CIA take (Re: user maxx)

[Vladimir Vrabec]

Kolegy ze FS CVUT snad trochu uklidni, ze tercem hackerskych utoku
nemusi byt pouze oni, ale i treba CIA.
S pozdravem
Vladimir Vrabec

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Date: Sun, 22 Sep 1996 16:21:27 -0400
Reply-To: Discussion of Netscape <NETSCAPE at Danann.hea.ie>
Sender: Discussion of Netscape <NETSCAPE at Danann.hea.ie>
From: James Johnson <Teacher638 at AOL.COM>
Subject: The Feds are coming!....The Feds are coming!
To: Multiple recipients of list NETSCAPE <NETSCAPE at Danann.hea.ie>

I find the following stories very interesting and yet, very very disturbing.

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 WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The Central Intelligence Agency,
 that bastion of spy technology and computer wizardry, pulled
 the plug on its World Wide Web site on the Internet Thursday
 after a hacker broke in and replaced it with a crude parody.
      CIA officials said their vandalized homepage -- altered
 to read "Welcome to the Central Stupidity Agency" -- was in
 no way linked to any mainframe computers containing
 classified national security information.

  o     Hacker got in on Wednesday night and the CIA took the system down on
 Thursday morning.
  o     Part of the hacker's text included "stop lying."
  o     Article states "cyber-attack matched" Department of Justice web server
 compromise.
 <snip>

 (Apparently the hackers did this in support of their comrades that are
standing trial in Sweden....see the continuing story below)

<snip>
Five hackers stand accused of various hacking, where extensive "free-use" of
public telephone lines is one of the main issues.
The hackers have obtained access to credit-card numbers which have been used
and have also cracked some of the telephone access codes.
Since the message was written in English and Swedish it is suspected that
other swedish hackers did this (broke into the CIA site) to obtain some
publicity worldwide during the ongoing legal process.
The choice of the CIA-homepage is supposedly due to the spectacular value it
represents.."
______________________________________________________________________
Another story, (about the Panax break-in) is eerily similar to the first:

"The news accounts of the attack brought great attention to a problem in the
Internet's structure that many security experts and network design engineers
are familiar with but rarely discuss publicly.

Attacks have been relatively isolated incidents. However there is concerned
that the problem could spread, disrupting Internet service for millions of
users and effectively closing down large commercial sites on the Internet.

Numerous large and small banks and retailers rely on Internet services. The
potential for financial losses as a result of such attacks is rising.
Disruption of Internet service can also be a serious problem for thousands
of businesses that now rely on email and Web sites to communicate with their
partners and customers."

___________________________________________________________________________

Germany to Allow Only Banks to Issue E.Cash

Wednesday 96.09.18 - Munich, Germany - German central bank council member
Franz-Christoph Zeitler welcomed government plans to give only banks the
right to issue pre-paid cards or so-called electronic purses.
<snip>
Zeitler said the distributor of electronic cash had to be extremely reliable
as a sudden collapse of an e.cash system could have "significant negative"
consequences for the German economy.
<snip>
Zeitler said it was likely that Bonn would also restrict the rights to
create and maintain of Internet-based electronic cash systems to the banking
industry.
__________________________________________________________

     WASHINGTON (AP) - Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin announced
        Thursday a new task force to guide the government in supporting and
        regulating the electronic money revolution. "Our goal in this
        conference should be to advance the discussion on all the newer
        modes of electronic payments - smart cards, debit cards, electronic
        benefits transfer and the like," he said at the opening of a two-day
        Treasury Department conference. Participants ranged from Federal
        Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and other banking regulators to
        Citicorp Chairman John Reed and representatives of private sector
        and consumer groups.
___________________________________________________________________________

These stories point out that the security issue is still out of control. One
quote was that it is so bad that it was "...rarely discussed publically..."

What disturbs me is "the band-aid" approach that everyone (the big guys) keep
taking (using statements like "....oh, you can only lose $50, what's the big
deal?"....)

Another thing is the "insistence" of the Federal governments to get involved,
because *we* can't take care of these problems ourselves.

The 'net as we know and love it will soon be a whole bunch of laws, rules and
regulations. And the laws will have been passed without us having a single
word in their formulation. The worst part of it is that the laws and
regulations will be formulated by those who have nothing to do with the 'net
in their everyday life (those that we refer to as "net illiterate".) We all
know what that means.
-----------------------------
These are the issues as I see them:

* The "big guys", with all to gain and nothing to lose; AT&T, the banks, IBM
etc. need to get more involved with a solution to the security problem.
Today they are asking us for our credit cards; tomorrow it will be much
larger sums, and we all know it.
Let them prove their interest in protecting our hard-earned credit and * at
least* make an effort to resolve the issue, to find a secure way to transfer
funds.
We need a "supercop", a "superhero"....which one of them is going to stand up
and fight for our rights by protecting our transactions, no matter how small.

Which one of them is going to be the "superhero"?

* I think we should band together and demand some respect. One of the stories
above mentioned a Federal task force that was meeting with interested groups
re: electronic commerce; they used the term "consumer groups". Who could be
more "consumer" than those of us that are in these discussion groups. We are
usually here to further our education of Internet procedures, find out what
works so as to grow our business, or to pass on our knowledge to others (with
the appropriate sig file so everyone knows how to get in touch for a possible
business connection.)
We are the *consumer group* that should be giving input to this Federal task
force!!!

* I want to rally as many people (consumers and business owners) from these
discussion groups as possible. Using my educational website as a rallying
point.........www.webcom.com/plead.........(btw, there is absolutely no
commercial value involved in this site whatsoever) where you can get more
info about the ongoing security breaches and abuses. Go there, read the info
then simply E-mail me, James Johnson, at .....teacher638 at aol.com......to join
our group.

When we have gathered enough names, I plan to petition Treasury Secretary
Robert Rubin and demand some attention to our cause.

This effort on our part will definitely affect the future of electronic
commerce on the net.
We are banding together to petition the *big guys* ('cause I'll let them know
what's going on too) and the Feds to at least hear us out.
Let us tell them about our concerns for the future safety of the net.

Conducting business through secure electronic transfer of funds is our goal.
If this is what you believe then join the group!

James Johnson
teacher638 at aol.com
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