ORIGINATED FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES.
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HACKERS USED WEAPONS LAB COMPUTER TO DISTRIBUTE PORN -TITLE
"-A NEWSPAPER'S PROBE OF IMPROPER INTERNET LED TO THE DISCOVERY OF
HARD-CORE GRAPHIC IMAGES.
DRAMATICALLY ILLUSTRATING THE SECURITY PROBLEMS POSED BY THE RAPID GROWTH
OF INTERNET COMPUTER NETWORK, ONE OF THE NATION'S THREE NUCLEAR WEAPONS
LABS CONFIRMED MONDAY THAT COMPUTER HACKERS WERE USING ITS COMPUTERS TO
STORE AND DISTRIBUTE HARD-CORE PORNOGRAPHY.
EMABARRASED OFFICIALS AT LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY
IN LIVERMORE, CALIF., WHICH CONDUCT A GREAT DEAL OF CLASSIFIED RESEARCH
AND HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED SECURITY PROCEDURES, SAID THE INCIDENT WAS AMONG
THE MOST SERIOUS BREACHES OF COMPUTER SECURITY EVER AT THE LAB EAST OF
SAN FRANCISO.
Hackers in the News (24/25)
THE OFFENDING COMPUTER, WHICH WAS SHUT DOWN AFTER A LOS ANGELES
TIMES REPORTER INVESTIGATING INTERNET HACKING ALERTED LAB OFFICIALS,
CONTAINED MORE THAN 1,000 PORNOGRAPHIC IMAGES. IT WAS BELIEVED TO BE THE
LARGEST CACHE OF ILLEGAL HARD-CORE PORNOGRAPHY EVER FOUND ON A COMPUTER
NETWORK.
WHILE HACKERS ONCE DEVOTED THEIR EFFORTS TO DISRUPTING COMPUTER
SYSTEMS AT LARGE ORGANIZATIONS OR STEALING ELECTRONIC INFORMATION, THEY
HAVE NOW DEVELOPED WAYS OF SEIZING CONTROL OF INTERNET-LINKED COMPUTERS
AND USING THEM TO STORE AND DISTRIBUTE PORNOGRAPHY, STOLEN COMPUTER
SOFTWARE AND OTHER ILLICIT INFORMATION.
THE INTERNET, A "NETWORK OF NETWORKS" ORIGINALLY DESIGNED
TO CONNECT COMPUTERS AT UNIVERSITIES AND GOVERNMENT RESEARCH LABS, HAS
GROWN DRAMATICALLY IN SIZE AND TECHNICAL SOPHISTICATION IN RECENT YEARS.
IT IS NOW USED BY MANY BUSINESSES AND INDIVIDUAL COMPUTER USERS, AND IS
OFTEN VIEWED AS THE PROTOTYPE FOR THE "INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY" OF THE
FUTURE.
BUT THE INTERNET HAS AN UNDERSIDE, WHERE SO CALLED "PIRATES" WITH
CODE NAMES LIKE "MR. SMUT," "ACIDFLUX," AND "THE COWBOY" TRAFFIC IN
ILLEGAL OR ILLEGALLY OBTAINED ELECTRONIC INFORMATION. THE STRUCTURE OF
Hackers in the News (24/47)
THE INTERNET MEANS THAT SUCH PIRATES CAN CARRY OUT THEIR CRIMES FROM
ALMOST ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, AND TRACING THEM IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE.
THE FBI LATE LAST WEEK CONFIRMED THAT IT WAS INVESTIGATING
SOFTWARE PIRACY ON THE INTERNET. A TIMES REPORTER DISCOVERED A NUMBER OF
SITES AT PRESTIGIOUS INSTITUTUIONS THAT WERE BEING USED TO DISTRIBUTE
STOLEN SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ONE IN THE OFFICE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA, BERKELY.
PIRATES ALSO HAVE THEIR OWN "CHAT" LINES, A SERIES OF CHANNELS
WITHIN A SERVICE CALLED THE INTERNET RELAY CHAT. AN ELABORATE PECKING
ORDER DETERMINES WHO WILL BE ALLOWED TO TAKE PART IN THESE CONVERSATIONS
- NEWCOMERS CAN OFTEN WANGLE THEIR WAY IN IF THEY HAVE A PARTICULARLY HOT
PIECE OF SOFTWARE TO OFFER.
SANDY MEROLA, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION AND COMPUTING AT THE
BERKELY LAB, SIAD THAT THE PIRATE SITE WAS SHUT DOWN LAST WEEK AFTER THE
TIMES INVESTIGATION REVEALED ITS EXISTENCE. MEROLA SAID THE DEPARTMENT
OF ENERGY, WHICH OVERSEES LAB OPERATIONS, AS WELL AS THE FBI, HAD BEEN
NOTIFIED OF THE INCIDENT.
AT LAWRENCE LIVERMORE, OFFICIALS SAID MONDAY THAT THEY BELIEVED
Hackers in the News (24/69)
AT LEAST ONE MORE LAB EMPLOYEE WAS INVOLVED IN THE PORNOGRAPHY RING,
ALONG WITH AN UNDETERMINED NUMBER OF OUTSIDE COLLABORATORS. CHUCK COLE,
DEPUTY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF COMPUTING AT THE LAB, SAID THAT NEARLY 2,000
MEGABYTES OF UNAUTHORIZED GRAPHICAL IMAGES HAVE BEEN FOUND IN A LIVERMORE
COMPUTER, AND HE CONFIRMED THAT THEY WERE PORNOGRAPHIC.
THE EMPLOYEE HAS BEEN PLACED ON "INVESTIGATORY LEAVE" AND HIS OR
HER SECURITY BADGE CONFISCATED WHILE AN INVESTIGATION IS UNDERTAKEN, THE
LAB SAID. IT IS UNCLEAR WHETHER THE PORNOGRAPHIC IMAGES WERE BEING SOLD
OR HOW MANY PEOPLE HAD GAINED ACCESS TO THEM. THE PICTURES WERE
SUFFICIENTLY GRAPHIC THAT THEY WOULD LIKELY BE CONSIDERED OBSCENE BY THE
COURTS, AND THEREFORE TRANSMITTING THEM OVER THE INTERNET WOULD BE ILLEGAL.
THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF STORAGE CAPACITY USED IN THE LIVERMORE
SCHEME SHOWS HOW INTERNET HACKING COULD BE QUITE PROFITABLE.
THERE WERE INDICATIONS THAT THE PERSON OPERATING THE PORNOGRAPHY
DATABASE HAD BECOME AWARE OF POSSIBLE SCRUTINY. ON JUNE 27, A MESSAGE
LEFT IN A FILE LABELED READ ME!!! SAID, "IT APPEARS THAT NEWS ABOUT THIS
SITE HAS ESCAPED, IN THE PAST TWO WEEKS, I HAVE HAD 27 UN-AUTHORIZED
HOSTS ATTEMPT TO ACCESS MY SERVER. THIS DOES NOT GIVE ME A WARM-FUZZY
FEELING. I WOULD HATE TO HAVE TO SHUT THIS DOWN, BUT I MAY HAVE NO CHOICE."
Hackers in the News (25/92)
ONE COMPUTER EXPERT, WHO REQUESTED ANONYMITY, SIAD THAT THERE
MIGHT BE MORE TO THE INCIDENT THAN MEETS THE EYE. THE EXPERT SUGGESTED
THAT THE HARD-CORE PORNOGRAPHY MAY BE A COVER FOR AN ULTRA-SOPHISTICATED
ESPIONAGE PROGRAM, IN WHICH A "SNIFFER" PROGRAM COMBS THROUGH OTHER
LIVERMORE COMPUTERS, ENCODES THE PASSWORDS AND ACCOUNTS IT FINDS, AND
THEN HIDES THEM WITHIN THE PORNOGRAPHIC IMAGES, PERHAPS LATER TO BE
DOWNLOADED LATER BY FOREIGN AGENTS.
BUT COLE SAID THERE WAS NO POSSIBILITY OF A COMPUTER INTRUDER
GAINING ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED DATA AT LIVERMORE LABS."
