Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1992 12:34:08 -0500
From: anonymous <
[email protected]>
Subject: File 8--The Ethics of Data Communications
The Ethics of Data Communications
By Norris Parker Smith
A report issued jointly by the U.S. Education and Justice
departments urges that instruction in computer ethics be made a part
of school curricula.
The aim is to convince young people that unauthorized copying of, say, a
new game program is plain theft, like stealing a bicycle; turning
loose a destructive worm on the Internet is criminal, a form of
high-tech arson, like setting a fire at one end of a row of condos.
This is a laudable goal, although in the real world it must be
recognized that more and more responsibilities are being heaped upon
the schools while less and less money is available to pay for basic
quality teaching.
A broader point is more important: Where does ethics in computation
begin and end?
For example, data communication today is being transformed by a
worldwide trend. High-bandwidth digital networks based on optical
fiber are supplanting low-capacity analog channels over metal wires.
The benefits to computing and to the overall economy are obvious. On
the face of it, attempts to impede this broad, positive trend would be
comparable to tampering with the adoption of a beneficial new drug.
At the same time -- in response to the same phenomena that upset the
officials at Justice and Education -- users of data communication
facilities are adopting new methods to provide simple, reliable
security for their files and messages. This also would seem a good
thing, well within the rights of people wishing to protect their
property and their ideas.
Open Lines of Communication
On the international scene, the United States and other Western
democracies have recognized that they have a real and immediate
interest in encouraging democracy in the former Soviet states to
emerge from its present fumbling, anxious childhood and mature into
solid stability.
The Russians and their former fellow victims of Communist paranoia
and incompetence say that in order to attempt this difficult
evolution, they urgently need to upgrade communications. This would be
an improvement to their national infrastructures, one of the few areas
in which outside help can readily make a difference. International
consortia, including U.S. participants, stand ready to string up the
fiber and install the switches.
It would seem reasonable -- even ethical -- for the West to support
improvements in Russia's internal communications, or, at the least,
not stand in the way.
What is the record on these two simple propositions? In Congress,
the FBI presented testimony calling for modifications in new
communications technology to make eavesdropping easier. This is
based upon the supposition that massive streams of digitalized
photons are more difficult to bug than slender flows of obedient
analog electrons.
The direct costs of this proposed degrading of the communications
system is estimated in the high hundreds of millions of dollars. The
indirect costs of less-than-optimum systems could be much higher.
The National Security Agency also raised questions about improved
measures for data security. Security is fine, it said, but it should
not be too fine, because the wicked as well as the benign might make
use of it. And when the wicked get into the act, the NSA will have to
invest in more computer time to discern what's happening.
If the Russians go modern, reasoned the NSA, it would be more
difficult for NSA satellites and other means to listen in. And who
knows what evil might lurk, even now, in the minds of the Russians?
Thus, exports of advanced communications technology to the former
Soviet Union were blocked within the federal establishment, largely by
the NSA. Approval took place only when the Germans and other
Europeans applied determined pressure.
The government has legitimate concerns about national security in an
era that looks increasingly unsanitary. Yet it is difficult to project
that any of the nasty little wars that have flamed among the embers of
communism would become genuine threats to basic U.S. interests. Other
means toward nuclear safety in Eurasia offer better prospects than a
Luddite policy on internal communication.
Crime-fighting (which sounds much more acceptable than snooping)
also has its place. It seems only fair, however, for the FBI, like
everyone else, to adapt to new technology as it comes along -- rather
than abusing its authority and prestige by lobbying for a favorable
fix at the public expense.
One of the most fundamental maxims of ethics reads this way: "At a
minimum, avoid doing unnecessary harm and get out of the way of events
that clearly bring good."
The feds should grade their own schoolwork by this ethical criterion
before they draw up computational dos and don'ts for schoolchildren.
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------------------------------
The following news summary, taking from the New York Times
News Service, appeared in the Chicago Tribune business section
on July 24 (p. 1). There was no author attributed, and the headline
was "Computer hackers put new twist on 'West Side Story'."
The article begins:
>Late into the night, in working-class neighborhoods around New
>York City, young men with code names like "acid Phreak" and
>"Outlaw" sat hunched before their glowing computer screens,
>exchanging electronic keys to complex data-processing systems.
>
>They called themselves the Masters of Deception. Their mission: to
>prove their prowess in the shadowy computer underworld.
>
>Compulsive and competitive, they played out a cybernetic version
>of "West Side Story," trading boasts, tapping into telephone
>systems, even pulling up confidential credit reports to prove
>their derring-do and taunt other hackers.
>
>Their frequent target was the Legion of Doom, a hacker group named
>after a gang of comic-book villains. The rivalry seemed to take on
>class and ethnic overtones, with the diverse New York group
>defying the traditional image of the young suburban computer
>whiz.
+++Commentary: The New York Times has finally resorted to the
sensationalism of other media that plays on public fears and
stereotyped images of the terrifying hacker menace. The Times even
goes a step further by laying out a Bloods-'n-Crips scenario, complete
with gang revenge and drive-by hackings. The Times, whose writers
should know better, also plays up the danger of obtaining credit
ratings. TRW credit reports are among the easiest of so-called
confidential data to get. The implication is that it's hackers, not
the abusive practices of used car salespeople or other marketers, that
are a danger to snatching this information.
The story continues with a summary of the MOD bust as reported in the
Times, CuD, and elsewhere. It adds some biographical information
about the MOD people indicted:
John Lee is 21, goes by the name Corrupt, and "has dreadlocks chopped
back into stubby 'twists' and live with his mother in a dilapidated
walkup in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn." The story informs us that he
"bounced around programs for gifted students before dropping out of
school in the 11th grade." Lee works part-time as a standup comic and
is studying film production at Brooklyn University.
Paul Stira is 22 and lives in Queens and was valedictorian at Thomas
A. Edison High School. It adds that his handle was Scorpion. He is
three credits shy of a degree in computer science at Polytechnic
University.
Julio Ferndez is 18 and was known as Outlaw and studied computers in
grade school. The story includes a picture of Phiber Optik and
Scorpion.
The story continues with a brief history of MOD and the disputes
with Legion of Doom:
>The Masters of Deception were born in a conflict with the Legion
>of Doom, which had been formed by 1984 and ultimately included
>among its ranks three Texans, one of whom, Kenyon Shulman, is the
>son of a Houston socialite, Carolyn Farb.
>
>Abene had been voted into the Legion at one point. But when he
>began to annoy others in the group with his New York braggadocio
>and refusal to share information, he was banished, Legion members
>said.
>
>Meanwhile, a hacker using a computer party line based in Texas
>had insulted Lee, who is black, with a racial epithet.
>
>By 1989, both New Yorkers ((Abene and Lee)) had turned to a new
>group, MOD, founded by Ladopoulos. They vowed to replace their
>Legion rivals as the "new elite."
>
>According to a history the new group kept on the computer
>network, they enjoyed "mischievous pranks," often aimed at their
>Texas rivals, and the two groups began sparring. But in June 1990
>the three Texas-based Legion members, including Shulman, Chris
>Goggans and Scott Chasin, formed Comsec Cata Security, a business
>intended to help companies prevent break-ins by other hackers.
>
>Worried that the Texans were acting as police informers, the MOD
>members accused their rivals of defaming them on the network
>bulletin boards. MOD's activities, according to the indictment
>and other hackers, began to change and proliferate.
>
>Unlike most of the "old generation" of hackers who liked to
>joyride through the systems, the New Yorkers began using the file
>information to harass and intimidate others, according
>to prosecutors.
The article concludes by suggesting that MOD was jealous of Comsec's
media attention and mention Abene's and Ladopoulos's claims in the
media that they had a right to penetrate computer systems. It adds,
drawing from John Perry Barlow's paper, his experience with Abene in
1989. Abene allegedly downloaded Barlow's credit rating and posted it.
This was detailed in the 1990 Harper's magazine article on computer
privacy and abuse. The article was based on posts from a conference
discussion topic on a California computer system. The article
concludes by alleging that despite the indictment, MOD may still be
bugging people:
>But the battles are apparently not over. A couple of days after
>the charges were handed up, one Legion member said, he received a
>message on his computer from Abene. It was sarcastic as usual, he
>said, and it closed, "Kissy, kissy."
The Times story does challenge the myth of a stereotypical white male
locked away alone in a suburban bedroom all night. But linking it to
rival gang activity and West Side Story images seems bizarre. The
public, the fuzz, and the media pick up on these scripts. If it's in
the New Times, it must be true, right? In this case, the Times has
taken a few steps backwards in its normally competent (especially when
John Markoff writes) stories.
To the Times: "Kissy, kissy!"
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