_The_Lone_Codeman_
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Bright future for young hacker
Read an article today about a hacker who broke into thousands of servers - US military, NASA and Cisco were amongst them. Do I even have to mention that these servers contain sensitive data and that security on them SHOULD be 'top of the line', 'sate of art'? Not only that; but also it took FBI more than a year to track down the hacker, or at least give a good direction of who it might be.
"Government investigators and other experts watched helplessly while monitoring the activity, unable to secure some systems as quickly as others were found compromised...."
It was reported (Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet) that the main goal for the hacker was to get the program which controls the internet traffic. But since it's still under investigation it can not be confirmed. Some of the information was published on a Russian site.
How was this possible? The hacker used security holes which were reported to be plugged. OK, fine. What was taken? Well, that's not so clear either. At this moment, one year later, it’s still not clear exactly what was stolen or destroyed.
So who is able to do this then? Terrorist? A fanatic group of underground hackers? How about a 16 year old school boy?! That's the person FBI is now focusing on. Apparently it was traced back to the network of the University of Uppsala in Sweden. In March the boy was charged with breaking into university computers. “Elementary, my dear Watson”. Does this mean the university has better security than NASA?
The technology used was not new, but the way it was executed was done in a very clever way. Apparently more clever than the NASA and US military security specialists put together. Let's say FBI can prove that this boy is the hacker, I'd say this boy has a bright future within computer security. Who wouldn't like to have this guy on their side? Imagine the CV of this guy:
:: Personal Data
- Age: 16 (and a half)
- Sex: Seen it on Internet
- Driver license: Not yet, have a moped though.
:: Experience
- Playing Doom 3 nights non-stop.
- Building a 7 foot tower using Pizza delivery boxes
- The biggest hack attack ever recorded.
:: References
- Mike; who also played with me.
- I have published a picture of the tower on internet (my Russian site)
- FBI Report: CISCO, US Military, NASA
Labels: fun
Comments:
Nice post TLC. The question is of course, could you trust such a person to work you?
c0y0te
c0y0te
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posted by 
: 9:46 PM
: 9:46 PM Oops - that should read "work for you" of course:)
silly butterfingers ;)
c0y0te
silly butterfingers ;)
c0y0te
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posted by : 9:47 PM
: 9:47 PM
(1) It worked out for Frank Abagnale Jr. (the guy from Catch Me if You Can). He went on to work for the FBI in anti-fraud and counterfeiting.
(2) It's sad that we don't try harder to raise kids to understand why this sort of behavior is wrong - even if you can do it!
Post a Comment (2) It's sad that we don't try harder to raise kids to understand why this sort of behavior is wrong - even if you can do it!
