Conference noted::hackers_v1

	His SSN is 987-65-4321.  His home address is 1313 Mockingbird Lane.
His phone number is 867-5309.
		(-: :-)
		<_Jym_>

AH, THE GOOD OLD ALL PURPOSE PHONE NUMBER!  I REMEMBER IT FROM A PREVIOUS
NOTE MANY MOONS AGO.  IT DOES BRING UP THE POINT AS THE WHETHER THE
INFORMATION ACTUALLY POSTED IS CORRECT.  DID THE REPORTER CONFIRM OR DENY
IT?

 Unfortunately, these sort of tactics seem to prove the point:  Hackers
really ARE dangerous and unlawful!!  I feel like a Harley motorcycle
salesman trying to explain his job (and clients) at a church social
hour.

 C'mon guys, clean up the act, huh?  There's plenty of room to hack
without getting rough about it...

	...Although I agree... (-.1) explain that to a 14 yr old!!!

	
	-John 
	
	

	Hey, it's a free country!  I'll post those numbers and addresses if
I want to!  So there!
		<_Jym_>

so Jym, you won't object when I post your SSN, home phone, salary info....

(possibly this should be moved to the SOAPBOX)

Showing how bad TRW's security is, and how sensitive the information
they have collected on you is, may be a good first step to getting
some data privacy laws enacted.

The Swedish data privacy laws, which are now 12 years old or thereabouts
were written -- in part -- as a reaction to the fact that TRW and
a few other multinationals (Reader's Digest, I think) were collecting
the civil registry change-of-address tapes every month.  These
include such things as civil status, taxable income, and whether
or not you have a weapon license (all public information in Sweden).
The government felt that, while the information could not be made
non-accessable given Swedish law, it was important for the public
interest to limit its use.

The law seems to work well (and, yes, it doesn't require you to
have a permit for your Christmas card file).

Martin.

	Nigel, there's a big difference between you posting info about me and
me posting the info I did in .1.
		<_Jym_>

	Ya got at least two, Jym!

	"Jenny dont change that number ___-____"

	:->

	re .9 & .1:

	Is it time to spill the beans?

	Dave

I read that blurb in USA Today on the flight to DECUS.  It was the only
newspaper on the plane, I couldn't find a real newspaper.  The front page
story was about Nancy buying Ron a pickup truck for Christmas, and about
how all American pick ups and apple pie are.  Gag me.

Anyway, later in the week some network news program had a story about it.
It seems the cretins had an "electronic trial" and declared him "guilty"
of all sorts of mean nasty things (with 27 8x10 glossy photographs...).
There were only a couple rabid hackers.  They put his VISA number on
BBoards and about $100 got charged.  He changed his card number, they published
the new one.  He wrote a new story in Newsweek explaining his harassment.
I didn't read it, but gather he was kinder to the cretins.

The cretins had a new "trial" and found him not guilty.  The writer now
lives in peace.

    I think that part of the emotional appeal that "hackers" have for many
    people is that they somehow symbolize the individual who beats the
    system.  The sense of cosmic justice is further extended by the fact that
    hackers are using the system against itself.  Our emotional tie to the
    rebel is that we all see ourselves as victimized by the system, and 
    secretly gloat when the system is beaten, even if most of our lives are
    devoted to propping up the system.

    Some people extend this feeling to airline hijackers.  D.B.Cooper, who
    hijacked an airliner for profit, and eluded capture by parachuting from
    the rear staircase of a 727 in flight became a sort of cult hero.  He
    probably endangered the lives of over a hundred passengers.  When the
    first hijacking of a Cuban airliner to Florida occurred (years before the
    first hijacking TO Cuba), the US Government gave the hijackers political
    asylum, and conveyed to the world that people who beat the evil Communist
    system that way were heroes and not criminals.  I'm sure the government
    would rather not be reminded of that today, given the recent hijack/murder
    that occurred in the middle east, and our demands for extradition or
    punishment of the criminals.

    The arrogance of the hackers who held a "trial" should not be under-
    estimated.  In the first place, the trial is a mock trial not a real
    one, in the sense that the hackers do not, to my knowledge, claim to 
    be a government.  We can compare this mock trial to the ones held in
    Sweden about a decade ago, in which the US and some of its officials
    wre tried for "war crimes" in Vietnam.  These trials were really a
    political statement of precepts ranging from "All wars are wrong" to
    "Some actions, by some participants, in some wars are wrong".  The
    comparable political statement in the current case is:  "Freedom of
    expression is expendable in the interest of power for self appointed
    information technology wizards."  That is a chilling statement.

    I have been, and remain, in favor of hacking as a kind of infotech
    theatre of the absurd, and occasionally smile at "pranks", provided
    they are clearly identified as such. I think I even have some of the
    sneaking vengeful feelings towards "the system" that I criticized
    earlier.  But I strongly urge all of us who share such feelings to
    dissociate ourselves very clearly from the people who are willing
    to use hackery as an offensive weapon against people who exercise
    their own rights.

    Dave Cressey (hiding in Argentina)

At 6:40 this morning, I accidentally tuned into WCAU-AM to hear two vapid
drive-time DJ's discussing the case.  (WCAU is in Philadelphia, and I am in
Hudson, Mass.)  They asserted that the word "hacker" meant "someone who
breaks into computers".  They engaged in a discussion as to whether
"war gaming" predated "hacking" or not (no context on whether they meant
playing hexagonal grid war simulation games, or breaking into NORAD computers
and starting WWIII).  If it was a talk show, I would have called them up,
but it seemed to be merely interest filler which the station was using with
no concern about accuracy.

Could someone please find out the names of those DJ's so we can post their
credit card numbers?
				/AHM/THX

Re .-2: The successful hijacking was not actually done by jumping out the
rear door.  Supposedly (according to someone in jail for something else
but knows more details about the hijacking than anyone who didn't do it
themselves):  the money was thrown out the rear door, but Cooper actually
hid above the ceiling tiles in the lavaratory.  He then stayed above there
while the plane was searched, fixed, flown to a new location, and FINALLY
took passengers.  Then, when the passengers were in the air, he joined them
and lived happily ever after until he got busted for something else.

He used to run weapons, etc., and was a pilot, but I don't remember what
he's in jail for right now.  Of the 3 bags (hefty I believe) he threw out
the door, the people in the boat down below only found 2 of them (each bag
had an electronic beeper). The third bag was not found.  Several years later
(and after he told this story), there was a bunch of money found washed up
on the very body of water where he said he had tossed the bags.

If you are really interested in this, the interview with him was in an issue
of the Sunday Long Island Newsday Magazine Section. (within the last 5 months).
Believe at your own judgement.

Re .7: somehow it seems strange to have privacy laws to keep public
data private...
	Paul