May 20th, 1998
Hackers testify they can crash Internet service in a half-hour
By James W. Brosnan
                              


															SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

                              A band of seven hackers from Boston told a Senate
                              Committee yesterday that they could bring down the
                              foundations of the Internet in 30 minutes.
                              Testifying under their Internet aliases -- Mudge, Brian
                              Oblivion, Space Rogue, Kingpin, Weld Pond, John Tan and
                              Stefan Von Neumann -- the hackers said that by interfering
                              with the links between long-distance phone carriers such as
                              AT&T and MCI they could disrupt Internet service for a
                              couple of days.
                                   The hackers, known collectively as LOpht, opened a
                              series of hearings by Senate Governmental Affairs
                              Committee Chairman Fred Thompson, Tennessee Republican,
                              on the security of government and commercial computer and
                              telecommunication networks.
                                   Mr. Thompson released a pair of reports by the
                              congressional General Accounting Office that said the State
                              Department and the Federal Aviation Administration's air
                              control system are highly vulnerable to hacking.
                                   In a test, congressional investigators accessed the
                              travel itineraries of U.S. diplomats, employment records and
                              e-mail traffic and were even able to take control of the
                              State Department's computers. Much of the FAA report was
                              so scary it was classified.
                                   Utilities, stock exchanges, the Federal Reserve and
                              taxpayer credit and medical records also are at risk, Mr.
                              Thompson said.
                                   "It seems the more technologically advanced we've
                              become the more vulnerable we've become," he said. "Our
                              nation's underlying information infrastructure is riddled
                              with security flaws."
                                   The LOpht hackers blamed the poor security on the
                              patchwork nature of the Internet networks, government
                              laxity and the indifference of makers of operating systems
                              and software to security concerns.
                                   "Simple security measures are missing from almost
                              all the software sold to companies today," Mudge said.
                                   For instance, while Microsoft claims its Windows NT
                              server for businesses is more secure than Windows 95 for
                              personal users, Weld Pond said hackers usually can break
                              into an NT system in less than a day.
                                   Mr. Thompson predicted it is only a matter of time
                              before Microsoft and other software makers find themselves
                              being sued by a company whose system has been penetrated
                              through their software.
                                   Not all the testimony was bleak. The hackers said it
                              is far easier to interfere with service than to change data
                              or issue commands. For instance, the Global Positioning
                              Satellite system used in military and some civilian aircraft
                              for navigation can be jammed, but it is unlikely a hacker
                              could move a satellite's position, the hackers testified.
                                   Still, Space Rogue said, a determined group of hackers
                              could "wreck havoc in the country."
                                   The LOpht hackers, who are in their 20s and 30s, meet
                              in a Boston loft after their day jobs to probe for weaknesses
                              in computer, cellular phone and other communications
                              networks. They then alert the targets about any weaknesses
                              and in some cases make the information public if the
                              targets do not improve security.


Copyright © 1998 News World Communications, Inc. 

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