[iwar] [fc:Hacker.caused.sewage.overflows,.court.told]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-23 19:38:28


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Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:38:28 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Hacker.caused.sewage.overflows,.court.told]
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Hacker caused sewage overflows, court told
Glenis Green
17oct01

A BRISBANE man accused of hacking into council computers to create raw
sewage overflows on the Sunshine Coast had the know-how, equipment and
opportunity, a court was told yesterday. 


Crown prosecutor Russell Hanson, QC, said Vitek Boden, 49, of
Springwood, also had a motive – as a "disgruntled" former employee of
the company which had installed the computerised system for Maroochy
Shire Council. 

Boden faces 50 charges after he allegedly hacked into the council's
sewage control computers early last year and used radio transmissions to
alter pump station operations. 

The case is believed to be one of the world's first instances of online
environmental vandalism. 

Deliberate raw sewage overflows were allegedly created on at least two
occasions – at the Coolum Hyatt Regency Resort grounds and at the nearby
township of Pacific Paradise, where up to a million litres of raw sewage
ended up in a stormwater drain. 

Clean-up costs at the time were estimated to be $50,000. 

Boden has pleaded not guilty to 46 charges of computer hacking, two
counts of causing serious environmental harm by means of sewage
overflows, and two of stealing which involved the equipment needed to do
the hardwiring. 

In his opening address on the first day of Boden's trial in the
Maroochydore District Court yesterday, Mr Hanson said the court would be
told Boden had been placed under both private and police surveillance
when the council's new computerised sewage control system began to
repeatedly malfunction. 

Mr Hanson said Boden had helped install the system as an employee of
Brisbane company Hunter Watertech Pty Ltd but had left "on strained
terms". 

Mr Hanson said Boden had made suggestions about changing the system
while installing it and had made unauthorised changes to a pump
configuration before being overruled by a supervisor. 

Boden's application for a job with Maroochy Shire Council had
subsequently been rejected. 

Mr Hanson said Boden had been intercepted in his car by police on April
23 last year, less than an hour after one of the alleged sabotage
attempts on the system. 

A two-way radio and aerial, PDS telemetry system and computer cables
were allegedly found in his car, along with a laptop computer which had
the necessary programs to hack into the council's sewage pumping station
controls. 

Mr Hanson said it would be argued the laptop programme had been set for
the same pumping station which had just been sabotaged. 

He said a copy of the hard disk on Boden's laptop showed that it had
been used at the same times as pump station malfunctions on six of seven
days of alleged sabotage between March 14 and April 23 last year. 

It had also been used on the seventh day, but the time was
indeterminate. 

The trial, which is expected to last more than two weeks, will continue
today. 


 © 2001 Queensland Newspapers <a
href="http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0%2C5936%2C3062444^3102,00.html">http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0%2C5936%2C3062444^3102,00.html>

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