[iwar] Historical posting
From: Fred Cohen
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Mon, Jan 1, 1999
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Date: Mon, Jan 1, 1999
From: Fred Cohen
Reply-To: iwar@egroups.com
Subject: [iwar] Historical posting
U.S. Wants Less Web Anonymity
The U.S. government may need sweeping new powers to investigate
and prosecute future denial-of-service attacks, top law
enforcement officials said Tuesday. Anonymous remailers and
free trial accounts allow hackers and online pornographers to
cloak their identity, deputy attorney general Eric Holder told
a joint congressional panel. Everybody's got issues in Politics
"A criminal using tools and other information easily available
over the Internet can operate in almost perfect anonymity,"
Holder told the panel.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,34659,00.html
Should your boss know about those visits to the shrink?
Employers sniffing through medical records, would-be forgers
having UPS deliver your signature -- Simson Garfinkel reveals
a world rife with privacy violations in "Database Nation."
http://salon.com/tech/books/2000/03/01/database_nation/index.html
[FC - a very worthwhile book at any rate]
Companies seek security experts to defend Web sites
One month after hacker attacks shut down Web sites, including
Yahoo and eBay, much of the Net world is quietly boosting its
defenses. Job listings for security professionals are now
prominent on several leading e-commerce Web sites. eBay's "hot
job" listing this week is seeking a high-level computer security
pro. Security consultants say the attacks have pushed security
from being a back-burner issue to becoming a genuine bottom-line
concern across the Net.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-1561687.html
===============================================================
Subject: Hacker plan: take down the Net
Hacker plan: take down the Net
Associates tell feds Coolio started last month<92>s Web attacks;
teen<92>s New England home searched, computers confiscated
By Bob Sullivan
MSNBC
March 1 2000
He took down Yahoo, the world's most popular Web site, and started a
rash of attacks on the Internet's biggest companies. Authorities
still don't know for sure who's responsible. But investigators
have been told that "he is Coolio" a 17-year-old New England high
school dropout who regularly gets high by drinking cough syrup. Several
sources have come forward to tell MSNBC - and say they've told the
FBI - that Coolio attacked Yahoo and several other Web sites last
month. Why the accusations? In part, they say, because Coolio had much
more ominous plans. According to one associate, he wanted to use the
power he'd amassed - over 1,000 so-called "zombie" computers
to cripple the entire Internet.
THE FBI HAS NOT made any arrests in connection with the Web
outages that hit Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, CNN, Buy.com and several other
sites beginning Feb. 7. And the FBI won't offer any details about
its investigation other than to say it is ongoing.
But MSNBC has learned that several of Coolio's associates are
cooperating with federal authorities and have named the teen-ager as the
culprit in the original attacks. MSNBC has also learned that the FBI
executed a search warrant at Coolio'>s New England home and has
confiscated all of his home computers in connection with their
investigation of the Web attacks.
Coolio is not the only suspect; investigators believe there were
at least one and perhaps several copycats involved in the flurry of
attacks.
Someone using the name Coolio took credit for defacing RSA.com
and Dare.org in recent months. There is much evidence that that Coolio
is in fact the 17-year-old identified by MSNBC's sources.
Despite the accusations by associates, MSNBC has not obtained
evidence directly tying Coolio to the February attacks.
And a school-aged friend of Coolio's interviewed by MSNBC said
the teen-ager has denied any involvement in the attacks - both to the
FBI and in private conversations. During that interview, the source
claimed Coolio was in the room. Someone in the room could be heard
saying, "I didn't do it." But MSNBC could not positively
identify the speaker as Coolio.
Still, several friends and associates from the Internet chat room
#goonies have told MSNBC they believe Coolio is responsible.
He did it, said one. He talked about doing it before the fact,
he named Web sites that would go down before they were mentioned on the
news, and he left, in his own estimation, no trail of his doing it.
I seriously doubt if there will ever be enough hard evidence to
obtain a conviction for this, as he is rather good at what he does.
Through intermediaries, Coolio has not responded to requests for an
interview, and people who answer the telephone at his house have
repeatedly told MSNBC, No one by that name lives here any more" and
have immediately hung up.
MSNBC has decided to withhold his name and any other uniquely
identifying information. The sources quoted in this story have all
requested anonymity, but each has been positively identified by MSNBC.
Article continues at ...
http://www.msnbc.com/news/376129.asp
FC