11-15-1999

Boy, did I catch hell for not having a MailBag up last week. We didn't
post any of our regular features, due to updates in our site's back-end. But, no need to fear,
they have returned.

nate Submitted The Following:

where the hell is the mailbag? i'm trying to waste time here and read it,
and its not up. lets get on the ball chief.

<hr noshade>

what happened to the mailbag.. it was a bright ray of sun on an otherwise
shitty sunday morning

- bscabl

<hr noshade>

I hate to be the one to point this out to you, but there seems to be missing something on your page....the mailbag....where'd you hide it?!
I had to search and search, for this weeks mailbag....and i found it..
And to my surprise...it was empty! Did someone steal the mailbag, holding it for ransom even? What's the problem? I need that mailbag, my week is useless without it! I never get any e-mail anyways, so i always read your mailbag, now it's gone... Who kno
s how many people like me are out there, and have trouble getting 'round this week huh?
Ever concidered that? I hope for your sake it's stolen, cause you hate to see a large number of mailbag hungry people showing up on your door, and urge you to make one at that very moment. I bet you couldn't do that right then and there! In short....i n
ed mailbag! GIMME MAILBAG!! GIMME GIMME GIMME!!

Cheerios

P-Dogg!

<hr noshade>

What is going on?!? You never have any features up, there's just a damn
title and your e-mail. There is nothing! What are you actually doing up
at antionline? Do some damn work for a change.

Doh!

<hr noshade>

Jp,

Was just wondering since your anti-committing any type of crime...
do you presently have any mp3's in your possesion that you don't
actually own the rights too???

mike

No, actually, I don't. Like many people my age, I have a very awesome
entertainment center and cd collection that is far beyond my means.

<hr noshade>

Jon Stitzel Submitted The Following:

Here's a good site for details about the US Government's guidelines for legal search &
seizure of computer systems. With the exception of the legalese, it's good reading.

http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/searching.html

Thanks for the link Jon. This is an interesting read (heh, yeah) for
someone who's never seen it before.

<hr noshade>

EXCELLENT ARTICLE!!!

We (hackerwhacker.com) were just having this discussion the other night.
You did a great job of articulating the problem / issues. Occassionally,
when we do an audit for someone, we run into this odd mentality, whereby
people seem disappointed when they find out their network is (relatively)
secure. I was thinking of coming up with the line "We regret to inform you
that your network is (relatively) secure". My point (in here somewhere) is
that while all this hype around security issues seems to run high, the idea
of a secure network, is, actually, I believe, quite boring to most people.
I once read a military history of the Green Berets in Vietnam finding out
that Guerrilla Warfare was MUCH, MUCH easier than running an Anti-Guerrilla
Warfare program. So it is today, I am in awe of the actual functional
network that is secure and actually does something and even more in awe of
the guys who run it and spend their time keeping it secure, w/no criminal
records, no "black", "white" or "gray" hat designations, just plodding away
at the details. Add to this soup a lot big players selling some security
suite that almost works and offerring a support team of thugs. It's
actually disappointing and discouraging. I thought you did a great job with
this article.

Thanks,

Vic

aka whacker@hackerwhacker.com

Well, I'm glad someone else sees things the way I do for a change. Oh,
and since I was in a good mood, I made sure to turn that little plug of yours in the first
sentence into a hyper-link. You're welcome.

<hr noshade>

While browsing through Slashdot, I came apon the "Ask John" section where
multiple people blatantly flamed you/antionline, the questions were rather
entertaining, and your response was actually well calculated and very
professional under the circunstances. I had never visited AntiOnline
before, and I do not know all the things behind accusations made, but
while they seem very frivolous I am sure there is some truth behind some,
but a Slashdot forum is no place for those kind of attacks, also your
response did clear up sone questions I had about packetstorm and it's
removal from the web, over all I just wanted to say that you had a great
response to the over all negative query by Slashdot, and that after
visiting your site, it looks very well put together other than the
security expert who could use a new look ;).

Good Luck with your site and with all the potentially annoying people with
only negative comments in regards to network, internet, and general world
privacy and security, some people just don't get it and they attack the
wrong people because they are too ignorant to generate the proper target.

John Clover

Thanks for the kind words. Needless to say, that SlashDot experience
was a hell-and-a-half. I've never seen so many stupid smart people lumped together into
one forum like that before in my life.

<hr noshade>

Jerry Broszkowski Submitted The Following:

Just ran across the slashdot article about yourself
and read the interview. Never heard of you before now
though I've been doing computer stuff for the last 10yrs.
(guess that here in Canada we're kind of ignorant :-) )

You're right on! You're only 20yrs old? <sheesh>
I wish I had your insight & maturity when I was that
age - I'm about 25yrs older.

You're doing damn fine work (IMNSHO)!

Keep it up!

For those of you that read the MailBag on a regular basis, you know
that I never post good comments about the site, without following them up with ones that
are at least twice as mean. If I fail to do that (which I did at first), I get all sorts
of e-mail from people bitching that I only post good comments, and not ones that criticize
me. Well, after last week's SlashDot interview, I decided that I'd only be posting
nice e-mails this week. So, those of you that would normally write in nasty comments
about me only posting nice e-mails, can kiss my ass this week. Thanks, and I hope that
you continue to enjoy this week's MailBag.

<hr noshade>

Hi,

You've pissed off people enough, it's getting old, think of something fresh,
you werent given "Media Wh0re" powers for nothing ;p

<r>
-Rclocal of SPDC-(Some Projector Deliviring Company) ( i Seriosly need
a better job im getting artharitis( Red Foxx spellin)

Yeah, you're right. Maybe next week I'll give up AntiOnline
and start some sort of religious movement that will liken itself to the Church of
Scientology.

<hr noshade>

Hey! J.P., you have got a nice site here... but why must you be so square? Can`t you see there are differences between hackers?
In the 10`th century in Europe people were devided into classes; Kings --> the kings representants, etc. --> knights --> normal people\farmers. It is known as Feudalism (or something like that, I am not claiming to be an expert on history here). The kings were great leaders etc, but they were far away from the comon people. His representants were a little closer, but still far off from the farmers. The knights on the other hand, though highly respected, were much closer to the common man. He was seen as the "link" between the lower and the higher class in society. This is how I see hackers today. I am not talking about the people who break into any kind of sites and destroy stuff, but about the people who learn to do something that is PRODUCTIVE withing computers and do it for a reason that is not purely egosentric. I am talking about all of those who write code and program to develop something usefull, not like CDC, but like l0pht. Not the people who search for weak defences to exploit, but to secre them. T
he point is this is exactly what a hacker is. Someone who knows what he is doing on the net, but not someone as far away as yourself, or as the sysadmin at www.microsoft.com or www.computerworld.com.

Let me put this in an other way: In the wild west, as you keep referring too, there were (or as we get the impression) Good cowboys, and Bad cowboys. They fight each other and all that. The good are often trying to build or maintain something, while the bad is trying to destroy it (or maby rob it in addition to drinking all of the good cowboys Tennesee Wiskey...). The point is they are both cowboys. In the same way not all hackers can fit under your definition. Please answer this - are you against a guy if he calls himself a hacker so long as he does not break the law? -> I hope to become one of those in the future. I am studying computer(s) (security and more) right now...
No offence - I aggree with the rest of your site - keep it up.

-Temple Brooks Gault.

Um, yeah. Ever thought of being a high-school teacher? You seem to have
this strange gift for being able to explain things so very clearly, that I noticed most of
my high-school teachers had too. BTW: I'd change that handle if I were you. It sounds like
the name of some back-woods country band. Scary....

<hr noshade>

Donald Malone Submitted The Following:

Admittedly, I didn't look very hard, but I didn't seem to find this information any where on the site...

Who's photograph is used for Bub?

Forgive me if I should know this, because he is someone famous (id est, President of the United
States, Big Bird, First Lady...)

Bub is probably some washed up 65 year old model that was paid $25/hr. to
pose for the clip-art company that we paid royalties to. I've gotten dozens of e-mails, and I do
mean DOZENS, from people wanting to know if "that is your ugly-ass daddy?". Sorry to disappoint you all.....

<hr noshade>

Am I the only one concerned or curious about the whole Echelon thing or what? I mean, come on! Someone could be reading this email as I send it to you guys, yet I haven't see one posting (or an updated mailbag for today for that matter, LOL) in the mailbag or an article about it! Maybe I missed it, but this is a big deal to me! I've read up on it, and came to the conclusion that it could exist given the governments unlimited money and resources. What does everyone else think? What do think JP, in your opinion does it exist???

I'm curious to see what you think, so even if you don't post in the mailbag please email me back with some comments! Thanks again!

P.s. If you post this, would you PLEASE post my email address so actual people could give me there opinion on it? THANKS!

--------------

Chris Decker

"Viper10"

buster@clearnet.net

Well, if you had been reading our SECURITY NEWS LINKS that we take the time to gather up everyday and post, you'd know that its existance was confirmed by Australia. But nooo, don't take the time to read them, fine, be that way. Heh.