From: Saroja Girishankar (s.girishankar@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Thu Feb 24 2000 - 03:24:28 PST
Good job!!
Saroja
----- Original Message -----
From: Sally Khudairi <sk@zotgroup.com>
To: ZOT-Wide Team <everyone@zotgroup.com>; <FoRK@xent.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2000 4:44 PM
Subject: Media Hit: ZOT's BK DeLong in Boston.com
> Our very own BK DeLong http://www.zotgroup.com/who.html#bkd, Research Lead
> and master sleuth, gets some ink:
>
>
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/054/region/Hacker_faces_charges_in_NASA_a:.s
> html
>
> "Keep the good work" ;-)
>
> ===
>
> Hacker faces charges in NASA and Interior cases
>
> By Martin Finucane, Associated Press, 2/23/2000 19:09
>
> BOSTON (AP) Federal authorities charged a college student Wednesday with
> breaking into government
> and military computers, including systems run by NASA, the Defense
> Department and the Interior
> Department.
>
> The U.S. attorney's office accused Ikenna Iffih, 28, a student at
> Northeastern University who lives in
> Boston, in a three-count criminal information, or statement of charges.
>
> Iffih's attorney, Charles McGinty, didn't immediately return a message
> seeking comment. If convicted,
> Iffih faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of
$250,000.
> He has an unlisted phone
> number and he could not be reached for
>
> Iffih had been charged in August in Seattle, but the case has been
expanded
> and moved to Boston.
>
> ''All in all, the defendant used his home computer to leave a trail of
> cybercrime from coast to coast,''
> U.S. Attorney Donald Stern said in a statement.
>
> Iffih was charged with gaining access in April 1999 to a Defense
Logistics
> Agency computer located in
> Columbus, Ohio, then accessing the computer used by Zebra Marketing
Online
> Services, an Internet
> service provider located in Bainbridge Island, Wash.
>
> Then in May 1999, Iffih allegedly accessed a NASA computer located at the
> Goddard Space Flight
> Center in Greenbelt, Md. Using the NASA computer as a platform, he gained
> unauthorized access to
> other computer systems, including the Department of Interior Web server.
>
> ''The defendant gained illegal access ... either causing substantial
> business loss, defacing a Web page
> with hacker graphics, copying personal information or, in the case of a
> NASA computer, effectively
> seizing control,'' Stern said.
>
> Iffih also allegedly obtained unauthorized access to various computers
> owned and operated by
> Northeastern University, unlawfully copying private information
concerning
> students, faculty
> administrators and alumni.
>
> Prosecutors said there was no disruption to the nation's defenses and no
> meddling with satellite control
> and no improper use of private information, but that ZMOS, the Internet
> provider, suffered a ''significant
> loss of business.''
>
> The Interior Department attack was one of several against high-profile
> government and military Web
> sites throughout the spring and early summer retaliating over FBI raids
> nationwide of several prominent
> hackers, including one who ultimately pleaded guilty to breaking into the
> White House computers.
>
> The FBI raids were ''pretty public, and it raised a lot of hackles,''
said
> B.K. DeLong, a staff member at
> Attrition.Org, a Web site devoted to computer security that maintains an
> archive of vandalized Web
> pages. ''It caused many people to publish banners and deface Web sites in
> the name of stopping the
> raids.''
>
> The Interior Department Web site one of those Iffih is charged with
> vandalizing was hit in May by a
> hacker known on the Internet as ''DigiAlmty,'' who wrote that ''It's our
> turn to hit them where it hurts...
> We'll keep hitting them 'till they get down on their knees and beg.''
>
> In a search of Iffih's home in Boston last fall, authorities said, they
> found a one-page computer printout,
> containing the user name ''DigiAlmty.''
>
> Steve Schroeder, an assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle, said there were
> indications that Iffih and
> ''DigiAlmty'' might be one and the same. Schroeder wouldn't elaborate.
>
> Iffih, who remains free, is a ''pretty bright guy, relatively
> sophisticated,'' Schroeder said.
>
> Iffih is a student at Northeastern's College of Computer Science.
>
> Northeastern spokeswoman Janet Hookailo said, ''We have been cooperating
> with authorities since last
> fall. We'll continue to do so.''
>
> Hookailo said university officials also planned to meet with Iffih as
soon
> as possible to discuss the
> allegations.
>
>
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