
information really well. High tech has the capability of processing and
transmitting large amounts of info, a characteristic that the security
branch and Dept. for Information found really useful in tracking down
radicals.

Example: in one case someone on the run used his Autobank ATM card - it
was promptly swallowed and when he enquired as to the reason at his
friendly bank - he was promptly arrested - yes, they actually programmed
the ATM to trap those in the underground.  Now activists have realized
that to counter such a monopoly on tech-know-how and manipulation, they
have to become techno-radicals, hackers of the establishments of
knowledge, etc.  We're working with a group of former teachers who have
been given computers by the government in 1985 to appease the local
community (a rather pathetic attempt) who then subsequently decided to
use those 'gifts' against the very people who had given them - by
radicalizing computers and spreading this knowledge.  We have made
copies of your very relevant mag and distributed to those individuals
able to carry out hacking attempts.  You're important players in the
process of spreading the hacking ethic via the print media - something
which should not be under-estimated, especially in a country such as ours
where merely being able to read is in itself a revolutionary act.  The
Kagenna project is one which has attempted to use the ethic - by letting
information loose into a stagnant society - anything can happen.  The
green hue is both important and convenient - in a country of many
barriers, it is one of the few topics which cuts across all prejudices of
race and class.  We probably seem pretty tame to you folks, but in the
absence of independent media, we tread a fine line.  So if you keep
sending us the MONDOs, we will Kagenna plus updates on hacking here and
any interesting info we come across - let us know whether this is fine
with you.  We await the birth of the African Cyberpunk Hacker Movement -
a somewhat difficult labour.

Yours in solidarity,

Ted Head (kagenna techno-peasant)
PO Box 4713
Cape Town 8000
New South Africa.

SOURCE: MONDO 2000 #3 (Winter 1991)  pp 14-15 "Letters/FAX/Email"

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