HNN: The Year in Review
Page 2
John Vranesevich Shuts Down Packet Storm Security
Probably the biggest story of 1999 was the actions of John Vranesevich,
founder and administrator of AntiOnline, who was instrumental in
getting the extremely popular web site Packet Storm Security shut down.
As far as can be determined John Vranesevich discovered a private
directory on Packet Storm that contained potentially libelous material
about him and his family. Mr. Vranesevich did not contact the site
administrator directly but instead sent an email to the administrators
at Harvard University asking that the objectionable material be
removed. Harvard responded by unceremoniously pulling the plug on the
whole site.
Once word of how and why Packet Storm had gone down a public outcry
ensued. Mailing lists where started, people started an attempt to
mirror the site, Ken Williams received numerous offer to host the site
and Mr. Vranesevich became the whipping boy du jour.
Because Mr. Williams was unable to access his web site, which was his
senior project, he was forced to drop out of school. He later sold the
web site to Kroll O'Gara and took a position at a major internet
security company.
HNN Archive for July 1, 1999
HNN Archive for July 2, 1999
Attrition.org
- Examples of the supposedly libelous materials posted to Packet
Storm
Ken Williams
Statement
AntiOnline
- John Vranesevich's Defense
Letter from Harvard
Ken Williams Response to
Harvard
Letter From Bronc
Buster - Regarding the actions of Mr. Vranesevich
ZD
Net
HNN Pulls Massive April Fools Joke
It was meant as a simple joke, a simple April Fools Day prank, a reason
to smile or to laugh. It turned into one of the biggest stories in the
underground for 1999. At midnight EST on April 1, 1999 the main
Hacker News web page was updated with what appeared as a web
defacement. The page contained all the required elements of a
defacement, poor spelling, hax0r speak, shout outs, etc... Many,
many, bought the defacement hook line and sinker, HNN administrators
even got personal phone calls to their homes at 8am to inform them of
the defacement. Remember, even as recently as April web defacements
were a relatively rare thing, not occurring by the dozens like they are
today. Ahhhh, but the fun did not stop there. At Noon EST the HNN
pranksters felt the unsuspecting public needed even more mayhem and hi
jinx. The defaced page came down and the days news went up. The news
contained stories such as Kevin Mitnick breaking out of jail by
whistling a 300 baud carrier into a phone, L0pht Heavy Industries
selling L0phtCrack for $1.2 billion to NAI, CERT going out of Business,
and Microsoft buying Network Solutions for complete control of the
Internet. Considering the volume of mail we received regarding these
stories (some of which came from mainstream journalists) many many
people believed them.
Archive of HNN Defacement
HNN Archive for April 1, 1999
PhoneMasters
For some reason the mainstream media has really not paid attention to
this story. Considering the level to which these crimes escalated and
the methods and effort needed to catch the these crooks it is a wonder
that there wasn't more media coverage.
The FBI called them the 'Phone Masters' and labeled their crimes as one
of the greatest cyber-intrusions of all time. Court records show that
the Phone Masters had gained access to telephone networks of companies
including AT&T Corp., British Telecommunications Inc., GTE Corp., MCI
WorldCom (then MCI Communications Corp.), Southwestern Bell, and Sprint
Corp. They broke into credit-reporting databases belonging to Equifax
Inc. and TRW Inc. They entered Nexis/Lexis databases and systems of Dun
& Bradstreet. They could eavesdrop on phone calls, compromise
secure databases, redirect communications, they also had access to
portions of the national power grid, and air-traffic-control systems.
The FBI had to invent special equipment they called a 'data tap'
specifically for this case and get special permission from DOJ to use
it. It took several years of listening to phone calls to gather enough
evidence for an arrest but on February 22, 1995 the FBI conducted a
raid on three suspected members of the PhoneMasters. Other members of
the group are thought to remain at large. Three members of the group
pleaded guilty to federal charges of one count of theft and possession
of unauthorized calling-card numbers and one count of unauthorized
access to computer systems. The three where sentenced in October for
24 to 41 months in federal prison.
What bothers us most about this story is that almost no mainstream
media has reported on the story. The first mention we can find about
the Phone Masters is from a local TV stations, WFAA in Dallas FortWorth
back in the beginning of May.
Phone Master Hacks
- Buffer Overflow Article
HNN Archive October 4, 1999 -
PhoneMasters Plead Guilty
Wall
Street Journal - one of the few articles about this case
Union
Tribune - Another rare article that has a little bit more info.
CNN
- Tries to answer why the media missed the boat
Aviary
Mag - Interview with An Acquaintance of the Phone Masters
MTV
Serena Achtul host of MTV News and of a documentary style program known
as 'True Life' wanted to do a show on 'hacking' and in particular a
show about Kevin Mitnick. She was placed into contact with Emmanuel
Goldstein of 2600 Magazine who organized several interviews for her. He
spent a lot of time and effort in getting good people for her to talk
to and they shot several hours worth of film.
For one reason or another the Kevin Mitnick aspect of the show was cut
out, so being a good sport Emmanuel directed Serena to the folks at
L0pht Heavy Industries. The L0pht crew made time in their busy
schedules to spend an entire day with Serana and her film crew
explaining the finer points of what they do and explaining the
difference between script kiddie defacements and true hacking.
Again for some reason, this angle for the show was not to MTVs liking
so they struck out on their own looking for whatever it was they
wanted. They found Shamrock, the host of the Internet TV show devoted
to hacking known as Pseudo.
The result was a complete farce. Evidently Shamrock decided to take MTV
for a ride and give them what they wanted, a story line straight out of
the movie Hackers. The show did nothing to explain what hacking
was all about and was far from a documentary. Needless to say many
people are upset at MTV and others over this mess.
Letters from HNN Viewers
Letter from Emmanuel
Goldstein
Letter from Shamrock
