Forwarded From: William Knowles <erehwon@kizmiaz.dis.org>
TORONTO (February 11, 1999 10:23 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com)
Attention computer administrators and everyone else armed with a credit
card: you are not safe on the Internet, your information is getting easier
to find, and hackers -- computer cowboys who break into systems for
thrills, sheer artistry, money or revenge -- are everywhere.
Those in the know agree there is no network, Web site or system secure
enough to keep out determined 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
Texas-based Entrust Technologies Inc., which converts data into code for
safer transmission.
Experts say 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 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. It said 64 percent of corporations and other
organizations reported security breaches, up from 16 percent in 1997.
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.
'DARK SIDE OF HUMAN NATURE IN INFORMATION AGE'
"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 year of The New York
Times Web site. A group calling itself "Hacking for Girlies" replaced the
Times' home page with pictures of nudes and discussion about legendary
hacker Kevin Mitnick, who faces trial in California on computer-related
fraud charges.
Hacker motives range from the excitement of a challenge -- be it technical
or intellectual -- to financial gain and 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. 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' employer
was confounded by the competitor, who constantly beat them at their own
game.
SHIFT IN HACKER INSPIRATION
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 that ignore the electronic transfer of U.S. funds, he said. For
example, an "inside/outside" job means a company hires a computer expert
to build a network. For a small fee from a criminal group the expert will
deliberately make a dumb mistake, leaving an electronic hole through which
others can siphon money to private bank accounts.
Some hacking cases are well known, such as the assault on Pentagon
computers by an Israeli teenager known as "Analyzer" and a friend, who
were both caught last year. But companies often are penetrated and do not
tell the public. Or they may not have realized it themselves.
Many banks have already been hit to some extent, Entrust's O'Higgins said.
One way to ensure relative safety, he said, is encryption: coding
information to make sure it cannot 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 hacker conventions whose participants range from
"white hats" and government agents to people with their teeth filed into
points to resemble vampires.
But he said, "the scary ones are the ones who aren't like that...
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 17:22:54 1999