Friday, October 29, 1993

Norwegian hackers fined In Baerum (a small, wealthy area just outside Oslo, the capital of Norway), two hackers were accused of stealing telephone services, and several other forms of fraud. The elder (23) got 18 days suspended and a 2000NKR (300$) fine after last year having used a phony name and signed out a modem, and assorted computer-related items from a transport-company. He told the court that he was acting on behalf of another person he got in touch with on a BBS. He was told to check a mailbox (a physical one), and pick up the papers for transport there. He did so, and met with the transport company, identified himself mainly by the acquired papers, and signed out the goods. He paid with a stolen Eurocard-number. He left some of the aquired items on a public place, to be picked up by the other person involved, and kept some for himself. In court it also came out that he used to work at a gas-station, wrote down all credit-card numbers used, and mailed them around the world. The younger (16) had committed the same scam with the transport-company a couple of times for a "Calvin", which he met on a French BBS. He was fined 2000 NKR (300$). None of the boys were sentenced for telecom fraud, on technicalities. The court also found that the boys had been roaming international databases, but did not consider this a computer crime, as they had not destroyed or modified anything. (I personally would like to see a burglar getting of the hook because he did not find anything worth stealing!) The defendants and their lawyers were very satisfied with the verdict. ystein Gulbrandsen Taskon A/S [oysteing@taskon.no via risks-digest Volume 15, Issue 20] 17:45 # G!

White House distributes STONED 3 virus Heard on the Rush Limbaugh radio show of 10/29/93, not confirmed: The White House distributed the 1300-page health care legislation proposal widely on floppy disk. Copies went to legislative staffs and to the press. It seems that each disk was infected with the STONED 3 virus, which causes a PC to display "Your PC is STONED. Legalize marijuana." The commentator drew the obvious ironies and puns. (No doubt our esteemed moderator will find non-obvious puns.) -=- Andrew Klossner (andrew@frip.wv.tek.com) [People who live in grass browses shouldn't know STONED? PGN] [andrew@frip.wv.tek.com (Andrew Klossner) via risks-digest Volume 15, Issue 20] 17:23 # G!