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Show 'OUT THERE' 11:Il Feds seek ntaster hacker in Pentagon, university cyberattacks One of the teen-agers has claimed 200 institutions were hacked. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - In a high-stakes game of Internet cat and mouse, the FBI In the interview with the Internet magazine AntiOnline, Analyzer says the is hunting an Israeli master hacker who orchestrated the penetration of military and university research computers. penetrations were innocent and even helpful to their targets. Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre said last month that although the "l always kinda help the servers Thack," AnaJyzer said. intrusion appeared to have been aimed at systems that contained unclassified He claimed he patches the holes he finds - but hints that a malicious hacker personnel and payroll records, it was "the most could have done much more. organized and systematic attack the Pentagon bas In NASA's computer, be boasted he found " the name of the guards ... and in what times they do seen to date." their patrol ling." And computer experts noted that because information is shared within any organization, And Analyzer and the two teen-agers he coached planted ''back door" program classified data could be available even on instructions in some computers that could be unclassified systems. And even unclassified data used in the future by anyone knowing their could be changed or erased. The computer whiz,· who uses the Internet codes. "They could delete everything on the bard name "Analyzer,'' boldly gave an interview with drives, thefile systems - they could insert false an online magazine. data," Jasper says. And Analyzer supporters have threatened An unknown ally of the hackers has already retaliation if the FBI cracks down on the backers done some damage. The Web site of Internet responsible for the electronic break-ins. service provider NextDex was taken over by These threats should be taken seriously, warns someone purponing to be Analyzer who computer expert Dane Ja&per, a partner in Sonic, a defended the teen-agers in what amounted to a Santa Rosa Internet provider. He helped the FBI warning shot. track down two Sonoma County t~en-agers who "It would have been a lot easier to remove Analyzer allegedly coached through the series of everything on their hard drives than it was to military computer raids. change their Web page - that's frightening," Most government and university computers are Jasper says. woefully unprotected, he says. It was Jasper and his Sonic experts who "If these systems are so important to the federal This is a view of the NetDex website hacked by 'Analyzer,' a identified the Sonoma hackers and discovered government, why isn't someone paying attention mysterious Israeli allegedly behind cyber attacks on Pentagon to patch the security?" he asks. and university computers. This photo was taken from the World the existence of Analyzer. After receiving a warning from MIT that Analyzer and the two teens penetrated Wide Web Friday . someone using Souic bad penetrated the plasma computers in February using a weakness that lab - and a court order obtained by the Air Force already had been identified by computer security teams. The teams provided a quick software patch - but the hacked systems didn' t demanding data on the penetrators - Sonic monitored all calls coming through its system from the Sonoma County town of Cloverdale. use it. The Israeli hacker had frequent online communications with the teen-agers, The first report came Feb. 3 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's plasma energy lab, followed by break-ins at a series of military locations, including Jasper says. 11 At least two of those were step-by-step tutorials on how t0 penetrate servers," the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. They were followed by reports from NASA he says. and other universities. D I N I N G RO O M wlEW-~..-ILOOlt ~IEW~• MIEMJJ ~TIEM5 ftt1 T A C 0 ~IEW-- ..._ f'1EIL Look for these and more exciting chanees SPiine Quarter at the Thunderbird Circle |