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Cracker Pal Turns on Analyzer
by Tania Hershman
9:15 a.m. 24.May.99.PDT
JERUSALEM -- There may be honor among thieves, but not, it appears, among
crackers.
One of the four Israelis indicted with Ehud Tenebaum in February for
cracking into US and Israeli government computer systems last year has
agreed to testify against Tenebaum in exchange for a lighter sentence.
Tenebaum appeared Sunday in the Magistrates Court in Kfar Saba, just
outside Tel Aviv, to answer the indictment against him. But when Barak
Abutbul reached a plea bargain agreement, the court postponed the trial
for one month.
"It did not come as a surprise to me," said Tenebaum, 20. "I expected it."
Tenebaum's lawyer, Shmuel Tzang, said he was "not worried" by the
developments, or by the possibility that any of the remaining three -- Guy
Fleisher, Ariel Rosenfeld, or Rafael Ohana -- might agree to testify
against his client.
Tenebaum, who used the cracking alias Analyzer, was arrested in March 1998
following an investigation that involved five US federal agencies and at
least 30 FBI agents.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges of breaking into a number of computer
systems, including those at NASA, the Pentagon, MIT, Harvard, Yale,
Cornell, and Stanford universities. Tenebaum is also accused of cracking
the Israeli Parliament system, as well as the Internet accounts of
individuals and companies held by two Israeli Internet service providers.
Israeli authorities believe Tenebaum was the ringleader of the group.
They think he tutored the others in the art of cracking, with the help of
the Trojan horse and sniffer programs found in his possession. None of the
five are in custody.
The trial is now scheduled to begin 24 June. If convicted, the defendants
face a maximum sentence of three years in prison. Tenebaum's lawyer plans
to question whether Israel even has laws appropriate for prosecuting
activity over the Internet. He will also question whether or not his
client can be prosecuted for offenses against foreign organizations.
-o-
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Received on Fri May 28 15:52:35 1999