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[Moderator: One article said that they got in off a common bug. One said
the FBI was overhyping this because of political ends.. they looked bad,
had to find someone to blame, etc. Who knows...]
FBI Eyes Teens in Pentagon 'Attacks'
Wired News Report
8:45am 27.Feb.98.PST
The search for those who carried out
what the Pentagon called "the most
organized and systematic" attack
ever on its computer has led the FBI
to a small town 75 miles north of
San Francisco - and to the homes of
two teenage boys believed to have
participated in the cyber break-ins.
The San Francisco Chronicle and the
Associated Press reported today that
the FBI located two young suspects
in the case in Cloverdale,
California. The FBI told the
Chronicle that when agents arrived
at the home of one of the boys, he
was in the process of breaking into
one of the Defense Department's
nonclassified computers.
The agents seized computers,
software, and printers from two
Cloverdale homes, though neither of
the high school students believed
involved in the case have been
arrested. Neither boy was
identified.
The case made headlines Wednesday
when deputy defense secretary John
Hamre told reporters that a recent
two-week series of attacks was
viewed as "the most organized and
systematic attack the Pentagon has
seen to date." Defense Information
and Electronics Report reported on
the break-ins earlier this month at
11 military bases - seven Air Force
sites and four Navy installations.
The owner of a Santa Rosa,
California, Internet service
provider - the apparent access point
for at least some of the break-ins -
expressed doubt that the Cloverdale
teens were the only ones involved in
the incident.
"The sheer volume of it
differentiates it from some hobbyist
amateur," Bill Zane of Netdex
Internet Services told the
Chronicle. "These people were doing
it in a methodical, organized way.
The activity took place virtually
every day. ... The hours spread over
the map. I would be very surprised
if this were just kids. I doubt that
a couple of teenagers did that."
Zane said Netdex first detected
hackers using the service's
computers as a launching point for
exploration of government, military,
and university computers in January.
The company alerted both law
enforcement and the Carnegie Mellon
University's Computer Emergency
Response Team.
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Received on Sun Mar 15 02:34:58 1998