<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>RE: [Fife Linux Users Group] Hear how the hairdresser brought downthe US Military and NASA</TITLE>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<P><FONT size=2>Hi Barrie,<BR><BR>>>>Even ZDNet saw that this guy was a
moron:<BR>>>><A
title=https://www.bsrf.org.uk/article.php?story=20050610203447450
href="BLOCKED::https://www.bsrf.org.uk/article.php?story=20050610203447450">https://www.bsrf.org.uk/article.php?story=20050610203447450</A><BR><BR>ALL
of the media have reacted in their usual manner - without having conclusive
facts or knowing anywhere near the full story. The articles that you've pointed
at are of the same journalistic standard as all the other ones reporting this
story - IMHO ;-). I suppose the facts will come out at the trial, if we ever
hearing them reported in a factual manner ;-). Is it just my imagination or is
journalistic integrity and accuracy becoming more of an issue of recent
years?<BR><BR>We must also be conscious that the guy is now crapping his pants
and may well be on a damage limitation exercise:<BR>- which may include not
revealing anything in detail so his trial isn't prejudiced<BR>- spinning the
story to ensure maximum expose in the international press<BR>- maybe he is
wanting to come across as a loon or moron for his own defence - nah!<BR>
He is a moron for making it so easy for law enforcement to find him!<BR><BR>Hey
perhaps the drug induced, mental incompetence legal defence could have worked if
he wasn't now doing radio interviews that destroy any hope of using such! Or
does it! You'd need to be a Harvard Lawyer to understand the US legal system and
the loony defences that get people off! I've never been a weed smoker so I'm not
personally aware of how it affects rational thought - can't even stand the smell
of it, truth be told. I'm always offski out the room before anyone gets a chance
to demonstrate its effects!<BR><BR>This is why I called him the "hairdresser",
since I didn't view his methods to be sophisticated by any means or the actions
of someone who could be termed a skilled hacker. Its just like the story over on
GRC, where even script kiddies managed to bring down GRC on a few occasions ...
We shouldn't underestimate the damage that these tool users can and will do in
the future. The GRC story is another very good read - IMHO. What would happen if
someone was to design a tool to attack and exploit Cisco routers.... And that
tool fell into the hands of the script kiddies.... Now that could be scary movie
stuff!<BR><BR>In this day and age you'd think the Americans would be securing
down all the commonly exploited systems to show the world that they are serious
about Homeland Security ;-). To think that anyone with the ability to use Google
could end up breaking into systems seems alarming!<BR><BR>I'd agree that he is
being made a scapegoat due to it being so easy to find evidence and prove a
case. The fact that he didn't use proxies and/or find himself some Zombies as a
bare minimum just makes the evidence gathering so much easier. US law
enforcement will have found it an easy case to build and are hopeful of a
successful prosecution. This will set an example to the hackers of the world -
Yeah right! Half-whit American law enforcement and prosecutors - IMHO. I've met
so many really smart Americans, so why, why, why do they put up with this
behaviour from their officials!<BR><BR>I've spoken with a few people (in the
passing) who work in UK military bases and they present a very different
picture, just like you've highlighted Barrie: internet access is on a isolated
machines; need to get a document from a floppy - isolated machine; etc. The
users weren't too happy with the situation and the fact their USB mouse didn't
work on their bast&*ised laptop. Obviously, they didn't give anything top
secret away or anything that could be used to exploit systems. [Excuse the
paranoid statement but we don't want UK law enforcement breaking down doors ;-)]
However, we mustn't be complacent as someone configured the email server in the
UK Army that allowed users to send massive "Amarillo" movie clips to the point
where the server collapsed under the volume of traffic and use.<BR><BR>Some unis
and colleges pay almost "minimum wage" to sys admins! Some of whom they find
from people that have just graduated from a course at the same educational
establishment but aren't quite bright enough to find a proper job outside. As
soon as they have some knowledge and a little experience (I almost wrote
expertise - ha) they are offski to a better paid position. Leaving the issue to
start again ... Find a student who wasn't bright enough to get a proper job
after graduating .... Pay minimum wage .... Etc ... Etc
...<BR><BR><BR>>>>Apologies for linking to my own stuff twice, but it
does have relevance :-)<BR><BR>No apologies needed. If you have a good story,
you have a good story ;-). I've added your blog to my RSS aggregator so I don't
miss anything in the future. You've got some excellent stuff up there. Thanks
for sharing it.<BR><BR>NSA? Aren't they the people watching over SG1 and the
Stargate programme? Oh no! That's the NID :-D.<BR>The poor guy in charge of the
NSA website probably doesn't even know what an XSS vulnerability looks like or
its effect. Having said that, it has been there for 2 months and no one has been
caught abusing it yet. Perhaps the fear of 70 years in prison is starting to
work.<BR><BR><BR>If nothing else, the interview was an interesting piece of
entertainment, best listened to in the background while doing some real work
:-).<BR><BR><BR>My own opinion on aliens ....<BR>"It would be nice to think that
we aren't the only ones in this or other universes. It would be a sad day
indeed, if human beings were the most intelligent things in existence
anywhere!"<BR><BR><BR>Many thanks and regards<BR><BR>John A Thomson<BR>BTech -
PgDip - IEng - MBCS - MIIE - CSM<BR><BR>Managing Director<BR><BR>Roundtrip
Solutions Limited<BR>15 Freuchie Mill, Freuchie, Cupar, Fife KY15 7JL<BR>t:
01337 858826 f: 01337 858794<BR>john@roundtripsolutions.com<BR><A
title=http://www.roundtripsolutions.com/
href="BLOCKED::http://www.roundtripsolutions.com">http://www.roundtripsolutions.com</A><BR><BR></FONT></P></BODY></HTML>
<html>
<BR><BR>
<TABLE width=400><HR>
<P style="FONT: 9pt/11pt verdana"><a href="http://www.avast.com">avast! Antivirus</a>: Outbound message clean.
<P style="FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana">Virus Database (VPS): 0530-3, 29/07/2005<BR>Tested on: 30/07/2005 13:25:20<BR><FONT color=gray>avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software.</FONT></P>
<TBODY></TBODY></TABLE>
<BR></html>