Teen Hackers Plead Guilty To Stunning Pentagon Attacks
Source: Reuters
July 31, 1998
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Two California teenagers who
mounted one of the most organized and systematic hacker attacks ever
on U.S. military computers pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of
juvenile delinquency. U.S. Attorney Michael Yamaguchi said the two
whizkids, who have not been officially identified, had admitted to a
string of cyber-attacks in February which set alarm bells ringing over
the state of U.S.
computer security. ``The government takes very seriously any attacks
on the computer systems which have become so much a part of the
American infrastructure,’’ Yamaguchi said in a statement. ``We all
rely heavily on these computers operating properly on a day-to-day
basis, and any intrusion can lead to major disruption in important
public and private services.’’ The California hackers were cornered on
Feb. 25, when FBI agents descended on their homes in Cloverdale, about
75 miles north of San Francisco, searched their homes and seized
computers, software and printers.
The search followed an intensive investigation by the
FBI, the Defense Department and NASA, all of whom had grown concerned
at a series of hacker assaults on sensitive military and institutional
computers.
Although officials said no classified networks were
penetrated, the ease with which the hackers accessed computers at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the U.S. Air Force and other
organizations clearly demonstrated how vulnerable the U.S. computer
system had become. Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre told reporters
the barrage was ``the most organized and systematic attack the
Pentagon has seen to date.’’ The teenagers pleaded guilty to illegally
accessing restricted computers, using ``sniffer’’ programs to
intercept computer
passwords, and reprogramming computers to allow complete access to all
of its files.
They also pleaded guilty to inserting ``backdoor’’
programs in the computer to allow themselves to re-enter at will.
Beginning with a local Internet service provider, which eventually
raised the alarm over possible intrusion, the boys leapfrogged into
other systems, including the University of California at Berkeley, the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, national laboratories, numerous
military computers and two sites in Mexico. Yamaguchi said some of the
computers hit by the hackers were ``Domain Name Servers’’ -- which are
key to routing information across the Internet.
``Damage to these computers had the potential to disrupt
military communications throughout the world,’’ Yamaguchi said. Each
of the two teenagers could have been put into custody until his 21st
birthday. But Yamaguchi said that under plea agreements, he would
recommend that they be placed on probation -- and kept well away from
any unsupervised use of computers. ``Each juvenile will only be able
to access a remote computer system (i.e. use a modem to access a
remote computer) under the supervision of a school teacher, a
librarian, an
employer, or other person approved by the probation office,’’
Yamaguchi said. Furthermore, the boys were both forbidden to possess a
modem at home, and were barred from seeking employment in the computer
field during their probation. They are expected to be formally
sentenced in several months.
Yamaguchi said the incident highlighted how easy it had
become for skilled individuals -- often children -- to access computer
systems, no matter what kind of defenses are put up. ``Parents and
teachers must realize that we have a responsibility to teach our
children, not only how to use computers, but also how not to use
them,’’ he said.
by Andrew Quinn