Thursday, November 4, 1993

Master of Disaster Phiber Optik sentenced Mark Abene, 21, widely known as Phiber Optik, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. He will serve 600 hours of community service. He pleaded guilty last July to conspiracy, wire fraud and other federal charges relating to his activities as one of five Masters of Disaster indicted for breaking into telephone, educational, and commercial computer systems. [Perhaps in a few years more, they will be Doctors of Disaster?] [PGN Excerpting Service, drawn from the Associated Press and Reuters, both on 3 November 1993] The Reuter article give background information, including o the charges against MoD marked the first use of wiretaps to record both conversations and datacomm by accused hackers. o the hackers attacked phone switching computers belonging to Southwestern Bell, New York Telephone, Pacific Bell, U.S. West and Martin Marietta Electronics Information and Missile Group. o they broke into credit-status reporting companies including TRW, Trans Union and Information America, stealing at least 176 TRW credit reports. o the young men were apparently competing with each other and other hacker groups for "rep" (reputation) and were also interested in harassing people they didn't like. o the Reuter article mentions that "they wiped out almost all of the information contained on a system operated by the Public Broadcasting System affiliate in New York, WNET, that provided educational materials to schools in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut" and left the message, ""Happy Thanksgiving you turkeys, from all of us at MOD." Michel E. Kabay, Ph.D., Director of Education, National Computer Security Assn ["Mich Kabay / JINBU Corp." <75300.3232@compuserve.com> via risks-digest Volume 15, Issue 22] 22:37 # G!

Prague computer crime CZECH TRANSITION SPURS BOOM IN ECONOMIC CRIME, By Bernd Debusmann PRAGUE, Nov 3 (Reuter, 2 November 1993) - The Czech Republic's transition to a market economy has led to a boom in economic crime ranging from embezzlement to tax evasion, as criminals exploit money-making opportunities denied them under communism. According to the latest police statistics, economic crime jumped 75.2 percent in the first nine months of the year compared with the same period in 1992 -- a steeper increase than any other criminal activity. [From the Reuter newswire via the Executive News Service (GO ENS) on CompuServe] The article goes on to state that with the growth of an economy, the opportunities for economic crime are increasing apace. Although police claim to solve 75% of the cases of fraud reported to them, there seem to be many more unreported cases. In a recent case, "Martin Janku, a 23-year-old employee of the Czech Republic's biggest savings bank, Ceska Sporitelna, is accused of transferring 35 million crowns ($1.19 million) from various corporate accounts to his personal account over an eight-month period." In a typical hacker's excuse, Janku claims to have done this to demonstrate the bank's poor security. He wrote software himself to be able to tamper with client accounts--but only, he said, after repeatedly warning his bosses of weak security precautions. The theft was not detected by the bank itself until Janku withdrew part of the money. He was arrested as he was in the process of stuffing half a million dollar's worth of banknotes into a briefcase. The problems of inefficient bureaucracies are compounded by poor laws and indifferent enforcement. The problem is so widespread that about 30% of the residents of Prague own a country home--and a large percentage of those are claimed by analysts to be built through illegal economic activity. Michel E. Kabay, Ph.D., Director of Education, National Computer Security Assn ["Mich Kabay / JINBU Corp." <75300.3232@compuserve.com> via risks-digest Volume 15, Issue 22] 22:36 # G!