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[Moderator: SpinDoctor to the rescue.. What better way to jump from being
public enemy #1 to 'hero'? Instead of hacking the Pentagon, use the magic
buzzword of "child porn" and say you are fighting it...]
Hackers: We Fight Pedophiles, Not Pentagon
by James Glave
12:11pm 6.Mar.98.PST
Two of the three teenagers
implicated in recent attacks on
military computer networks are
members of an international online
organization that calls itself
Enforcers. Members of the group came
forward Thursday night to defend
their colleagues and their actions -
which they maintain have more to do
with fighting kiddie porn than
wreaking havoc on government Web
servers.
Enforcers communicated with Wired
News in an interview conducted over
Internet Relay Chat - a global,
text-based chat network. The group
clarified its role in what deputy
secretary of defense John Hamre
described as "organized and
systematic" attacks on unclassified
military networks. Members of
Enforcers conceded that some of
their members were responsible for
the attacks.
"As a group we have nothing to do
with the hacking of government
servers," said a 19-year-old
American student calling himself
KuRuPTioN. "What individual members
do on their own time is up to them,"
added paralyse, another 19-year-old
American, a student of networking
technology. "Not all of us are
involved but everyone who is
involved is a member," said a
17-year-old American who goes by
Anonilir`.
Enforcers stressed that only a
minority of their members are
mischievous hackers. They added that
they often tip off the FBI to
pedophile Net porn dealers, and have
offered to help the US government
eliminate child porn online.
"If [the FBI] would work with us
instead of against us I would work
with them," said Anonilir`.
Members of Enforcers said that their
cohorts - Makaveli, the California
teen who was rousted by the FBI last
week, and Analyzer, Makaveli's
mentor and the group's de facto
leader - have been sullied by the
media.
"I'm horrified by the treatment
being given [Makaveli and Analyzer]
and the public's perception [and
media's casting] of them as
malevolent crackers," said paralyse.
"I think we all hope that nothing
does happen to them," added
CanadaGod, a 17-year old from
Canada.
First established in 1996, Enforcers
is a tightly knit group with about
30 members ranging in age from 16 to
38, from countries including the US,
Canada, Australia, and possibly
Israel. Some members are system
administrators, others are students.
One manages a design team, while
another describes herself, in part,
as a mother.
The group meets on an Internet Relay
Chat channel called #enforcer, and
while some members, including
Makaveli, Analyzer and another
teenager called immunity, confirmed
that they have gained access to
government servers, the group says
they have never viewed classified
materials.
In a Wired News interview on Tuesday
night, Analyzer claimed to have
root, or system administrator-level
access, to more than 400
unclassified military Web servers.
Analyzer did not mention using them
to launch attacks against online
pedophiles, which other members of
the group claimed he does. Instead,
Analyzer cited his motive for
hacking as simply "challenge."
Analyzer is still at large, though
unconfirmed reports place him in
Israel, where he is reportedly
preparing to enter compulsory
military service. He told Wired News
he supported the Israeli Internet
Underground, which other sources
characterized as a malicious gang of
crackers.
In a message to Wired News that he
called "The Truth About Analyzer,"
Anonilir` urged, "Put yourself in
Analyzer's place."
"Think about the pedophilia and
racism on the Internet, that the
government does nothing to stop,"
Anonilir` wrote. "But oh yes, they
will take care of you, the hacker,
and mark you a criminal. What do you
do? You choose to strike out against
these evils in your own fashion."
"Kill two birds with one stone ...
you use their computers to fight
what you would call a crime," the
message continued.
But attacks launched from hijacked
government servers is not the
preferred strategy for fighting
kiddie porn and racism, Enforcers
members said. Instead, paralyse said
that Enforcers' activism centers
around promoting awareness and
encouraging cooperation from
Internet service provider (ISP)
administrators, the Undernet (a
version of Internet Relay Chat), and
the users themselves.
If such diplomacy fails, and an ISP
administrator refuses to cancel the
Internet account of a confirmed
kiddie-porn trader or Web-site
operator, paralyse said the group
will often mail a complaint to the
FBI. Either that, or group members
may delete a site or "flood" a
pedophile IRC channel, thus making
it unavailable.
The diverse but familial group
believes that the recently announced
government crackdown on cybercrime
is a ploy to support the Clinton
administration's desire to increase
spending on security and encryption.
"You can't sell the country on
paying their taxes for more security
unless you convince them of a need
for protection from these
'dangerous' people," said paralyse.
Enforcers member KuRuPTioN
attributed the crackdown to US
attorney general Janet Reno's desire
to secure funding from Congress for
a proposed $64 million cybercrime
command center, to be called the
National Infrastructure Protection
Center.
"It's to push Reno's Internet Crime
Bill ... THAT is the ONLY reason for
all the hype," said KuRuPTioN.
"[We are] a very strong group of
people ... brought together for one
cause ... for freedom on the
Internet ... and for the right to
learn," said ShdowGawd, another
member.
Speaking for the subsection of the
group that does hack government
systems, immunity said that "hacking
is illegal, but ... the servers we
hack, we help patch [them] back up,
we don't steal their files."
The group said that the FBI's
painting of them as a dangerous
threat to national security is based
on "ignorance and misunderstanding,
[the] assumption of an evil motive
when there is none," said paralyse.
Accessing a password-protected
government network is a felony,
according to a government source.
Most Enforcers members say they do
not believe that investigators will
catch Analyzer, who they say is
highly skilled at the art of network
concealment.
The FBI has refused to comment on
the investigation.
Editor's Note: Because of the
anonymous nature of IRC, the
real-world identities of those who
participated in this interview could
not be confirmed.
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Received on Sun Mar 15 05:33:06 1998