.oO Phrack 50 Oo. Volume Seven, Issue Fifty 15 of 16 PWN PWN PNW PNW PNW PNW PNW PNW PNW PNW PNW PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN Phrack World News PWN PWN PWN PWN Compiled by disorder/alhambra PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Intro: As usual there are literally hundreds of interesting articles that could be put here. I have tried to narrow the focus to hacker/security related stuff only. Enjoy. Sources: Access All Areas mail list: echo "help" | mail majordomo@access.org.uk CSP (run by Frosty): Computer Underground Digest: echo "subscribe cu-digest" | mail cu-digest-request@weber.ucsd.edu Cyberwire Dispatch: echo "subscribe" | mail cwd-l-request@cyberwerks.com Defcon Stuff: echo "subscribe" | mail majordomo@dis.org Half a dozen other mail lists, elite people who forward me neat shit, and various news type web pages. Phrack World News #50 -- Index 01. Computer Attack Slows Service at New York Times' Web Site 02. [Chinese Hacker Convicted] 03. Phone 'Super Scanner' Alert 04. Computer Hacking Whiz Pleads Guilty To Electronic Break-And-Enter 05. Hackers release two upcoming U2 songs on Internet 06. Computer Crime Prompts New Parole Restrictions 07. [Evil Hacker SYN-Flood's WebCom] 08. German Police Seek 12 After Raids On Computer Gang 09. The tale of the Russian Hacker 10. Expert Warns Of Lax Security On Web 11. [Man pleads guilty to writing AOL hacking soft] 12. Hackers Hack Crack, Steal Quake 13. Hackers Sabotage Blair's Internet Image 14. Police looking into hacking of Government web site 15. Programmer Accused Of Breaking Into California State Contract Data 16. [Australian Phone Worker Rigs Radio Contest] 17. Hacker challenges `dark side' book 01. The 1997 Summer Security Conference 02. Hacking In Progress 03. Defensive Information Warfare And Systems Assurance 04. Second International Workshop on Enterprise Security 05. DEF CON V Convention Announcement #1.00 (02.26.97) [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: Computer Attack Slows Service at New York Times' Web Site author: source: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition date: November 7, 1996 Numerous World Wide Web sites offering political information found themselves overwhelmed by requests for election information from Tuesday night. But the New York Times' Web site also had to deal with waves of requests for access apparently generated by a computer hacker. Nancy Nielsen, a New York Times Co. spokeswoman, noted that the attacks -- which continued Wednesday -- only slowed the Times' computers, which were still able to serve a record number of users on Tuesday. The attack was similar to a September incident that virtually paralyzed Public Access Networks Corp., or Panix, an Internet-access provider that hosts nearly a thousand corporate Web sites. In that incident, a computer hacker bombarded the service's computers with requests to send information. Such attacks, presumably generated by malicious computer programs, work by sending repeated requests -- sometimes more than a hundred per second -- seeking to establish a connection to send or receive information. The requests contain fake Internet addresses, which the site's computers waste valuable resources attempting to establish contact with. This process prevents the computers from handling legitimate requests from Internet users for access. Such attacks are, in effect, similar to campaigns used by some activist groups to flood a politician's switchboard with phone calls. So much time is spent sorting out the bogus calls -- in this case, the hacker's false requests for an electronic "handshake" with a site's machines -- that the legitimate ones can't get through. The attacks can be differentiated from heavy volume on a site because of the fake Internet addresses and the regularity with which such requests come in. Attacks such as the ones directed at Panix and the New York Times underscore a key vulnerability of the Internet. "This is the first major attack of a kind that I believe to be the final Internet security problem," said William Cheswick, an Internet security expert at the Bell Laboratories unit of Lucent Technologies Inc., in the wake of the attack on Panix. Mr. Cheswick, who assisted Panix during the attacks, said at the time that while there had been a few previous reports of such incidents, the Panix episode was the most severe. Internet computers have no quick way of distinguishing a bogus request for information from a real one, Mr. Cheswick noted. While upgrades to the software controlling these computers could ease the problem, hackers could respond with even more intensive attacks. "There's going to be the usual arms race" between better security measures and hackers, Mr. Cheswick predicts. Panix tried to find the source of the attack by working backward through the labyrinthine network of phone lines and specialized "router" computers that form the Internet. But there is no easy way to trace such hackers, Mr. Cheswick noted. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: (none) [Chinese Hacker Convicted] author: Magdalen Chow source: South China Morning Post Computer hacker who enjoyed free access to the Internet by using other people's accounts was fined HK$125,000 (about US$16,000) in Hong Kong Monday. Judge Gareth Lugar-Mawson also ordered David Yip Shu-chew, 27, to pay HK$40,400 in compensation to Hong Kong Star Internet Ltd. and HK$404 to one of the people whose accounts he had used. The judge said he would not order Yip to pay the costs of approximately HK$2.6 million incurred in the prosecution and investigation of the case, but threatened him with jail if he misused the Internet again. Yip is the first person to be charged with accessing a computer with criminal or dishonest intent under the Crimes Ordinance. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: Phone 'Super Scanner' Alert source: The London Telegraph date: 12th November 1996 Cellphone fraud, which already costs the British cellphone industry £200 million a year, is increasing because of a new device that makes it easier than ever for criminals to "clone" phones, writes Aisling Irwin. The new "super-scanner" can soak up all the identification numbers of vulnerable analogue phones within half a mile. Each phone contains two numbers: its phone number and a secret verification code. When a call is made, the phone transmits the two numbers to the nearest of a network of base stations, which checks that the phone is legitimate before allowing the call to go ahead. Normally, thieves pick up the numbers as they are transmitted at the beginning of each call. Until now, such thefts have been possible only when victims are making calls - and stealing numbers has taken much longer. But the new technique, which is far more powerful, only requires mobile phones to be switched on to obtain their identification numbers. By sending out a signal identical to that of a real base station, the super-scanner gets the cellphones to yield their numbers. These are received by the scanner, passed to a computer and can then be programmed into stolen phones. According to the Federation of Communication Services, which represents leading cellphone companies, the new technology has evolved over the past few months. "Its impact is really being felt heavily," said a spokesman. The FCS has launched a campaign to make the advertising, sale, ownership or use of cloning equipment illegal. Although the FCS says the technique cannot be used to clone digital phones, New Scientist reported last week that criminals may be close to cloning these as well. If so, the problem will be magnified because these can be used abroad. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: Computer Hacking Whiz Pleads Guilty To Electronic Break-And-Enter ST. LOUIS (Nov 15, 1996 11:12 a.m. EST) -- A computer whiz deemed so cunning he could control almost any computer system has accepted a plea bargain for hacking his way into the secret files of two major communications companies. Christopher Schanot, 20, was linked to the Internet Liberation Front, a group of hackers who have claimed responsibility for some high-profile computer pranks and who decry the commercialization of cyberspace. In exchange for a reduced sentence, Schanot pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of computer fraud and one count of illegal wiretapping. He faces up to 15 years in prison and $750,000 in fines at his sentencing on Jan. 31. Prosecutors said Schanot broke into national computer networks and had passwords to military computers, the credit reporting service TRW and the phone company Sprint. They gave no indication he tried to profit from his intrusion. His hacking caused security breaches that companies said cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair. The break-ins took place between October 1994 and April 1995, when Schanot was an honor student at a Catholic boys' school in suburban St. Louis. He vanished after graduating in May 1995. Authorities caught up with Schanot last March and arrested him at the suburban Philadelphia apartment he shared with a 37-year-old woman, Netta Gilboa, the publisher of Gray Areas. The magazine professes to explore subject matter that is "illegal, immoral and/or controversial." In April, Schanot was placed under 24-hour house arrest and ordered to not even talk about computers. Originally accused in a five-count indictment, he pleaded guilty to charges surrounding break-ins at Southwestern Bell and Bellcore, a communications research company owned by seven regional telephone companies. Mike Schanot said his son made the plea bargain only after prosecutors threatened him with a wider range of charges. [dis: You can find a wide variety of other article on Schanot. Check your favorite search engine to find them.] [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: Hackers release two upcoming U2 songs on Internet source: The Associated Press LONDON - Hackers have distributed two unreleased U2 songs on the Internet, possibly after tapping into computers at the Irish rock group's recording studio, the Sunday Times said. The songs, Discotheque and Wake Up Dead Man, have appeared on Internet sites in at least four countries, the newspaper said. The songs are to appear on an album scheduled for release in the spring. Since their illicit appearance on the Internet, the songs have also been copied onto compact discs, the Times said. The bootleg CDs are going for $10 at street markets in Ireland and Britain. "It is an infringement of our copyright," Marc Marot, managing director of Island Records, told the Times. Island Records did not immediately return calls for comment Sunday. The Sunday Times said the record company is trying to shut down the Internet sites. Conventional, low-tech theft of the songs has been ruled out, the newspaper said. Band managers are investigating the possibility that hackers tapped into computers at U2's Dublin studio, it said. They may have gained access through cables that have been feeding images of the band's recording sessions to an Internet site maintained by Island Records. Since 1981, U2 has sold 70 million records and grossed more than $1.5 billion. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: Computer Crime Prompts New Parole Restrictions WASHINGTON (Dec 17, 1996 07:42 a.m. EST) -- The U.S. Parole Commission has approved restrictions on the use of computers by certain high-risk parolees. The Justice Department announced Monday that the panel voted this month to authorize such restrictions as requiring certain parolees to get prior written approval from the commission before using an Internet service provider, computerized bulletin board system or any public or private computer network. Other restrictions would: prohibit particular parolees from possessing or using data encryption programs, require some parolees to agree to unannounced inspection of computers by probation officers, require some parolees to compile daily logs of computer use or to pay for equipment to monitor their computer use. "Unrestricted access to the Internet and other computer online services can provide sophisticated offenders with new opportunities for crime and criminal associations," said Edward F. Reilly Jr., commission chairman. "We cannot ignore the possibility that such offenders may be tempted to use computer services to repeat their crimes." The commission noted a surge in "how-to" information on child molestation, hate crime and the illegal use of explosives available on the Internet and on computer online services. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: (none) [Evil Hacker SYN-Flood's WebCom] SAN FRANCISCO - The FBI says it is investigating charges that sabotage caused a 40-hour outage last weekend on Web Communications, (WebCom) a Silicon Valley service hosting 3,000 World Wide Web sites. WebCom said it believes a hacker using a college computer network in British, Columbia, Canada, flooded its server in San Jose with requests for connections from phony addresses. It said the attack ended Sunday after MCI Net, a unit of MCI Communications, blocked telephone traffic between WebCom and CA-Net of Canada at the request of WebCom and its local service provider. WebCom Executive Vice President Thomas Leavitt said the sites the company hosts were unreachable much of Saturday Dec. 14 and Sunday Dec. 15, causing customers, some of who operate retail sites, to suffer "extensive" damages, "One customer said he lost about $20,000 in revenue due to a special event that was not able to occur. Others said they lost business on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year," Leavitt said. WebCom said the incident was due to a common type of Internet sabotage known as "denial of service" or "SYN flood," in which a computer hacker jams a server with requests for connections from addresses that do not exist. These types of attacks are easy to carry out and hard to trace, Leavitt said. "You can fake where the messages are coming from," Leavitt said, and almost any with access to the Internet and some technical sophistication can do it. Others in the industry have experienced similar attacks, WebCom said. Public Access Networks of New York City experienced a SYN flood attack in September. WebCom, headquartered in Santa Cruz, said its own investigation helped by three Internet service providers traced the origin of the flooding message to a computer on a college network in British Columbia linked to BC-Net, a local Internet service provider there. Leavitt said that a network administrator at Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo, British Columbia, has identified the computer used for the sabotage and that it was broken into by someone without authorized access to that computer or to the college network. The individual has not been identified. FBI spokesman George Grotz said that the FBI is working with the information tracing the requests for connection to British Columbia but noted the actual perpetrator may nothing to do with the college or BC-Net. "BC-Net may just be another link in the case," he said. The FBI has jurisdiction over such cases under Title 18 section 1030, which deals with falsely perpetrating denial of service on a computer network. Leavitt said if the industry, or specifically Internet service providers, adopt certain "source filtering" coding they can prevent people from using one network to send messages that appear to come from somewhere else. The U.S. Department of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability has an advisory warning about SYN Floods. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: German Police Seek 12 After Raids On Computer Gang MUNICH, Germany (Nov 28, 1996 3:36 p.m. EST) - European police are seeking 12 members of an international computer chip counterfeiting gang that was smashed this week in Germany and nine other countries, Bavarian law officials said Thursday. The raids, part of an operation code-named "Goldfish," resulted in the arrest of 12 others suspected of selling counterfeit Pentium chips and pirated software programs as well as fraud, money-laundering and tax evasion, Bavarian prosecutor Hubert Vollmann told a news conference. Police did not release the names of the suspects. The highly-organized ring specialized in smuggling old Intel Corp Pentium chips into Europe and selling them as new, Vollmann said. It also sold illegal copies of Microsoft Corp programs and counterfeit Hercules graphics adapters, he said. Vollmann said the ring caused damages of several millions of dollars in lost sales. Tuesday and Wednesday, more than 2,000 law enforcement officals confiscated "truckloads" of files, computer disks and equipment in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, he said. The raids centered on offices and apartments near Munich in southern Germany, and in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Vollmann said. Three Germans and five Asians were arrested in Germany. Four other arrests were made in France. The raids were the culmination of a three-year probe that began when a Laotian businessman reported he was robbed of almost $20,000 in 1993. He came under suspicion after two of his attackers told police they had robbed him of 500,000 marks. A series of unusually large bank transactions by the man's companies led to an investigation into tax evasion and money laundering, police said. In addition to the 12 individuals under arrest and the 12 still at large, 16 others were arrested in the raids on charges unrelated to chip counterfeiting, Vollmann said. The chip counterfeiting ring operated a multi-tiered organization that bought used 133-megahertz Pentium chips in Asia and retouched them in Hong Kong to look like new 166- megahertz processors, Vollmann said. The group shipped the chips to Europe by courier to avoid customs and taxes, and sold them to personal computer companies, he said. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: The tale of the Russian Hacker Everyone wants to know how Vladimir Levin did it, writes Hugo Cornwall. In mid-1994, as a 26-year-old computer scientist in St Petersburg, he is supposed to have led a gang that hacked into Citibank in New Jersey, and organised more than 40 wire transfers from customer accounts. Russia's Mafia is said to have been involved. Levin is still denying his involvement and, for the past 21 months, he has been in prison in south London, fighting extradition. On Sunday, he speaks for the first time to Channel 4's Equinox programme. Could Levin really be living proof of the "professional hacker" so often celebrated in movies, books and lurid conference presentations? Is he a product of a KGB school of super hackers now turned loose on the world as part of Russian criminal enterprise? If that turned out to be true, it would delight the information warriors, the cyber-SWAT teams set up by the US armed forces whose most recent claims on federal budgets have been on the basis of threats to the global information infrastructure. Equally pleased will be the platoons of consultants, the sales forces of computer companies and the organisers of high- price exclusive conferences. Equinox tells a different story. The programme's researchers found a Russian "recreational" hacker group called Megazoid. The Citibank fraud because a group of hackers worldwide compiled files on the VAX/VMS operating system, and some Russian hackers found a Citibank computer with which they could play and use as a free jumping-off point to other computers. One of them says that, for $100, he sold details to Levin and his friends who ran a computer import/export business. In reality Levin appears to have been an average-ability programmer with entrepreneurial ambitions. The Citibank fraud was possible only because of a number of coincidences - poor security management, a group of Russian hackers getting lucky and their information falling into the hands entreprenurs with the right connections. This is the pattern of much computer crime. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: Expert Warns Of Lax Security On Web SAN FRANCISCO - An outspoken computer security expert, citing his just-completed study, says up to two-thirds of certain Web sites, including reputable institutions like banks and the media, are vulnerable to hacker attacks. Dan Farmer -- who stirred controversy in 1995 as co-author of software dubbed SATAN that enables people with basic skills to infiltrate computer systems -- surveyed more than 2,200 Web sites. The survey released last week covered a relatively small portion of the sprawling Web but focused on sites where security is more of a concern. Farmer probed 660 bank sites around the globe, 312 North American online newspaper sites, 274 credit union sites, 47 U.S. federal government sites and 451 Internet sex clubs. In a summary, Farmer said that, out of his sample of about 1,700 Web sites he selected, "over 60 percent could be broken into or destroyed." As a control, he probed a random sample of 469 sites. Farmer said he used relatively crude, non-intrusive methods and did not actually break into the sites. He also said he would not publish the names of the sites he surveyed. "I barely electronically breathed on these (computer) hosts," he said in his report, adding that, considering more intrusive tests, some 70 percent to 80 percent of sites may have security flaws. Other computer security experts found Farmer's results credible and authoritative, David Kennedy, director of research, education and consulting at the National Computer Security Association, said in a telephone interview. Experts and computer industry executives said the study shed more light on a problem well known within the industry but insufficiently understood by the public at large. The threat of hacker attacks was highlighted earlier this year when intruders broke into the Justice Department and Central Intelligence Agency Web sites and altered them, prompting the CIA to close its site temporarily. Farmer stressed that Web sites are being used primarily for marketing and advertising purposes and that, although some bank sites may allow visitors to look up balances, the sites do not provide access to internal financial systems. Deborah Triant, president of CheckPoint Software Technologies' U.S. operating unit in Redwood City, Calif., said banks routinely keep Web sites on separate computer systems. "Our experience is the banks are so paranoid that they won't even allow the access that they should be able to allow and would be quite safe if you had a modern firewall" protecting their networks from intruders, said Triant, whose company is the market leader in firewall technology. "So, if their Web site is vulnerable, that doesn't mean that anything else at the bank is vulnerable, or that their customers' accounts or the transactions their customers are doing are vulnerable," she said. Nevertheless, with the advent of electronic commerce over the Internet expected to gain momentum in 1997, lax security remains a critical issue, experts said. Farmer separated security flaws into two categories -- a red category where he said a site was "essentially wide open to any potential attacker" and a yellow category deemed less serious but with potential for disastrous consequences. Of the 660 bank sites, 68 percent were deemed vulnerable and nearly 36 percent were in the red category. Some 51 percent of credit unions were vulnerable, 62 percent of the federal sites, nearly 70 percent of newspapers and 66 percent of sex clubs. Sites in the red category ranged from 20 percent for credit unions to 38 percent for federal sites and 39 percent for online newspapers. Of the random sample of 469 Web sites used as the control, a far smaller percentage -- 33 percent -- were found to be vulnerable, and 17 percent of the group was in the red category. Farmer said part of the problem is that Web sites are trying to do too much at once, increasing their complexity and making security far more difficult to achieve. But, even with security concerns, credit card transactions over the Net are much safer than those carried out in shopping malls, said the security association's Kennedy. Farmer also said he plans to incorporate some newer testing tools into a new version of SATAN, which stands for Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks, early next year. The program enables people who manage corporate networks to locate weaknesses and fix them. But it has been controversial because it can also easily be used by malevolent intruders trying to cause damage. Triant said there have been no reported security breaches at any of the more than 15,000 institutions with CheckPoint network security installed and said such precautions should provide adequate protection. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: (none) [Man pleads guilty to writing AOL hacking soft] source: Reuters World ReportJanuary 8, 1997 14:55:00 WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuter) - A Yale University student pleaded guilty Wednesday to committing computer fraud for developing a programme that allowed him to use America Online Inc. without paying, the Justice Department said. Prosecutors said Nicholas Ryan, 20 of Victor, New York, entered the guilty plea at a federal court hearing in Alexandria, Virginia. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine at sentencing, scheduled at the end of March. Prosecutors said Ryan in June 1995 developed the programme, called "AOL4FREE," and frequently used it through December 1995, avoiding having to pay the firm's rate of $2.95 per hour. Ryan, who identified himself as "Happy Hardcore," also made the programme available to other America Online users, and it circulated within AOL chat rooms, prosecutors said. As the company made changes to stop the use of the programme, Ryan modified it and made the updated version available to other online service users, the prosecutors said. They said the heaviest use of the programme took place from September through December 1995. America Online estimated that on a single day individuals using the programme logged onto the system about 2,000 times, the prosecutors said. The case was brought by the U.S. Attorney's office and the Justice Department's computer crime section. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: Hackers Hack Crack, Steal Quake author: Annaliza Savage 8:00 pm PST - Hackers broke into the Web server and file server of Crack dot Com, a Texas gaming company, on Wednesday, stealing the source code for id's Quake 1.01, as well as Crack's newest project, Golgatha, and older games Abuse and Mac Abuse. Although the hackers left a trail that may make them easy to track, the theft did its damage. "Quake's raw engine market value dropped several hundred thousand dollars," said Dave Taylor, who formed Crack dot Com after leaving id Software, where he worked on Doom and Quake. But Barrett Alexander of id denies that the financial loss will be so great, saying that the code for Quake's unique engine is recognizable, making it hard for anyone to be able to use without id's knowledge. Crack dot Com is also worried that its unreleased techniques, developed for Golgotha, could make their way into the hands of other game competitors, who could copy bits of code into their own software. The hackers, who were able to get through the Crack's firewall, left intact a bash-history file that recorded all their movements. They even logged onto IRC's #quake to brag about their exploits, and made Quake's source available on Crack dot Com's homepage (it is no longer there). The hackers, who identified themselves as being from the group FEH, probably broke through Crack's firewall through their Web site. The former editor of the now defunct hacker magazine FEH denies any knowledge of the event, and has already posted a disclaimer. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: Hackers Sabotage Blair's Internet Image author: Robert Uhlig, Technology Correspondent source: The Telegraph date: 10th December 1996 The Labour Party has called for a police inquiry after computer hackers made repeated attacks on its Internet site, replacing a picture of Tony Blair with his Spitting Image puppet and headlining the site with "New Labour - Same Politicians. Same Lies". A group of British hackers, calling itself the Digital Anarchists, infiltrated the Labour publicity site for the second time yesterday and said it would continue to attack the Labour Web site this week. "We're going to keep doing it again and again until further notice. And we're going to hit some other sites as well," a spokesman for the group said last night. The hackers later infiltrated the Labour site a third time, while computer experts were attempting to rectify the second attack. The Web site has now been closed until future notice to prevent more further embarrassing alterations of its content. It is believed that the hackers will attack other political parties including the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru. Internet sites belonging to other public organisations, blue-chip companies and newspapers may also be affected. The first attack, which promised free drugs and beer to young voters, was made on Saturday while the British hacker community was staging a Christmas party in Manchester. The Labour leader's response to the Budget was replaced with a live sex show of women wearing the "demon eyes" masks seen in the Tory advertising campaign. The hackers also changed the title "The road to the Manifesto" to "The road to nowhere" and altered links to other parts of the site so they read "The Labour Party sex shop". [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: Police looking into hacking of Government web site author: Adeline Goh source: The Straits Times date: Dec 10 1996 POLICE are investigating how the Singapore government's Web site on the Internet was modified without authorisation. In the incident on Sunday, someone replaced the site's contents with a list of more than 100 user identities (IDs) of people from various government bodies. Yesterday, the Commercial Crime Division (CCD) of the Criminal Investigation Department told The Straits Times that three officers from its computer crime team had started work on the case. It added that the first step would be to trace the identity of the hacker by checking the log files of the computer in which the Web site is housed. These log files keep track of people who access it. The web site -- at http://www.gov.sg -- is the on-line version of the Singapore Government directory and has links to the Web sites of various bodies such as the ministries. The original contents of the site were restored by the National Computer Board (NCB) on Sunday afternoon. When contacted yesterday, NCB, which maintains the computer that houses the Web site, said that the hackers did not gain access to any government networks which contain sensitive data. It added that the computer where the Web site was stored did not contain sensitive information. It declined to give further details about the incident, saying that it had referred the matter to the CCD. Several computer experts contacted yesterday said that electronic networks could be broken into with special computer programs. They are placed into a network by hackers and they capture a user's log-in password, which can then be retrieved. Those contacted added that passwords which are proper English words were easy for hackers to crack. This is because there are also programs which try to log on by trying words found in English dictionaries. One of the experts, Mr A. I. Chow, 32, a partner in a computer firm, said perpetrators could even impersonate computer system administrators and ask a particular user on the network to change his password to one supplied by them. "When the user changes his password, the hacker can then access the network easily with the user's account." Those contacted said data on Internet computers could be made more secure if system administrators allowed Web pages to be updated only during certain times or from computers within an organisation. Security could also be improved, they said, if passwords were generated randomly and refreshed constantly. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: Computer Programmer Accused Of Breaking Into California State Contract Data SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Jan 17, 1997 00:36 a.m. EST) -- The Bay Area computer programmer who was arrested for hacking into the state Department of Information Technology computer system tapped into confidential information dealing with nearly a half million dollars worth of government contracts, court records show. David Ernesto Salas of Alameda, who faces four years in prison, allegedly told others he had obtained confidential communication between a contractor and department officials and he was going to use it in a lawsuit against the department, said documents on file in Sacramento Superior Court. Salas, 34, who is free on $50,000 bail, was arraigned Tuesday in Sacramento on three felony counts of computer hacking, including one count which alleges he attempted to destroy the department's computer system after his hacking was discovered. Although some data was lost in the crash and the department's computer system was down for two days in September, nearly everything has been re-created by a backup computer system. Damage was estimated about $10,000, officials said. The incident, however, has been an embarrassment to department officials and is viewed with concern because Information Technology oversees $2.2 billion in computer projects throughout state government. The department was established last year after a series of audits and investigations showed that millions in public funds were wasted on bungled state computer projects. Kenneth Keller, Salas's San Francisco attorney, has said his client, who was a subcontractor hired to develop and install the department's computer system, will eventually be vindicated. Keller, who couldn't be reached for comment Thursday, said last week that Salas had permission to be using the computer. But according to court documents, Salas lost his authority to access the computer when he lost his contract after a dispute with another contractor in August. Beginning shortly before 11 p.m. Sept. 25 and into the following day, Salas gained access to the department's computer. To this day, it is not known exactly what he did once he entered the system. The backup computer, unbeknownst to Salas, did capture a trail of changed passwords that led to the highest administrative level, giving Salas full access to the entire computer system, documents said. "Electronic mail (E-mail) regarding state service contracts worth approximately $400,000 between (a contractor) and DOIT resided on the DOIT system," said a summary of the facts in the case prepared for Salas's arrest. Special Agent Fred Adler of the Sacramento Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force, which arrested Salas, said Thursday the case is still under investigation and another arrest is possible. In his affidavit for the search warrant, Adler said on Sept. 9, Salas told Information Technology deputy director and chief counsel Alexis Schatten that he had contacted an attorney to initiate a lawsuit against a competing contractor for slandering him and other subcontractors. Adler said there were witnesses who had seen Salas "bringing up privileged information on (his computer) screen" and that Salas had "alluded" to others that he possessed confidential information about Information Technology's business dealings, court records show. Department officials told investigators that "numerous confidential communications exist on the their system relative to procurement, installation and maintenance of multi-million dollar, state computer systems," the affidavit said. "Knowledge of these communications could prove to be financially advantageous to firms involved in these processes," the affidavit said. Rich Halberg, department spokesman, declined to comment on the search warrant out of fear it might jeopardize an ongoing prosecution and investigation. He did say, however, that the department computer system does not contain actual contracts, but he did say that there may be E-mail pertaining to such contracts. "We are doing the right thing by going after this guy," Halberg said. "It is all too common in large companies and government to not want to go after the hacker because it is difficult to prove. Hopefully, this guy won't be in a position to do this again to another government agency," Halberg said. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: (none) [Australian Phone Worker Rigs Radio Contest] source: COMTEX Newswire date: 12/10/96 7:48 PM SYDNEY, Dec. 11 (UPI S) -- An Australian telephone company worker who won $50,000 Australian (U.S. $40,000) in a radio station's phone-in competition has been charged with fraud after allegedly hacking into the phone line. Brian Ronald Francis, who police say used his expertise to ensure he was the 10th caller in the competition, has also been charged with two more offenses relating to two other radio competitions he won this year. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] title: Hacker challenges `dark side' book author: Simson Garfinkel Special to the Mercury News KEVIN Poulsen was one of the most talented "dark side hackers" ever to phreak a phone call. For more than two years, Poulsen lived the life of a fugitive as part of the seedy Los Angeles underground. He made money by reprogramming Pacific Bell's computers for pimps and escort services, re-activating old telephone numbers and building a voice-mail network pairing prostitutes with their johns. And he cleaned up by messing with the phones used by Los Angeles radio stations, rigging their call-in contests so that he would always win the big bucks or the car. But Poulsen got caught and he spent more than five years in jail. Behind bars in 1993, Poulsen did what any phone phreak would do: He picked up the pay phone and started making collect calls. But these calls where different: they went to Jonathan Littman, a journalist in Mill Valley who had just published a magazine article about Poulsen's crimes and exploits and was about to write a book on the same topic. Poulsen wanted to make sure that Littman got the story right. He felt that Littman had made a lot of mistakes in the magazine article. Today, Poulsen feels somewhat betrayed by the journalist to whom he gave total access. After reading an advance copy of Littman's book, Poulsen says Littman has twisted the truth in order to make a more compelling story. "Most of my complaints about Littman's book are small things," said Poulsen, who is on parole and living in Sherman Oaks, a Los Angeles suburb. "He has major events right but then he changes the meaning of them by changing minor events and making up quotes." Littman stands by his work. The book, "The Watchman: The Twisted Life and Crimes of Serial Hacker Kevin Poulsen," is due to be published next month by Little, Brown and Co. It's an insider's look at the world of a criminal computer hacker, one of the most detailed yet published. "He was one of the first to hack the Internet and get busted for it," said Littman, referring to Poulsen's 1984 arrest for breaking into university computers on the ARPAnet, predecessor to today's Internet. "They decided not to prosecute him because he was 17" when he was arrested, Littman said. Instead, Poulsen was hired by a Silicon Valley defense contractor. "It was every hacker's dream -- to commit a crime and instead of going to jail, to get a job with what was a top think tank and defense contractor," Littman said. Soon, however, Poulsen was back to his old tricks -- with a vengeance, according to the book. He started physically breaking into Pacific Bell offices, stealing manuals and writing down passwords. Much of what he found went into a storage locker. But Poulsen couldn't handle his finances, and got behind in his rent. When the locker company broke open Poulsen's lock his stash was discovered and a trap was laid. As the FBI closed in, Poulsen left town, a fugitive on the run. Guilty plea He was caught June 21, 1991, and spent nearly three years in pre-trial detention. On June 14, 1994, in federal court in Southern California, he pleaded guilty to seven counts of computer fraud, interception of wire communications, mail fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He was then transferred to Northern California to face a spying charge, based on his possession of material the government called classified. He pleaded guilty to fraud, possession of unauthorized access devices and fraudulent use of a Social Security number, and was released June 4, last year. The Watchman is Littman's second book on the computer hacker underground. His first, "The Fugitive Game," followed the exploits of hacker Kevin Mitnick, who was on the run and eventually caught by computer security expert Tsutomu Shimomura and New York Times reporter John Markoff. Shimomura and Markoff wrote their own book describing the chase, and they both objected to Littman's version of the events. For his part, Poulsen seems most angry about the implication of the new book's title -- that he was somehow obsessed with eavesdropping and largely acted alone. Only two wiretaps In the book, Littman has Poulsen listening to dozens of conversations -- even wiretapping the telephones of people trying to sell used equipment through newspaper classified ads, to see if they are being honest with their prices. Poulsen insists that he wiretapped the telephones of only two people: another hacker who was also an FBI informant and his high-school girlfriend. "He also reports that I obsessively followed the details of every escort date, including details of the tricks," Poulsen says, among other complaints. "He made that up. Totally made that up." Littman denies making up quotes, and insists that everything in the book was told to him by one of the participants. "I've written a book about a very complicated story about controversial people who had very different versions of what happened," Littman said. "I've done the best I can to view them objectively. Somebody else might view them differently, and the participants obviously have a subjective perspective. My views are in the book." But Poulsen says that Littman's fundamental premise is flawed. "John had a problem in writing this book," Poulsen said. "He wanted to sell it as the troubled loner-hacker-stalker guy. The problem is I had five co-defendants and it is hard to portray someone as a troubled loner when you have five other people making it happen." Not a loner Ron Austin, Poulsen's friend and co-conspirator, agrees. "Littman has to write an interesting book, I guess," he said. "He downplays the role of a lot of people, but I think that's because he is writing a book about Kevin. My role is downplayed." Austin also said the role of Justin Petersen, a hard-rocking hacker and co-conspirator is underplayed. Austin, also on parole, said he is concerned that the controversy regarding Littman's portrayal of Poulsen might obscure some of the more important issues raised by Littman's book: That the FBI engaged in widespread wiretapping of foreign consulates in the San Francisco area, the FBI's apparent hiring of an informant to commit illegal acts on the agency's behalf, and that the FBI's apparent ability to decrypt files on Poulsen's computer that had been encrypted with the U.S. government's Data Encryption Standard, a popular data-scrambling algorithm. The FBI office in Los Angeles declined to comment on the Poulsen case. A representative of the FBI's Washington office said, "We normally do not comment on books that are coming out until we have had an opportunity to review the book." As a condition of his plea bargain, Poulsen is prohibited from discussing FBI wiretaps. Littman said he feels "lucky as a writer to have been able to spend some time with Poulsen and these other characters in the story." "One thing about Poulsen is he really had a very highly developed ethical model that he believed in," Littman said. "He found it challenged by his circumstances and the people he associated with. I found it fascinating to see how he resolved this age-old computer hacker ethic with a changing world." Cellular Code-breakers Blame Standards Process 577 Words 4312 Characters 04/03/97 TR Wireless News Copyright (c) 1997 BRP Publications, Inc. Computer scientists claim they have demonstrated how to break the industry-standard code that encrypts cellular phone calls-a discovery they termed "a setback to the U.S. cellular telephone industry." The code-breakers included Bruce Schneier of Counterpane Systems, a Minneapolis consulting firm, and graduate student David Wagner of the University of California at Berkeley. They criticized the wireless industry's technical standards-setting process for establishing what they consider a weak standard, and they attacked the government for "hamstringing emerging cellular security technology." Release of their announcement and academic paper was timed to coincide with congressional hearings on encryption policy. The researchers' press release observes that the digital cellular system uses encryption to "scramble voice communications." Their paper, Cryptanalysis of the Cellular Message Encryption Algorithm (CMEA), concerns cellular phone keypad entries, but not voice conversations. Mr. Schneier told TRWN that the digital cellular voice encryption standard is "so incredibly vulnerable" to decryption that it was "not worth writing about." The voice standard's fundamental code was broken by the "Union Army in the Civil War," he added. The researchers didn't challenge either the subscriber "authentication" or the "fingerprinting" antifraud procedures now common in the cellular service. Authentication and fingerprinting technologies "are not compromised by the cryptography announced today," according to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. The technical paper describes a cryptographic "attack" on the CMEA. Such an attack, in practice, would require analysis of data recovered from recorded calls, received on radios capable of decoding digital cellular transmissions. Such radios aren't easily available; the common "scanner" can't receive them. "We did not touch a cellular phone in our analysis, and there is no commercial equipment available that could receive digital cellular signals. We worked with a paper standard only," Mr. Schneier said. The attack took "minutes or hours" on a Pentium-class personal computer, and to comply with U.S. laws and who agreed not to "misuse" the information. Federal agencies, including NSA, had certain "sensitivities" as to the encryption power of CMEA and its lawful export under then-current laws, he said. These concerns led to CMEA's being somewhat less "robust" than the authentication algorithm. Updating CMEA to address the concerns raised by the cryptographers' announcement has become the "highest priority" for the TR45 committee at its upcoming meetings, Mr. Marinho said. He added that the shift in federal jurisdiction over encryption from the State Department to the Commerce Department has enabled TIA to move forward in improving CMEA. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= TRENDS IN BRIEF... 285 Words 2117 Characters 04/07/97 Report on Microsoft Copyright 1997 Information Access Company. All rights reserved. A trade publication reports that a "major" security flaw has been uncovered in Microsoft's network operating system, Windows NT. The flaw could enable a user dialing in from a remote location to unscramble encrypted information -- including a corporate network's entire registry of user passwords -- and display it as plain text. EE Times Online (http://www.eet.com) said the discovery is especially troublesome for Microsoft because it has tried to position NT as more secure network server than alternatives such as Unix. Two professional security technologists wrote the code for the "hack" that found the flaw. The code has been verified by several experts and is making the rounds on the Internet via an mailing list frequented by skilled hackers with an interest in NT-security issues. The potentially password-cracking code is the third major security flaw found in NT in as many months and follows recent revelations of security holes in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser. The software giant's security technology has come under closer scrutiny by the hacking community as NT and Internet Explorer have found broader market acceptance... At least a dozen major companies have joined the race to buy, invest or strike strategic alliances with small Java developers, according to a trade publication report. Driven by the growing popularity of Java and the need to get products to market more quickly than they can be developed internally, these vendors frequently are courting the same developers to shore up their Java offerings. One developer, while declining to comment on any talks his company has had, named Sun Microsystems Inc., Microsoft, Novell Inc., Netscape Communications Corp. and IBM/Lotus as the top Java hunters, followed by a second tier of tools vendors that include Symantec Corp. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Social Security officials insist Web info is secure April 8, 1997 Web posted at: 12:10 a.m. EST WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Social security records now available through the Internet pose few security threats to the individuals who request them administration officials said Monday. For the past month, Americans have had the option of having their Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement (PEBES) sent to them electronically. The information previously had to be mailed to them in a process that took as long as six weeks -- and at a cost of millions of dollars in postage each year. Phil Gambino, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration, said the top priority of the new program is maintaining privacy, and several security features have been built into the new system to do just that. "The information going back and forth between the requester and Social Security is encrypted, so if it gets intercepted in the middle, it can't be interpreted -- it would look like jibberish," he said. Auditors also are able to trace the origin of a request to the exact personal computer used to make it, he said. Still, critics concerned about privacy rights are worried. "As soon as crooks start exploiting this service to get other people's information, Social Security is going to have a real problem on its hands," Evan Hendricks, chairman of the U.S. Privacy Council in Washington, told USA Today. The newspaper identified various types of potential abuse: potential employers could get the salary history of job applicants; co-workers could determine how much fellow employees make; landlords could use the information to determine whether someone can afford an apartment. While Gambino insisted someone would have to "go through a great deal of effort" to steal information, even the PEBES Web page offers a disclaimer: "We cannot absolutely guarantee that the information you are sending will not be intercepted by others and decrypted." Indeed, one person in January decoded an encryption code similar to the one used to secure the Social Security information. Responding to a challenge from a computer security firm, a graduate student cracked the code in 3 1/2 hours. He used 250 work stations to do test 100 billion code combinations per hour to crack a 40-bit electronic key. The PEBES page is encrypted with at least a 40-bit key, although it could have 128 bits or more. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Web authors linked to suicide sect By Alan Boyle and Paul Chavez MSNBC Members of the religious community who died in Rancho Santa Fe earned money by designing business sites on the World Wide Web and may have tied their death pact to coincide with the return of the Hale-Bopp comet. Farewell tape shows cultists' calm resolve Cult built an 'earth ship' of old tires Rendezvous with mortality Cults growing on the Net How to know if a loved one is in a cult Talk about this story in our News BBS. The group did business as Higher Source Contract Enterprises and designed a variety of sites, including the San Diego Polo Clubs home page on the World Wide Web. Commander Al Fulmer of the San Diego County Sheriffs Office said during a Thursday press conference that the group also called itself Heavens Gate. A Web site using that name makes a connection between the Hale-Bopp comet, which last visited Earth about 4,200 years ago, and a time of closure. The Heavens Gate site was found under several addresses Thursday, including one Internet address located in Romania. Most of the sites were either pulled off the World Wide Web later Thursday or were made inaccessible because of high volumes of Internet traffic. Katie Greene, a spokesperson for Internet service provider Concentric Network, located in Californias Silicon Valley south of San Francisco, said they have been providing Internet service to the group since March 1995. A section of one Heavens Gate site outlined the groups beliefs and said that 2,000 years ago a crew member of the kingdom of heaven took over the body of Jesus. This Christ-like member prepared others for departure into the kingdom of heaven. The site said the groups mission was the same. I am in the same position to todays society as was the One that was in Jesus then, the sites author wrote. My being here now is actually a continuation of that last task as was promised, to those who were students 2,000 years ago. ... Our only purpose is to offer the discipline and grafting required of this transition. Another section of the site described two leaders, a male and female, who in the early 1970s took over two bodies, which they called vehicles. The Heavens Gate group may be a high-tech reincarnation of a 1970s community that had been dubbed the UFO Cult. Strong similarities exist between the 1970s group and information found on World Wide Web sites connected to Heavens Gate. The two leaders of the the so-called UFO cult have been previously identified in news reports as Houston residents. News reports also said the female leader is dead. One page called Last Chance to Evacuate Earth Before Its Recycled outlined the groups history and mission. The author of the page identified himself as Do as in the musical tone. The author said he was related to the Ti and Do that made news in 1975 as the UFO cult. The author also said that his female partner, Ti, left earth in 1985. Much of the information on the site outlined how representatives from a Kingdom Level Above Human were on Earth to escort others to the higher level. The site also had a section detailing its position against suicide by non-members. Larry Trachte, professor of religion at Wartburg College, said that suicide often has a different meaning among religious groups and cults. Death is seen more in an Eastern perspective, Trachte said. So there isnt a sense that all this is tragic. Its more the spiritual, mental orientation of these people that believe this way. They believe this life is just one in an ongoing cycle or series or wheel of life. And ending this life is like opening a window or door and moving into another existence. Trachte said he took some solace in the news that no children were involved with the group. He also was not surprised with the connection to the Hale-Bopp comet. Throughout history, the heavens and the signs of the stars and peculiar events like comets have signified extraterrestrial powers, Trachte said. Its not totally surprising that a comet would trigger such a response. He said the group was unique in that it apparently mixed modern phenomena, such as UFOs, computers, the comet and the Internet, with age-old beliefs of being swept into heaven. Even in the Christian experience you have that recorded experience of people from another country following a heavenly display or revelation, which to them pointed to the birth of Christ, Trachte said. The Heavens Gate group also designed pages publicizing Pre-Madonna, an album of Madonnas early songs; 1-800-HARMONY, a music and video mail-order operation; British Masters, a clearinghouse for auto parts; and Keep the Faith, a site devoted to contemporary Christian music and news. The group used advanced Web page design and technology, including Java and Javascript, animated images and virtual reality modeling language. Beverly Hills businessman Nick Matzorkis, who runs the Pre-Madonna site, told authorities that he now employs a former member of the Higher Source group. Matzorkis said that members sent the employee whom he identified only as Rio two videotapes this week that described their intentions to commit suicide. Members of Heavens Gate believed it was time to shed their containers, perhaps to rendezvous with a UFO they believed was traveling behind the Hale-Bopp comet, Matzorkis told NBCs Today show. The author identified as Do said on the Heavens Gate site, dated Sept. 29, 1996, that time was short. The end of this civilization is very close, the site said. The end of a civilization is accompanied by a spading under, refurbishing the planet in preparation for another civilization. And the only ones who can survive that experience have to be those who are taken into the keeping of the Evolutionary Level Above Human. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Hecklers hack at human bugs that crawl the Web A couple of weeks ago the U.S. public was distracted by issues of Internet pornography. The U.S. Supreme Court was considering the Communications Decency Act, a law meant to control obscenity supposedly bombarding youthful computer users. Meanwhile Marshall Herff Applewhite and 38 members of the Heaven's Gate cult were updating their Web site, laying in a supply of new Nike sneakers, and preparing to kill themselves. Politicians and clergy had a firm grip on the anti-porn franchise. Who, on the other hand, was tackling murderous mass delusion? The answer: a few skeptics and hecklers, and they did a good job of it. Their postings continue to collect in the forums of Usenet where cult followers put their prophecies about the alien spaceship that supposedly follows the comet Hale-Bopp. "It seems odd that a higher life form would prefer us paltry humans to wear black Nikes with a white "swoosh' as our ceremonial sending off garb," sneers a contributor to sci.astro, a group of otherwise sensible astronomers. "What is wrong with Reebok or Adidas? Is there a conspiracy here?" Criticism also focused on syndicated radio host Art Bell, who has promoted the astronaut-messiah movement. He used to talk more about evil government, until the Oklahoma City federal building bomb went off. Lately his agenda has been heavier on spaceships. "Art's role in their deaths was that of a liar and snake oil salesman, trafficker in junk science, a promoter of charlatans and their wares, and a parasitic peddler of pernicious poppycock," says a contributor "decieving you're some sort of chosen spokesman for some trumped-up alien scam so you can sell your booklet," says another. A preacher surrounding himself with goons in a sealed-off temple, a con artist fleecing followers in a distant commune, even an infomercial huckster on radio or television, is protected from opponents who might distract his victims. But how many of Jim Jones' followers might have been deterred from going to Guyana with him, and tasting his deadly brew, had the Internet been in wider use 20 years ago, complete with its noisy skeptics countering his preachings? Jones took more than 900 lives with him. Applewhite only got 38 to go along. That's progress. "Think of it as evolution in action. Or maybe they were right and are aboard the mothership now. Either way, it's 39 fewer idiots cluttering up the planet," says another contributor. This does not encourage copycats. Skeptical argument is not limited to religious themes. In Usenet's thousands of newsgroups, forums cover politics, social life, dating and marriage, most of the arts and sciences, journalism and international relations. To some degree, they are all the scenes of noisy, sometimes sarcastic and even profane debate. Group members even patrol for porn, often vigorously repelling sexual-oriented postings with the same forensic muscle. Anyone can join in soc.couples, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.clinton, alt.politics.british, alt.history.what-if, rec.arts.movies, sci.military, alt.journalism and other cyberbrawls. They argue feminism, political campaign funding, TV violence, landmines, sex and Nazism. There is even a fun group that regularly argues the perennial subject of world domination by hamburger franchise (it's called alt.nuke.the.usa). Heckling and skepticism? Indeed, as it should be. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The Netly News Network April 3, 1997 IRS raids a cypherpunk by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com) Jim Bell's first mistake was publishing an essay describing how disgruntled citizens could kill off Federal government agents by using anonymous betting pools and digital cash. His second mistake was informing the IRS that the agency had no legal authority to tax him. About twenty armed IRS agents and other Federal police swarmed into Bell's home in Washington state on Tuesday morning, hunting for evidence that Bell's "Assassination Politics" essay had come to fruition. They expropriated Bell's three computer systems, two guns and even a solitary mouse cable. The Feds were taking no chances: Since Bell's voluminous Net postings mentioned tax collectors, agents from the BATF, FBI, DEA, and local police forces joined the raid. [...] The raid stemmed from a six-month tussle between Bell and the IRS, which began in November 1996 when the 38-year old computer engineer demanded a hefty tax refund and threatened to convene his own "common-law court" if it was refused. That grabbed the Feds' attention. (So did the actions of the "Multnomah County Common Law Court," which apparently met in January to convict IRS agents and Attorney General Janet Reno of "theft by deception.") In February, IRS agents seized Bell's 1986 Honda as payment for back taxes -- and found inside it a printout of his "Assassination Politics" essay. " [...] And it was, ultimately, a Federal magistrate who signed the search warrant on 9:02 am on March 28 at the request of the IRS. Jeffrey Gordon, an inspector in the IRS' Internal Security Division, details in an 10-page affidavit how he traced Bell's use of allegedly fraudulent Social Security Numbers, how he learned that Bell had been arrested in 1989 for "manufacturing a controlled substance," how he found out that Bell possessed the home addresses of a handful of IRS agents. Gordon's conclusion: Bell planned "to overthrow the government." The IRS investigator says in his affidavit that Bell's "essay details an illegal scheme by Bell which involves plans to assassinate IRS and other government officals... I believe that Bell has begun taking steps to carry out his Assassination Politics plan." [...] [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] Security/Hacker Conferences [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] The 1997 Summer Security Conference "SUMMERCON IX.V" May 31st, 1997 Atlanta, GA This is the official announcement and open invitation to the nine and 1/2 summer security conference, Summercon. A long time ago, Summercon was an invite-only hacker gathering held annually in St. Louis, Missouri. Starting in 1995, SummerCon became an open event to any and all interested parties: Hackers, Phreaks, Pirates, Virus Writers, System Administrators, Law Enforcement Officials, Vigilantes, Neo-Hippies, Secret Agents, Teachers, Disgruntled Employees, Telco Flunkies, Journalists, New Yorkers, Programmers, Conspiracy Nuts, Musicians, Nudists, and Rug Sucking Wannabes. This con is going to be different than previous SummerCons. First off, there are two other major cons happening this summer, Defcon and Beyond HOPE. If you want to see good technical speakers, meet a ton of hackers, and have a good time for a couple days, I suggest you go to one or both of those cons. DefCon information is at http://www.defcon.org, Beyond HOPE info is at http://www.2600.com. So why have SummerCon at all? Well, its a tradition, and most of the people I talked to said we should have it anyways. But, because of the other 2 cons, I am really aiming just to make this a fun weekend with yer friends in a new city, not a technical hacker gala. If you want to learn something, go to HOPE or Defcon. If you want to meet hackers, go to HOPE or DefCon. If you have to choose one con to go to this summer, this one should NOT be it. If you are already going to DefCon and HOPE, and still have one more weekend you want to waste this summer, this is the perfect place for you. If you are a criminal, if you are an anarchist, if you are interested in pulling fire alarms or breaking things, don't come to this con; we don't want you here and you wouldn't like us anyhow. Why 9.5? Well, SummerCon X should be this huge major security conference, but with HOPE this year, we didn't think it was the right year to do another one of those. So, we'll have SummerCon X next year, this one is just going to be a little party. LOCATION It will be held in Atlanta, GA, but we haven't actually figured out WHERE in Atlanta. That's because this is a pre-release of the announcement, when this becomes official, we'll fill in the details. DIRECTIONS Fly to Hartsfield International Airport, look for the hackers. CONFERENCE INFO It has always been our contention that cons are for socializing. "Seekret Hacker InPh0" is never really discussed except in private circles, so the only way anyone is going to get any is to meet new people and take the initiative to start interesting conversations. Because of this, the formal speaking portion of Summercon will be held on one day, not two or three, leaving plenty of time for people to explore the city, compare hacking techniques, or go trashing and clubbing with their heretofore unseen online companions. Futhermore, except for maybe getting Mudge up on stage to blow us all away with some cool technical details, it is probably a pretty good bet that the speeches will end up being boring, long, and a complete waste of time. Don't come to SummerCon to learn anything, because you won't. If you are coming from out of town and want the full hacker/tourist experience, we will be having a specially scheduled 2600 meeting Friday, May 30th, at 6pm at Lenox Mall food court. If you don't know how to get there, just ask, everyone in Atlanta knows. The formal conference will be held on Saturday, May 31st, 1997, from 10am to 5pm (with a break for lunch). There will be a variety of speakers, panel discussions, demonstrations, and other events that will hopefully keep everyone entertained; if not you can always start drinking early. No video or audio tapes will be allowed in the conference room. No still photography will be permitted in the conference room without prior permission of all those being photographed. Violation of these policies will result in you being asked to leave the conference. There will be no selling of t-shirts, disks, firewalls, payphones, etc. in or around the conference area without prior permission of the organizers, and you WON'T get permission. We can't keep you from selling t-shirts in your hotel room, but we can keep you away from the actual conference area, and we can probably get you kicked out of the hotel for soliciting, and if we can, we will. T-Shirt sales is where we make up all the money we spend putting on the conference, and so we will be the only ones selling them. If you want to sell t-shirts, go have your own con. If you are interested in demoing or selling something, please contact us at the address listed at the bottom. If you offer us money, we might let you do it. SPEAKERS The speakers list for Summercon X is still being finalized, but it is sure to be much less interesting than previous years. In fact, right now we have NO speakers, and probably we won't until the day of the con. So again, don't come to summercon for the speakers. If you are an expert in some aspect of computer, network, or telco security and are interested in speaking at Summercon, please contact us to discuss the possibility further at the address listed at the end of this document.. We won't pay you, don't ask. We are also going to be having short speeches by real hackers or phreakers giving their own perspective on some issue or insight into a new technology. This is an open invitation for you hackers to be heard; just provide us with a brief outline of the topic you will be covering and the amount of time you will take (suggested: 5 - 15 minutes) at the address listed below. COSTS Costs for SummerCon X are as follows, these are same rates as last year, which I think is pretty good. There will be NO refunds, and if you annoy any of the organizers, we reserve the right to throw you out, and you won't get your money back. Secret Service / FBI Rate: $500.00 Government / Institutional Rate: $ 80.00 Hacker / Individual Rate: $ 20.00 Members of the United States Secret Service or Federal Bureau of Investigations, and anyone that has in the past or currently is providing information or services to the Secret Service or FBI are required to pay the 'Secret Service / FBI Rate'. Employees of a local, state, or federal government, members and associates of any L.E.O., must pay the 'Government / Institutional Rate'. Anyone that does not fit into one of the above categories is eligible for the 'Individual / Hacker Rate'. Due to historical lack of interest, there will not be pre-registration for the conference. Registration will begin at 10am the day of the conference, and will continue for the duration of the conference or until the meeting facilities have reached their capacity. Since the latter is likely to occur, it is suggested you don't oversleep. No purchase orders, checks, money orders, foreign currency, stock certificates, IOUs, or coins will be accepted for registration. Secret Service agents, small unmarked bills only, please. Bring money for t-shirts, they are cool, and this year we will make enough for everyone (we hope). HOTEL INFORMATION Still working on this part. The cost for a double occupancy room at the hotel is $XX. There is no special conference rate, there is no need to mention you are with a conference at all, the people in reservations probably won't know what you are talking about anyhow. If the hotel is damaged in any manner, you are going to pay for it, and you will probably end up in jail. And even if you are lucky enough to get away with it, the rest of the hackers staying at the hotel will end up paying for it, and I'm sure that's going to make you a well-liked and respected hacker, especially among some of the bigger hackers who might feel tempted to inflict bodily harm on someone who causes any damage to the hotel. Please act responsibly, don't drink and drive, chew all your food before you swallow, don't swallow your gum, and recycle. Anyhow, if you pull a fire alarm, if you damage a room, if you spit on the floor, and any of the organizers, or any of their friends find out, we are going to call the police and have you arrested. In fact, we are making a game out of it. If anyone does any damage to the hotel, we will give whoever tells us what person or persons did it $100 in cash if we are able to get that person taken to jail. CONTACTING SUMMERCON ORGANIZERS You can contact the Summercon organizers through e-mail. If you haven't figured out e-mail yet, you probably shouldn't be coming to Summercon. As a final note, if you are planning on coming to Summercon, we would appreciate you sending e-mail to us with the subject of "GOING TO SCON" or something similar, just so that we have a rough idea of how many people are going to show up. E-mail: scon@2600.com [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] --== Hacking In Progress ==-- 8th, 9th and 10th of August 1997 Near Almere, Netherlands http://www.hip97.nl/ info@hip97.nl Welcome to the HIP announcement list. We are not alone! More than 1600 (!) of you subscribed to this list. As you probably already know what HIP is about, this announcement will focus on how you can help us and how you can stay informed about HIP. Please read the FAQ for more common questions. What is HIP? ------------ HIP is a place for hackers, artists, activists and many, many others to network themselves, both in the social and electronic sense of the word. HIP is a do-it-yourself event. We, the organizers, will provide the infrastructure, such as large tents, showers, toilets and large amounts of reliable electrical power and network connectivity. We'll also arrange for a basic set of workshops and lectures, mainly dealing with the social and political aspects of information technology, security, Internet, access to technology, new developments, cryptography and other 'hacker- related' topics that come to mind. We are open to suggestions for other fields of interest. At this moment we are working on discussions and workshops about smartcard security, Tempest attacks, the SPAM threat, virtual communities, cryptography and the law (Trusted Third Parties and Key Recovery), a tele-presence experiment, activism on the Net, and much more. A do-it-yourself event? ----------------------- We will absolutely need your help setting up everything once we're there. HIPcamp will open on August 5th, three days before HIP starts. If you decide to join in that early expect some pretty primitive circumstances. If you don't care about that, or think that's the best part, you can help build HIPnet and all other facilities. We also urgently need you to think now about what it is you would like to see and do at HIP. Just like Hacking at the End of the Universe in 1993, we need lots of people that have ideas for organizing their own small part of HIP and the organizational talent to do this without too much help from us. One of the proven recipes for fun: * GET a group of friends together in an early stage; arrange how you're going to get there if you're far away. * THINK: Is there something you and your friends would like to show others, discuss or do there? * If so: TELL us about it, so we can coordinate, help or announce things. * Maybe BUY a nice big army surplus tent for almost nothing. * BRING lots of computers and other electronics. * HOOK it all up once you get there. * Check out what others have been doing and MEET nice people, hang out, have fun! Of course you can also come alone and have lots of fun, and there will be a huge exhibition tent to set up computers in. In another big tent there will be near to a thousand chairs where you can listen to and participate with panel discussions. This event will be big, and as said, in this stage we're looking for people to organize their own chaotic little part of it. So don't mail us saying "put me on the list, I want to be a volunteer" when you could say "I'm xxx and I'd like to do yyy." Tell us what you need us to do. We could put your workshop or whatever it is you'd like to do in one of our announcements and on the website, so people can communicate with you beforehand. We could make sure there is enough room if your project requires a lot of space. You name it. You can use the newsgroup alt.hacking.in.progress to find people to work with at HIP. Or you can use the notice board at the website to search for someone to travel with to HIP. Use it to ask for help or offer some. As the days get longer, there will be parts of the overall organization that need coordination with volunteers some time before the actual event (workshop coordination, audiovisual stuff, registration-desk, bar, network), but now is not yet the time. This isn't going to be passive entertainment, we all work together to make it work. Also: HIP is not the event to buy a computer or get advice on buying one, and there're not going to be any beginner courses on using the Internet. If you're not into networking of some sort, you'll think it's boring. But if you're very technically inclined, part of some remote community on the edge of the net, or if the politics surrounding information technology are just your thing, HIP is definitely made for you (and by you, we hope). HIPcamp will open on August 5th, three days before HIP starts. If you decide to join in that early expect pretty primitive circumstances. If you don't care about that, or think that's the best part, you can help build HIPnet and all other facilities. How to stay in contact: ----------------------- * Check out the website http://www.hip97.nl/ * Participate in alt.hacking.in.progress * Read the FAQ on the website or the newsgroup * Mail us at info@hip97.nl Snailmail us at: HIP Postbus 1035 1000 BA Amsterdam Netherlands Tel. +31 20 5352081 Fax. +31 20 5352082 [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] Defensive Information Warfare And Systems Assurance For Community, Company and Country September 11-12, 1997 Sheraton Premier, Tysons Corner, VA Call for Papers Sponsors: National Computer Security Association http://www.ncsa.com and Winn Schwartau, Interpact, Inc. http://www.infowar.com http://www.info-sec.com Interested parties from government, law enforcement, academia, corporations and individuals from all nations are invited to submit papers or concepts for papers/presentation to be given at InfoWarCon 7 and published on http://www.infowar.com. The following Solutions Oriented topics are of special interest to the conference, but all papers will be considered: Case studies and real world successes are strongly encouraged. New technologies, systems, models and approaches to provide higher levels of information and systems assurance in a world where conflict has moved to Cyberspace. (Commercial, Law Enforcement and Government). Detect and Response Solutions Denial of Service Methods and Protection New Info-Sec Models for Local and Global Enterprises Demonstrations of New Emerging Technologies Encryption, Access Control, and Identification The technical and social convergence of the military, law enforcement and private sectors in the interest of National Security: defensive mechanisms, policies and cooperative efforts.. (Commercial and Government) Electronic Civil Defense Policies Alternative National Defense and Intelligence Mechanisms National vs. International Policy Development Educating Populations for Support Dealing with the Non-nation State Actor Cooperative legal, ethical and political means by which to interest, create and sustain international cooperation for the discovery and prosecution of computer crimes and cyber-terrorism. (Law enforcement and Government) Redefining the State Case Studies of Prosecution; Successful and Not Corporate Vigilantism and Self-Preservation Electronic Bills of Rights for Nation States United Nations of Cyberspace Legal Conundra Multi-media presentations, real-time scenarios or gaming, audience participation and highly interactive topics are more likely to be accepted. English is the conference language and all sessions will be unclassified. Submissions are to be in Word 6.0 or greater, Powerpoint, or other popular formats, sent by email to: betty@infowar.com Submission Deadline: May 16, 1997 Acceptance Date: June 9, 1997 For complete information on attendance: Registration: Conferences@ncsa.com Sponsorships: Sponsors@ncsa.com Questions/Help: betty@infowar.com [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] Second International Workshop on Enterprise Security June 18-20, 1997 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Co-sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society and the Concurrent Engineering Research Center (CERC) at West Virginia University ============================================================================== Enterprises are increasingly dependent on their information systems to support their business and workflow activities. There is a need for universal electronic connectivity to support interaction and cooperation between multiple organizations. This makes enterprise security and confidentiality more important, but more difficult to achieve, as the multiple organizations may have differences in their security policies and may have to interact via an insecure Internet. These inter-organizational enterprise systems may be very large and so tools and techniques are needed to support the specification, analysis and implementation of security. This workshop will focus on the problems and challenges relating to enterprise security in inter-organizational systems. We aim to bring together principal players from both the internetwork and enterprise security community and will provide plenty of time for discussion. Topics to be addressed include: - Internet/Intranet security - Security infrastructure and protocols - Java Security - Specifying and Analyzing Enterprise Security Policy - Role-Based Access Control - Supporting enterprise security over the Internet - Conflicts and harmonization of inter- and intra-organizational Security - Distributed Database Security - Secure Transactions - Security in Workflow Process - Object-Oriented and CORBA Security - Secure Applications and Environments - Integrating Heterogeneous Security Environments - Managing inter-organizational Enterprise Security - Internet Security protocols - Security Algorithms This workshop will be part of the IEEE Sixth Workshops on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WET-ICE 96) organized by the Concurrent Engineering Research Center (CERC)/ West Virginia University. Important Dates: ================ Papers Due March 25, 1997 Panel Proposals March 18, 1997 Authors notified of acceptance April 21, 1997 Workshop June 18-20, 1997 Camera Ready June 28, 1997 INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS OF PAPERS TO BE INCLUDED IN THE PROCEEDINGS =================================================================== Mail six copies of an original (not submitted or published elsewhere) paper (double-spaced) of 3000-5000 words to one of the PC co-chairs. Include the title of the paper, the name and affiliation of each author, a 150-word abstract and no more than 8 keywords. The name, position, address, telephone number, and if possible, fax number and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence of the paper must be included. An e-mail submission in postscript format will be accepted. INFORMATION FOR PANEL ORGANIZERS ================================ Send six copies of panel proposals to one of the PC co-chairs. Include the title, a 150-word scope statement, proposed session chair and panelists and their affiliations, the organizer's affiliation, address, telephone and fax number, and e-mail address. INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS OF POSITION PAPERS ========================================== Send six copies of position paper of 2-3 pages to one of the PC co-chairs. Include the title of the paper, the name and affiliation of each author, a 150-word abstract and no more than 8 keywords. The name, position, address, telephone number, and if possible, fax number and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence of the paper must be included. An accepted position paper will get less presentation time than full paper. Workshop General Chair and Organizer ==================================== Yahya Al-Salqan, Ph.D. Sun Microsystems alsalqan@eng.sun.com Program Committee ================= Program Committee Co-Chairs ========================== Barbara C. Davis Director of Technology The Applied Knowledge Group 231 Market Place, #315 San Ramon, CA 94583-2785 USA Tel. (888) 442-2785 FAX (510) 275-9695 bcdavis@appliedknowledge.com Douglas Moughan National Security Agency, R23 9800 Savage Rd. Ft. Meade, Maryland 20755-6000 USA wdm@tycho.ncsc.mil Workshop Program Committee (Partial List): ========================================== Abdallah Abdallah, Birzeit University, Jerusalem Takasi Arano, NTT Corp, Japan Germano Caronni, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland Taher ElGamal, Netscape Corp., USA Stephen Farrell, Software and Systems Engineering, Ireland Takeo Hamada, Fujitsu, Japan Matthias Hirsch, BSI (Federal Department of Security in the Information Technology-Germany Cynthia L Musselman, Sandia Lab, USA Lisa Pretty, Certicom Corp., Canada Jeffrey Parrett, LLNL, USA Sumitra Reddy, West Virginia University, USA Nahid Shahmehri, Linkoping University, Sweden Morris Sloman, Department of Computing: Imperial College, UK Badie Taha, Al-Quds University, Jerusalem Robert Thomys, BSI (Federal Department of Security in the Information Technology-Germany Tatu Ylonen, SSH Communication Security, Finlad Nick Zhang, EIT, USA Internet Hot-line ================= Information on Enterprise Security Workshop may be obtained through the WWW using the URL http://www.cerc.wvu.edu/SECWK/ For more information on WET-ICE'97, visit the URL: http://www.cerc.wvu.edu/WETICE/WETICE97.html One does not need to have a paper to attend the workshop. [=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIB DEF CON V Convention Announcement #1.08 (04.09.97) July 11-13th @ the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX DEF CON V Convention Announcement XXXXXXXxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX DEF CON V Convention Announcement XXXXXXxxxxxxXXXXXX X X DEF CON V Convention Announcement XXXXXxxxxxxxxXXXXXXX X DEF CON V Convention Announcement XXXXxxxxxxxxxxXXXX XXXXXXXXX DEF CON V Convention Announcement XXXxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXX X DEF CON V Convention Announcement XXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXX XX X DEF CON V Convention Announcement XXXxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXX DEF CON V Convention Announcement XXXXxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXX X XX DEF CON V Convention Announcement XXXXXxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXX XX X DEF CON V Convention Announcement XXXXXXxxxxxxXXXXXXXXX X DEF CON V Convention Announcement XXXXXXXxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DEF CON V Convention Announcement XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X DEF CON V Convention Announcement READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIB The only convention with free beer! IN SHORT:-------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT: Speakers and partying in Vegas for all hackers WHEN: July 11th - 13th WHERE: Las Vegas, Nevada @ the Aladdin Hotel and Casino COSTS: $30 in advance, $40 at the door MORE INFO: http://www.defcon.org or email info@defcon.org IN LONG:--------------------------------------------------------------------- It's time to brave Las Vegas again for DEF CON! This is an initial announcement and invitation to DEF CON V, a convention for the "underground" elements of the computer culture. We try to target the (Fill in your favorite word here): Hackers, Phreaks, Hammies, Virii Coders, Programmers, Crackers, Cyberpunk Wannabees, Civil Liberties Groups, CypherPunks, Futurists, Artists, Criminally Insane, Hearing Impaired. It seems that books about the culture are becoming more popular, so of course reporters are also welcome. You won't be hurt. I promise. Just bring cash for drinks. So you heard about DEF CON IV, and want to hit part V? You heard about the parties, the info discussed, the bizarre atmosphere of Las Vegas and want to check it out in person? You want to do weird shit _away_ from the hotel where you can't get me in trouble? You have intimate knowledge of the SWIFT network, and want to transfer millions of dollars to the Def Con account? Then you're just the person to attend! What DEF CON is known for is the open discussion of all ideas, the free environment to make new contacts and the lack of ego. More people have made great friends at DEF CON over the years than my brain can conceive of. DEF CON is also known for letting the "Suits" (Government / Corporate) mix with everyone and get an idea of what the scene is all about. The media makes an appearance every year and we try to educate them as to what is really going on. Basically it has turned into the place to be if you are at all interested in the computer underground. [Note]---------------------------------------------------------------------- - Now last year over 800 people showed up and threw my whole program for a loop. I was thinking 500+ people, but when 800 showed up it got a little crazy for the planning staff. This year I am planning for 1,000. This way I will be able to accommodate everyone and have less logistical screw- ups. I would also like to apologize to everyone last year who had temporary badges for half the convention, etc. I will do all that is possible for maximum coolness, and minimum hassles. Anyway, enough of my shit, on with the details. [End Note]------------------------------------------------------------------- SPEAKERS:------------------------------------------------------------------- - Over the years DEF CON has had many notable speakers. This year there will be more of an emphasis on technical talks. There will be a separate smaller room for break-out sessions of more specific topics. While the talks of the past have been great, it always seems some tech people drop out and general talks fill in. I will load it tech heavy so when people do drop out there will still be plenty of meat left for the propeller heads. There will be some speaking on Friday evening before Hacker Jeopardy, all day Saturday and Sunday. About 20 people will speak, plus smaller tech sessions. If you are interested in speaking or demonstrating something please contact me. Current speakers include: [> If you are interested in speaking please contact me at dtangent@defcon.org [> Nihil - Windows NT (in)security. The challenge response system, NT 5.0 Kerb security services, man in the middle attacks on domain controllers. This will be a more technical discussion of NT related security. [> Koresh - Hacking Novell Netware. [> Yobie - Emerging infrastructures made possible by Java. He will describe and talk about Java as the foundation for a global, object-oriented distributed network. New concepts and computing paradigms will discussed as well as applications for both applications development or straight-out hacking. [> Mudge - System Administrator for L0pht Heavy Industries. He will present a technical talk on something cool. [> Clovis - From the Hacker Jeopardy winning team. He will discuss issues with security and networked object systems, looking at some of the recent security issues found with activeX and detail some of the potentials and problems with network objects. Topics will include development of objects, distributed objects, standards, activex, corba, and hacking objects. [> Bruce Schneier - Author of Applied Cryptography and the Blowfish algorithm - Why cryptography is harder than it looks. [> FBI Computer Crime Squad - They will make another appearance this year only if I can bribe them with the audio from last years convention. Can I do it in time? [> Richard Thieme - "The Dynamics of Social Engineering: a cognitive map for getting what you need to know, working in networks, and engaging in espionage quietly; the uses of paranoia, imagination, and grandiosity to build the Big Picture. [> G. Gillis - Packet Sniffing: He will define the idea, explain everything from 802.2 frames down to the TCP datagram, and explain the mechanisms (NIT, bpf) that different platforms provide to allow the hack. [> Seven - What the feds think of us. [> RK - Electronic countermeasures, counter espionage, risk management. Should include a demonstration of electronic countermeasures equipment as well as a talk on what works, what doesn't, and the industry. [> Tom Farley the Publisher of the "Private Line" journal, and Ken Kumasawa of TeleDesign Management - Toll Fraud in the 90s: Two perspectives. An overview of phreaking from a hackers point of view and an industry/security consultants point. [> Michael Quattrocchi - The future of digital cash and a presentation about the modernization and state of register-level debit cards; in effect currently throughout Canada. [> Ira Winkler - NCSA - Real life case studies of successful and unsuccessful corporate espionage. SCHEDULE:------------------------------------------------------------------- - FRIDAY: Network Setup, Sign in, Informal PGP Keysigning at the "PGP table", Lots of Partying. Capture the Flag Contest Starts at 16:00 On Friday there will be the demonstrations of the Radio Burst Cannon, a "real" rail gun, and an omni-directional cell phone jammer. Times to be announced. 10:00 - Doors open, sign in starts 10:00 - Movies start in main conference room 16:00 - Capture the Flag II starts Breakout Tech Sessions: 19:00 - Tech Talks starts in break out room 24:00 (Midnight) Hacker Jeopardy Starts. SATURDAY: Speakers from 10:00 to 19:00 This is _NOT_ the order they will speak in. 10:00 - 10:50 Keynote (?) 11:00 - 11:50 Bruce Schneier 12:00 - 12:50 Yobie 13:00 - 13:50 Clovis 14:00 - 14:50 FBI Computer Crime Squad 15:00 - 15:50 Richard Theme 16:00 - 16:50 Seven 17:00 - 17:50 RK 18:00 - 18:50 Tom Farley Breakout Tech Sessions: Nihil Koresh Mudge Weld Pond G. Gillis 24:00 (Midnight) Final rounds of Hacker Jeopardy. SUNDAY: Speakers from 10:00 to 16:00 This is _NOT_ the order they will speak in. 10:00 - 10:50 Michael Q. 11:00 - 11:50 Ira Winkler 12:00 - 12:50 13:00 - 13:50 14:00 - 14:50 15:00 - 15:50 Breakout Tech Sessions: 16:00 Awards for Capture the Flag End of it all, cleanup, etc. See you all next year! EVENTS:--------------------------------------------------------------------- - [> HACKER JEOPARDY: Winn is back with Hacker Jeopardy!! The third year in the running! Can the all-powerful Strat and his crypto-minion Erik, whose force cannot be contained, be defeated?! Will the powers that be allow Strat-Meister to dominate this beloved event for the third year in a row?! Can Erik continue to pimp-slap the audience into submission with a spoon in his mouth?!? Only Skill, Time, and booze will tell the tail! The Holy Cow will help supply the beer, you supply the answers. The first round starts at 12 midnight o'clock on Friday and lasts until it is done. The second and secret rounds will happen Saturday at midnight. 6 teams will be picked at random and compete for the final round. There can be only one! Strat's Team, the winners from last year will defend if all the members can be found. [> FREE BEER! Holy Cow will provide free beer tickets! If you are over 21 prepare to consume "hacker" beers. Actually it's whatever beer they have on tap, but it's the best beer in Las Vegas. Follow Las Vegas Blvd. up until you see the florescent cow with the big sunglasses. All taxi drivers know of this Mecca. Over 1,000 free beers in all! [> BLACK AND WHITE BALL: We've talked it over, and the verdict is in. For the last two years at DEF CON there has been a sort of unspoken Saturday night dress up event. People have worn everything from party dresses and Tuxedoes to AJ's ultra pimp Swank outfit with tiger print kilt. This year it is official. Wear your cool shit Saturday night, be it gothic or PVC vinyl or Yakuza looking black MIBs. No prizes, just your chance to be the uber-bustah pimp. [> THE TCP/IP DRINKING GAME: If you don't know the rules, you'll figure 'em out. [> CAPTURE THE FLAG: The second year of capture the flag is back. With the lessons learned from last year the contest should be more interesting and intense. Up to six machines will be connected running different operating systems. The object is to control as many machines as possible at certain time periods. You can form teams or go it lone star. There will be valuable cash prizes and redeemable coupons for those who come in first and second, plus various runner up stuffs. Four protocols (TCP/IP, NetBeui, IPX, and x.25! Yes, you heard right, x.25) and three segments with 2 boxes per segment. Pick your segment, protect your boxes. At all times you must have a WWW server (port 80), finger, and mail working. There will be several stock operating systems on the network including linux, FreeBsd, Windows NT, Novell, Some Apple System 7.x, and who knows what else. More specifics as time goes on. [> VIRTUAL WORLD: We are working on the group discounts like the last two years. [> QUAKE COMPETITION: http://www.ctive.com/ntech/defcon.htm This year knightPhlight contacted me and wanted to organize a single elimination Quake competition to find out who that badest ass 'mo 'fo is. Check out the web site to get the rules, sign up, or to donate a computer the greater good of destruction. It is IMHO that Quake by id Software rules 3D action gaming. But who rules Quake? We'll find out this July 11th-13th at the DefCon Conference in Las Vegas. This isn't going to be a networked game intent on quickly eliminating as many players as possible in a single round. Rather, one-on-one games will be played to absolutely determine who the best really is. Of course, you already know your the best so why would you feel obligated to prove it? Because we'll give the first place winner $750. Now, being the wily person you are, I bet you would like to know where I got the money for the prizes. It'll come from your registration fee of $7.50. Any half wit can do the math and see the 10,000% return for the winner. But just for entering you'll be in a drawing for really kewl stuff. If you don't think its kewl you can just give us your email address and we'll be happy to send you a couple hundred thousand messages explaining why the prizes are great. [> NET CONNECTION: This year we are pre-building many of the network boxes so the net can go up first thing Friday. It looks like we will have a T1 line and we will break it out to 10 BaseT hubs. If you want in on the network bring along the appropriate cables and adapters. More Net Madness! The T1 bandwidth will allow us to do the following cool stuff: - Have several color quickcams and a CU-SeeMe reflector site set up so people not at the con can check out what's going on. During the convention check out the DEF CON web site to get the location of the reflector site. You should get and install the software needed to view CU-SeeMe streams in advance! - Have a RealAudio server set up to stream the speakers talks to those who can not attend. - Potentially play a competitive multi user game(s) over the net. NOTE! If you wish to participate interactively with the convention please e-mail me and we can coordinate something. It would be great to get people from all over the world involved. [> 5th ANNUAL SPOT THE FED CONTEST: The ever popular paranoia builder. Who IS that person next to you? "Like a paranoid version of pin the tail on the donkey, the favorite sport at this gathering of computer hackers and phone phreaks seems to be hunting down real and imagined telephone security and Federal and local law enforcement authorities who the attendees are certain are tracking their every move.. .. Of course, they may be right." - John Markhoff, NYT Basically the contest goes like this: If you see some shady MIB (Men in Black) earphone penny loafer sunglass wearing Clint Eastwood to live and die in LA type lurking about, point him out. Just get my attention and claim out loud you think you have spotted a fed. The people around at the time will then (I bet) start to discuss the possibility of whether or not a real fed has been spotted. Once enough people have decided that a fed has been spotted, and the Identified Fed (I.F.) has had a say, and informal vote takes place, and if enough people think it's a true fed, or fed wanna-be, or other nefarious style character, you win a "I spotted the fed!" shirt, and the I.F. gets an "I am the fed!" shirt. NOTE TO THE FEDS: This is all in good fun, and if you survive unmolested and undetected, but would still secretly like an "I am the fed!" shirt to wear around the office or when booting in doors, please contact me when no one is looking and I will take your order(s). Just think of all the looks of awe you'll generate at work wearing this shirt while you file away all the paperwork you'll have to produce over this convention. I won't turn in any feds who contact me, they have to be spotted by others. [> RAIL GUN DEMONSTRATION: (Friday) On Friday afternoon there will be a demonstration of a hand held rail gun. This garage project should be able to fire a graphite washer very, very fast. [> OMNIDIRECTIONAL CELL PHONE JAMMER DEMONSTRAITON: (Friday) Another interesting creation to be tested on Friday in the desert. Come along and watch you cell phone antenna explode with power! See control channels crumble before you. [> RADIO BURST CANNON DEMONSTRATION: (Friday) While not quite a HERF gun, this should come close. The RBC should be able to produce up to or less than one MegaWatt for up to or less than one second. What will this do? Who knows! Come and find out. Obviously the above demonstrations will take place away from the local hospitals and casinos out in the desert someplace, so be prepared. HOTELS:--------------------------------------------------------------------- - [> Book your room NOW!!! We have a block of rooms, but it is first come, [> first served. Rooms get released about one month before the convention. [> Book by June 9th or risk it. The room rates are quite cool this year. PRIMARY HOTEL: The Aladdin Hotel and Casino 3667 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas, Nevada Built in 1966 it is one of the oldest hotels in Las Vegas that hasn't been blown up to make room for newer ones. It is quite nice and has Tennis courts, two swimming pools, Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean. A Seafood and steakhouse, Joe's Diner and a 24 hour coffee shop too. It's located next to the MGM Theme park on the strip. PHONE: 1-800-225-2632, reference the "DC Communications conference" for reservations. RATES: Single & Double rooms are $65 in the Garden section, $85 for the Tower. Suites are $250 to $350. All costs are plus 8% room tax. Rollaway beds are available for an additional $15 a night. STUFF IN VEGAS:-------------------------------------------------------------- URLs Listings of other hotels in Las Vegas, their numbers, WWW pages, etc. http://www.intermind.net/im/hotel.html http://vegasdaily.com/HotelCasinos/HotelAndCasinos/CasinoList.html VENDORS / SPONSORS / RESEARCH:----------------------------------------------- If you are interested in selling something (shirts, books, computers, whatever) and want to get a table contact me for costs. If you have some pet research and you want to have the participants fill out anonymous questioners please contact me for the best way to do this. If you want to sponsor any event or part of DEF CON V in return for favorable mentions and media manipulation please contact me. For example in the past Secure Computing has sponsored a firewall hacking contest. MORE INFO:------------------------------------------------------------------- [> DEF CON Voice Bridge (801) 855-3326 This is a multi-line voice bbs, VMB and voice conference system. There are 5 or so conference areas, with up to eight people on each one. Anyone can create a free VMB, and there are different voice bbs sections for separate topics. This is a good neutral meeting place to hook up with others. The Voice bridge will be changing numbers soon, but the old number will refer you to the new location. The new spot won't suffer from "Phantom" bridges! [> MAILING LIST send emial to majordomo@merde.dis.org and in the body of the message include the following on a separate line each. subscribe dc-stuff dc-announce is used for convention updates and major announcements, dc-stuff is related to general conversation, planning rides and rooms, etc. [> WWW Site http://www.defcon.org/ Convention updates and archives from previous conventions are housed here. Past speakers, topics, and stuff for sale. Also a growing section of links to other places of interest and current events. [> The Third Annual California Car Caravan to DEF CON! http://exo.com/~enigma/caravan/ [> The DEF CON V Car ride sharing page: Use this site to arrange ride sharing to the convention from all over North America. If you can spare a seat for someone, or need to leech a ride go to the ride sharing page set up by Squeaky. http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/4955/defcon.html Room Sharing Page: [> EMAIL dtangent@defcon.org Send all email questions / comments to dtangent@defcon.org. It has been said that my email is monitored by various people. If you want to say something private, please do so with my pgp key (At the bottom of this announcement) I usually respond to everything, if not I'm swamped or had a system problem. [> SNAIL MAIL Send all written materials, pre-registrations, etc. to: DEF CON, 2709 E. Madison, Seattle WA, 98112 If you are pre-registering for $30 please make payable to DEF CON and include a name to which you want the registration to apply. I don't respond to registrations unless you request. DO YOU WANT TO HELP?--------------------------------------------------------- Here is what you can do if you want to help out or participate in some way: Donate stuff for the continuous give-aways and the various contests. Got extra ancient stuff, or new cool stuff you don't use anymore? Donate it to a good cause! One person was very happy over winning an osborne "portable" computer. ORGANIZE sharing a room or rides with other people in your area. Join the mailing list and let people know you have floor space or some extra seats in your car. Hey, what's the worst that can happen besides a trashed hotel room or a car-jacking? CREATE questions for hacker jeopardy (you know how the game is played) and email them to winn@infowar.com. No one helped out last year, so this year let's try. Everything from "Famous narks" to "unix bugs" is fair game. BRING a machine with a 10bt interface card, and get on the local network, trade pgp signatures, etc. FINAL CHECK LIST OF STUFF TO BRING:------------------------------------------ MY PGP KEY:------------------------------------------------------------------ - -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.1 mQCNAy6v5H8AAAEEAJ7xUzvdRFMtJW3CLRs2yXL0BC9dBiB6+hAPgBVqSWbHWVIT /5A38LPA4zqeGnGpmZjGev6rPeFEGxDfoV68voLOonRPcea9d/ow0Aq2V5I0nUrl LKU7gi3TgEXvhUmk04hjr8Wpr92cTEx4cIlvAeyGkoirb+cihstEqldGqClNAAUR tCZUaGUgRGFyayBUYW5nZW50IDxkdGFuZ2VudEBkZWZjb24ub3JnPg== =ngNC - -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBM07aS8tEqldGqClNAQFuSAQAjwGLBdDKA9TKTNAxewgeluvRXPFu+cLf hQ74qJFtGybyik+Te4FPQI3Uw+wjir/4ES1imyjQ9n9oIOh+E0L3moYxbcQKN7iT /VWAJXwPNJR8guxGcrRNYO85KXSB2qFrU9JwCwJ/8C5lEi/5FVjqRewpliw68+SW 9jHqxFccQUs= =PPpy -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- EOF