contributed by Space Rogue
Numerous mainstream media outlets are reporting that Kevin Mitnick has pleaded guilty to computer related crimes. It is believed that this plea of guilty is in exchange for reduced charges and a sentence of mostly time served. The real story is not that Kevin pleaded out as only 4% of federal cases actually go to trial, the real story is how the press got notified of the contents of a _sealed_ federal court document.

If the Honorable Mariana Pfaelzer declines the plea agreement Kevin will still be headed for trial on April 20. If that happens Kevin's defense hopes to introduce a motion that will dismiss most of the evidence against him on the grounds of illegal search and seizure. It would appear the the information used to provide probable cause to issue a search warrant for Mitnick's apartment was itself illegally obtained. The defense is claiming that Tsutomu Shimomura, while a private citizen, was in fact acting as a government agent and therefore subject to the laws regarding illegal search and seizure.

We urge you to visit the Free Kevin site and learn more about what is not being said by the mainstream media.

Free Kevin

contributed by shadow
Jay Satiro an 18-year old New York resident has been charged with computer tampering after breaking into the systems on America Online. AOL has claimed that it will cost $50,000 to repair the damage done to its data. AOL spokesmen have refused to give out details in the case such as how the intruder gained access, how long he went undetected and exactly what damage was caused. (Ed Note: Would sure be interesting to know how they justify that fifty grand figure. How much can it cost to restore from backup?)

Washington Post

contributed by aeon
Researchers at Aeon Laboratories have analyzed ProMail 1.21 a freeware email client and have determined it to be a Trojan Horse. One of the first actions taken by the program when launched is that it sends ALL of the personal user data, including the user's password in encrypted format, to an account on NetAddress, a free email provider.

Aeon Laboratories

contributed by jericho
Attrition.org has revamped its cracked site mirror section and has created what is probably the most extensive collection of cracked sites. They still have their old standard Security Errata, Advisories, and Denial of Service pages in addition to the new cracked pages archive. This new archive is extensively cross referenced and goes back several years. They still need pages from a few sites so if you still have copies on your hard drive, know when or who did certain cracks send them an email.

Attrition

contributed by Pasty Drone
Time.com has published an except of Bill Gates latest book "Business @ the Speed of Thought". This excerpt lists the twelve key steps of business according to Bill.

Time.com

Patsy Drone of NewsTrolls, an HNN Affiliate has written a rather humorous response to these steps.

News Trolls

contributed by Arik
Stolen calling card numbers are big big business racking up millions of dollars in fraud charges each year. Criminals are still using the tried and true method of shoulder surfing and the social engineering of corporate switchboard operators, but have gone so far as to electronically break into corporate PBX's to record calling card numbers automatically. Investigators are even claiming that organized crime may be involved.

Somehow the journalist who wrote this story figures that this just must be the work of "Hackers" as he uses the term through out the story. Activities such as this would be more appropriately attributed to Phreakers but I am sure not even they would appreciated being labeled as criminals. Exactly when did the word 'hacker' become synonymous with criminal?

NY Daily News

contributed by Fr3aKy
In Westerfield Center Ohio, an unknown 'hacker' has gained access to the Westfield Companies 800 number and rung up over $31,000 in long distance charges. This article is so full of misleading comments, assumptions, FUD, stereotypes, and downright inaccuracies I don't know where to begin. Interesting how the entire article blames the unknown 'hacker' and not the weak security on the companies phone system.

Akron Beacon Journal

contributed by Megan A. Haquer
This article is mostly a promotional article about a security conference on Internet Security held by US WEST that was hosted in Salt Lake City yesterday. This article has enough FUD to scare your average CEO into spending millions.

Deseret News