[From: William Knowles <erehwon@dis.org>]
(Denver Post) [3.22.98] BOULDER - University of Colorado
police have arrested a university freshman for allegedly
providing pilfered passwords and access codes to an
unidentified Israeli hacker who broke into the school's
computer system earlier this month.
Joshua Gregory Pearson, 18, a computer science major from
Steamboat Springs, was arrested Thursday in a renewed
CU police crackdown on online crime, authorities said.
Authorities believe Pearson used a ""sniffer'' program,
downloaded off the Internet, to intercept passwords and
access codes needed to sign on to university computers.
Those codes then were passed on to a hacker known only
as ""Heavy Metal.'' CU computer experts traced the hacker
back to Israel.
""Employees in the Information Technology Systems
Department noticed this guy in there running all sorts
of programs that are against university regulations,''
CU police Detective Peter Brandon said.
Campus officials said the damage could run into the
thousands of dollars and that the break-in could leave
the university's computer security system vulnerable
for months.
Ken Klingenstein, director of CU's Computing and Network
Services Department, said system staffers first noticed a
drastic rise in connections from Italy and Canada in early
March. The connections were gaining access to a number of
accounts and running programs not allowed by the university.
The programs, which can be remotely controlled, and can flood
personal e-mail accounts with so many error messages the
accounts become impossible to use.
""It's like ringing a telephone and hanging up, ringing a
telephone and hanging up,'' Brandon said.
Brandon said the hacker accessed almost all of CU's 40 computer
systems before being discovered and shut down.
Pearson was charged with felony computer crime and unlawful
conduct, a misdemeanor. He was booked and released from the
Boulder County Jail and is scheduled to appear in Boulder County
Court on April 29.
-o-
Subscribe: mail majordomo@sekurity.org with "subscribe isn".
Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated
Received on Sun Mar 22 19:16:29 1998