[iwar] [fc:Hacker.cries.foul.over.FBI.snooping]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-21 09:46:29

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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2001 09:46:29 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Hacker.cries.foul.over.FBI.snooping]
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Hacker cries foul over FBI snooping

Burhan Wazir
Sunday October 21, 2001
The Observer

The world's most infamous computer hacker, out of jail and eking a
living as an actor in a television drama, has denounced the new Patriot
Act - which would allow FBI and police to snoop on emails and monitor US
internet activity in their efforts to counter terrorism. 

Kevin Mitnick, 38, imprisoned for breaking into the computer systems of
America's leading telephone companies, told The Observer that the
legislation proposed in the wake of the 11 September attacks was
'ludicrous'. 

'Terrorists have proved that they are interested in total genocide, not
subtle little hacks of the US infrastructure, yet the government wants a
blank search warrant to spy and snoop on everyone's communications,' he
said.  Mitnick also warned that hackers risked inordinately heavy
exemplary jail sentences.  'Trust me, you do not want to be the next big
winner of the scapegoat sweepstakes.'

Mitnick says he was a scapegoat.  He was arrested and charged with
committing seven software felonies in 1995 and held without bail,
sometimes in solitary confinement, until his conviction in 1999. 
Altogether he served four and a half years before being freed in January
last year. 

Under the terms of his release, he is banned until January 2003 from
using a computer, finding employment as a technical consultant or even
writing about computer technology without permission from his probation
officer.  He was only recently given approval to carry a mobile phone to
keep in touch with family members following the death of his father five
months ago.  Faced with the restrictions, Mitnick has found work in an
ABC spy drama, Alias, in which he plays a CIA computer expert. 

Mitnick, whose career won him a place in the Guinness Book of World
Records as the world's most notorious hacker, says he was a victim of
circumstance.  'I am not innocent but I certainly didn't do most of what
I was accused of,' he says.  'A hacker doesn't deliberately destroy data
or profit from his activities.  I never made any money directly from
hacking.  I wasn't malicious.  A lot of the unethical things I did were
to cover my own ass when I was a fugitive.'

He hacked into the email of New York Times reporter John Markoff, who
was covering the FBI's pursuit of him. 

Mitnick says: 'I read the emails because they were discussing how the
FBI was going to catch me.  I didn't read it all, just searched for a
combination of letters that's in my name, and words like "trap", "trace"
and things like that.  Again, this is something I had to do to cover my
ass, total self-preservation.' He and Markoff subsequently co-wrote a
book about the case. 

Having testified before a Senate committee on the dangers of politically
motivated hackings, Mitnick continues to believe that the threat from
cyberterrorism could easily be countered by strengthening security
measures at government institutions and private corporations. 

'Yes, a co-ordinated team of hackers could take down the communications
systems, the power system, perhaps the financial markets,' he says. 
'But all of those systems would be back online pretty quickly - you
can't really knock them out for an extended period.  You could use those
outrages as a decoy though, to draw attention from what you are really
planning.'

But, he warns, now is not the time to be hacking.  He cites the case of
Dmitry Skylarov, a Russian software programmer awaiting trial in the US
on charges that he violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  'I
hope Dmitry puts up a good fight.  He's got a great lawyer, I had a
public defender.  He's innocent, whereas I wasn't

<a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,578081,00.html">http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,578081,00.html>

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Next message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] Cutting through hype, spin, and propaganda - "Fact Squad Radio" (fwd)"
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