Forwarded From: Nelson Murilo <nelson@pangeia.com.br>
[http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/wr/story.html?s=v/nm/19990208/wr/pluggedin_6.html]
Monday February 8 12:52 PM ET
As Internet Use Multiplies, So Does Hacker Menace
By Lydia Zajc
TORONTO (Reuters) - Attention computer administrators and everyone with a
credit card: you're not safe, your information is getting easier to find,
and hackers -- those computer cowboys who break into systems for thrills,
sheer artistry, money or revenge -- are everywhere.
Those in the know agree there isn't a network, Web site or system secure
enough to keep out hackers, who have been breaking into computers over
phone lines since the late 1970s and now use the Internet.
``There's no such thing as a perfectly safe computer, so someone will
always get into it,'' said Brian O'Higgins, chief technology officer at
Richardson, Texas-based Entrust Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq:ENTU - news),
which can convert data into code for safe transmission.
Observers conclude that with the exploding growth of the Internet and
sales in cyberspace, there are more opportunities to worm into a company's
system and abuse the information found there, such as credit card numbers.
The number of hacker incidents is difficult to track. But in a poll
released last year the San Francisco-based Computer Security Institute
found a dramatic rise in computer crime, ranging from stolen laptops to
Internet heists, from a year earlier.
Sixty-four percent of corporations and other organizations reported
security breaches vs. 16 percent in 1997, it said.
Most organizations fear a violator from without: a lone young male sitting
in his basement, a stereotypical social misfit with the high-powered brain
and computer, and loads of curiosity to boot.
``It's an instance of mischievous behavior that's probably age-old in
human nature,'' said analyst David Breiner at investment bank Volpe Brown
Whelan & Co. ``But the core of it is the dark side of human nature in the
information age.''
One highly public incident was the defiling last fall of The New York
Times' Web site. A group calling itself ``Hacking for Girlies'' replaced
the newspaper's home page with offensive pictures of nudes and discussion
about legendary hacker Kevin Mitnick, who faces a trial in California on
computer-related fraud charges.
Hacker motives range from the excitement of a challenge -- be it technical
or intellectual -- and financial gain, to industrial espionage. But the
most dangerous motive is revenge by a disgruntled employee, Breiner said.
Professional hacker consultants, who are hired to test corporate computer
security by mounting attacks on them, agree.
Accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young security consultant Matunda
Nyanchama, whose company just set up its first Canadian computer attack
and penetration lab, says the greatest danger comes from your own
colleagues.
``About 80 percent of risks associated with an (information technology)
environment come from within,'' Nyanchama said. ''But what we find is that
the clients tend to -- I think, partly, because of the press -- look at
these hackers out there on the Internet.''
In one case, a sour senior staff member was secretly leaking confidential
information to a rival firm, Nyanchama said. The staff members' company
was confounded by the competitor, who was constantly beating them at their
own game.
Robert Clyde, general manager of security management at Rockville,
Md.-based information security company Axent Technologies Inc., has been
on the scene for 20 years and has seen a shift in hacker inspiration.
The hacker mentality -- which used to be ``look but don't touch'' and
included help from ``white hat'' good-guy hackers who point out a
company's weak points -- has expanded, Clyde said. It now also includes
the desire for cold hard cash or even ''cyber-terrorism,'' such as
crashing a system.
Now, there are indications organized crime has filtered in through some
nations which ignore the electronic transfer of U.S. funds, Clyde said.
For example, an ``inside/outside'' job means a company hires a computer
expert to build a network. For a small fee from a corrupt group, the
administrator will deliberately make a dumb mistake, leaving an electronic
hole through which others can siphon money to private bank accounts.
And even though some hacking cases are well known, such as the assault on
U.S. Pentagon computers by an Israeli teen-ager called ``Analyzer'' and a
friend (who were caught last year), companies often have been penetrated
and didn't tell the public. Or, the companies might not have realized it.
Many banks have already been hit to some extent, Entrust's O'Higgins said.
One way to ensure relative safety, O'Higgins adds, is encryption: coding
information to make sure it can't be read without an electronic key. One
financial institution came to Entrust in a panic after losing some 350,000
potential credit card numbers following the theft of a computer.
Clyde attends some of the various hacker conventions, whose participants
include ``white hats,'' government agents and people with their teeth
filed into points to resemble vampires. But, he adds, ``the scary ones are
the ones who aren't like that, (instead) they're pretty professional and
do it for the money. These guys don't get caught.''
-o-
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Received on Thu Mar 11 17:20:49 1999