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Thread: neidorf

  1. #1
    AntiOnline Jr. Member
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    neidorf

    here is a portion of an article i read and is pertinant to network security
    the rest of it is here. http://netsecurity.about.com/gi/dyna...hacker_pr.html



    It is safe to say that no hacker is more famous than Neidorf in 1991. That is because Neidorf beat the federal government at its own game a year earlier. In the months since, his legal fight has become legend. (And for years to come, wary prosecutors considering indicting hackers will caution one another to make sure their cases are airtight, so they can avoid "pulling another Neidorf.")

    The co-editor of the electronic magazine Phrack, Neidorf had gone on trial in Illinois in the summer of 1990, charged with fraud. The alleged crime: possessing and publishing a supposedly proprietary phone company document in an issue of Phrack. The government argued that the information was worth thousands of dollars, based on estimates from the phone company. But midway through the trial, the defense showed that the document's so-called proprietary information was publicly available; Bellcore sold the information to anyone who had $13 to pay for a technical article. Stung, the federal prosecutors in Chicago dropped the charges before the case reached a jury. Yes, Neidorf was a hero to some hackers. But his notoriety also made him a target for any denizens of the underground determined to make a name for themselves in cyberspace.

    Now in the middle of a workday in summer 1991, Chris Goggans has answered the phone at Comsec and Neidorf is on the other end. (John eavesdrops noiselessly.) The phone call is just a friendly chat, but today Neidorf is frankly annoyed. The problem is that anonymous callers have been phoning him at home and harassing him over the line. He thinks he knows who is responsible, but he wants the prank calls to stop.

    "Sounds like they're doing stuff along similar lines to what they're doing to us," Chris responds.

    "Someone just called up my dad's house in Virginia," Neidorf says. Chris is not surprised, but he's outraged on behalf of his friend. He even has a theory about who might be behind the calls.

    "Sounds like Corrupt," Chris says, recounting his suspicions that John Lee has also been pranking him in Houston. "It sounds like something he would do." At that moment, a second phone line rings in Houston, another incoming call for Comsec. Chris asks Neidorf to hold on a minute, then answers the other line. The voice on the second phone line says to Chris, "Yeah, that does sound like something I would do."

    Chris is so mad he can't think straight. John Lee has been eavesdropping! On Comsec's private phone calls! For how long? How often? What has he heard? What has he told his little friends up there in MOD? If this gets out, Comsec will be a laughingstock!

    Would you hire a computer security company that can't keep its own phone lines secure?

    Chris calls the FBI, unaware that for months the government, relying on evidence of intrusions gathered by phone company investigators Kaiser and Staples, has been building its case against MOD. Whether Chris's calls affected the timing is not known, but the indictment against MOD is announced in July of 1992.


    The indictment has 11 counts and charges Mark, Paul, Eli, John, and another MOD member with illegal computer intrusion. Each count is punishable by at least five years in jail. Each count carries a maximum fine of $250,000.

    The case is so big, so sensational, so groundbreaking that the US Attorney himself calls a press conference in the lobby of St. Andrews Plaza, site of his Manhattan headquarters. He wants to announce the indictment to the media. It's a little off-putting, the rows of folding chairs hastily arranged with their backs to the metal detector and the bullet-proof US Marshal's booth. A stream of New York's finest - finest press corps, that is - slouches in and starts bitching for handouts. The indictment is a 23-page document dense with facts, counts, and legalese. The press release that explains what the indictment is trying to say is eight pages long. And then there are charts that Secret Service Agent Rick Harris arranges on an easel. This was before Ross Perot, remember, and the charts are a novel idea.

    The basic point the prosecution is trying to get across is the national scope of the computer intrusions.

    "This is the crime of the future," says US Attorney Otto Obermaier, a tall, patrician man in a dark suit. He points a finger to underscore his distaste for computer crimes. "The message that ought to be delivered from this indictment is that this kind of conduct will not be tolerated."

  2. #2
    Senior Member
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    i laughed, i cried. it was better than Cats!
    Bukhari:V3B48N826 “The Prophet said, ‘Isn’t the witness of a woman equal to half of that of a man?’ The women said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘This is because of the deficiency of a woman’s mind.’”

  3. #3
    AntiOnline Senior Member souleman's Avatar
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    You will notice this was an excerpt from "Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace" (Harper-Collins, 1995). It was actually a pretty good book. A little scewed of course (it is media after all), but pretty good. And from what I have heard, at least 75 to 80% accurate.
    \"Ignorance is bliss....
    but only for your enemy\"
    -- souleman

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